YouPart - Engage, Connect, Empower political participation of disadvantaged youth.

<< Background >>The project development took into account the interests of the partner organisations with regard to cooperation between NGOs with a focus on global learning and youth work organisations, more and less experienced E+ partner organisations from 6 CEE countries: Austria, Czechia, Italy, Slovenia, Greece, Serbia. In particular, the project development responded to the following needs of youth work and young people: 1. provide answers to the challenges identified by the EU Youth Strategy on ‘how to engage more young people from diverse backgrounds, including those with fewer opportunities, and better reach out at grassroots level’; 2. the lack of opportunities for political participation at all levels, partly due to legal restrictions (e.g. no right to vote), often also due to other reasons such as a lack of self-esteem and various disadvantages. Without YouPart youth conferences and EU roundtables (presentation of their demands in Brussels), most of the young people would not have been able to participate; 3. the need and right of young people to be heard and taken seriously when it comes to participation and their political demands.<< Objectives >>YouPart had the following - actually achieved - objectives: Enable and strengthen youth participation from the local to the European level; contribute to the quality and innovation of youth work with the Digital Toolkit for Citizenship Education and Civic Participation.In the first part of the project, young people from all 6 partner countries came together not only to discuss youth participation, but also to really bring the words ‘engage’, ‘connect’ and ‘empower’ to life. YouPart was aimed in particular at young people who have little access to political participation, whose voices are less heard in society and politics - but who have a lot to say. The YouPart European Youth Demands developed at two youth conferences in Vienna and Prague were presented to MEPs at the EU Parliament in Brussels. The participants experienced themselves more as active European citizens.Building on this, in the second phase of the project, a great deal of experience, knowledge and feedback flowed into the development of the digital toolkit in order to ensure practical relevance and applicability for youth work. All multiplier events reached the toolkit's target groups, who make a significant contribution to its use and dissemination.<< Implementation >>In the first phase of the project, more than 150 participants aged between 13 and 24 came together in local and national workshops in the 6 partner countries. First political demands were developed for the EU platform Conference on the Future of Europe. Afterwards, 60 young people as well as youth workers and members of the partner organisations met at 3 main LTTAs. At the two YouPart youth conferences in Vienna (82 people, June 2022) and Prague (79 people, September 2022), they got to know each other, discussed ideas and developed demands that they addressed to political decision-makers at national and European level. Finally, the YouPart European Youth Demands were presented to interested MEPs at the EU Parliament in Brussels in December 2022 (79 people). In March 2023, the fourth LTTA was the Staff Training Workshop for project staff in Bologna. This activity marked the transition to the second project phase: the joint development of the digital toolkit in English, followed by translations into the 6 languages of the partner countries and the dissemination of the toolkit. A total of 10 multiplier events were held in April and May 2024. << Results >>The project result YouPart Digital Toolkit for Citizenship Education and Civic Participation in Youth Work provides freely accessible educational materials for anyone working with young people on civic education and participation. This toolkit is the methodological result of a unique collaboration between NGO and youth workers from the 12 YouPart partner organisations. Accordingly, the toolkit is available in English as well as in the six languages of the partner countries: German, Czech, Greek, Italian, Slovenian and Serbian. The Digital Toolkit includes 48 units in 5 chapters: 1. theory, 2. energisers, 3. workshops & other activities, 4. methods, 5. feedback & evaluation. It offers instructions on both best-practice classics and innovative activities that inspire new, fresh implementations. It presents activities are presented that can be implemented indoors and/or outdoors and/or digitally; from some low-threshold activities that can be organised at short notice to workshops that can take place over several days. The modular structure of the toolkit invites you to get inspiration for your own workshop design.