Empowering youth through design thinking

<< Background >>The cumulative impact of the worst public health emergency and economic downturn has shown us that nowadays young people are facing high pressure as they try to get a foothold on the jobs market.Youth work is in need of innovative solutions that enhances employability of young people and it is our belief that the answers should come from the young people themselves. This project empowered the youth by offering them new tools to boost their creativity and improve skills such as empathy, leadership and problem solving, while developing their emotional intelligence, sense of initiative and potential for innovation.The project was founded on the idea that formal education fails to reply to this challenge and that innovative non-formal tools are required to offer to young people the necessary 21st century skills.The project was based on following:1)The project equiped youth workers and educators to employ the principles of Design Thinking to support young people in creating high-impact youth projects and initiating changes in their communities.2)Our project disseminated DFC methodology in Europe, proven to develop 21st century skills, especially empathy, giving youth the confidence that everyone can create a more desirable future.<< Objectives >>The accomplished aims were to enhance the quality of youth work in participating countries and capacity of youth workers, educators and teachers, thus now they can efficiently identify the needs and problems of young people in their own contexts and support them to propose original solutions. By providing youth workers with the tools of Design Thinking & Design for Change methodology, they became multipliers and further developed the entrepreneurial and 21st century skills, emotional intelligence and resilience of young people and raised their employability.<< Implementation >>During the project the partners implemented the following activities:1)Training course on the Design Thinking in youth work and Design for Change methodology in Italy - 28 youth workers, educators and teachers were trained by 2 experienced trainers in DFC methodology2)Study visit in Serbia - 8 youth workers, educators and teachers and 2 trainers carried out the activity, in addition other 6 participants from the training course attended majority of the sessions.3)Pilot phase in local contexts of each participating country - 12 project conducted with 128 children and young people4)Multiplier activities in each country - minimum 3 multiplier events were carried out, attended by more than 210 participants5)Evaluation project meeting attended by 10 participants from each country<< Results >>Besides newly created toolkit and translated toolkit in Italian language, we carried out 12 high-impact youth projects that initiated changes in the communities, and generated social innovations. During the training course the youth workers and educators created 4 initiatives.In addition, the partners created the space for further collaboration developing a quality partnership network that facilitated the continuation of the project and the dissemination of its impact on European level.