Spotlight on European Citizenship!

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Alfa3a/Info jeunes01

Organisation:

Alfa3a/Info jeunes01

Country:

France

About organisation:

Youth Information Desk is a resource center for people aged 13 to 30 and their families. We provide information and guidance to young people in everyday life issues: employment, studies, internships, international mobility, health, accommodation, etc. In close connection with local stakeholders (SME, VET providers, career centers, policymakers), we initiate and promote all forms of youth activities, such as the International Mobility Fair, Job dating, career-oriented coaching, training, and solidarity projects in the frame of EU programs. Being a Eurodesk member, our mission is to raise awareness among young people on mobility opportunities and encourage them to become active citizens. Regarding our actions on international mobility, we inform our public about the various Erasmus+ projects. Besides, we are the lead organization in the framework of the European Solidarity Corps.

Title of the project

Spotlight on European Citizenship!

Start date:

1/9/2022

End date:

7/12/2022

Objectives:

Objective: To raise awareness of European citizenship among young people in rural areas of the Ain territory. Labelled Action: https://europa.eu/youth/year-of-youth/activities/4533_en Target audiences: Young people aged 13-30 in rural areas; Youth from social centres (core); Youths with fewer opportunities. Project leader: Info Jeunes de l'Ain Partners. Centre Animation et Centres sociaux Alfa3a: Centre social Mosaïque Jassans-Riottier, Centre Social de Thoiry, Espace jeune Prévessin et Divonne House of Europe and Europeans of AinRunning of the action. Project set-up: July 2022. Launch: September 14, 2022. Implementation: September – December 2022. The awards ceremony, the closing of the action: December 7. The project included 3 key milestones: 1.A challenge to create a deliverable with the subject: “What is European Citizenship?”. This step is devoted to street interviews, organized by the partner teams ( free support). 2.A quiz on social media “Just Try Europe!” with lots of goodies. 3.A closing ceremony to award the winners, congratulate the participants, have feedback from the young people on their participation, and share non-formal friendly time. These activities aimed to encourage young people to question their place as European citizens, to raise awareness, and become the actors of their own citizenship.

Why the project was: empowering young people, adapting to changing realities, or thinking out of the box:

Empowerment of young people means encouraging them to take charge of their lives. Today, young people across Europe are facing diverse challenges and youth work in all its forms can serve as a catalyst for empowerment. Therefore, we deeply believe that activities planned by our program had a great impact on empowering youth with fewer opportunities in the territory of the Ain Department. We got young people involved in the project through games. This brought a playful approach to introducing young people to European issues. They opened their minds to a European reflection and were no longer local. The dynamism and the investment of the referents of the project were important drivers for the construction of the team spirit of the young people.The aim of the street interview was to increase civic responsibilities and step out of the comfort zone. Exactly what empowerment means is related to responsible citizenship, encouraging young people to take responsibility for themselves and increase their soft skills. In addition, the quizzes that were published through our social network for 1 week were also aimed at raising awareness among young people and deepening liability towards citizenship.

How the project was inclusive:

Considering our various experiences, we note that Europe remains an unidentified political, institutional, cultural and economic object, an "alien" in the daily lives of youngsters. Indeed, this vision of Europe does not contribute to openness to cultural diversity and limits access to enriching experiences through European programmes and tools that could enable them to become full-fledged European citizens. Our challenge was to bring Europe to these audiences in order to lead them towards European citizenship, in a playful way, in order to build bridges towards social, linguistic and cultural diversity, and ultimately towards social inclusion. Our project contributed to a better understanding of the founding values of Europe, which are all the more relevant for young migrants and refugees who are in a project of integration and inclusion within our European societies that share these common values. Furthermore, the project targets the awakening to multilingualism, a strong component of EU citizenship. Moreover, this experience contributed to the development of new projects in the framework of the ESC and ERASMUS +.

Green aspect:

The idea was to blend our activities in order to combine online and offline project related-tasks. Since all our partner organisations were located in rural areas, it was obviously the most relevant solution to ensure the green dimension of the project. For example, we organised only three offline events: two steering committee meetings and the closing ceremony. All the other project tasks were mostly carried out by phone. The animators of the social centres have introduced the subject of international mobility with ecological issues. The aim of these kinds of sessions was to start thinking about “European Citizenship”. The young people who took part in this project moved either by bus, bicycle or walking. The animators who went to the ceremony with the young people came by minivan.

How the project has given a European dimension to your event and ensured the visibility and promotion of Eurodesk?

Considering our various experiences, we note that Europe remains an unidentified political, institutional, cultural and economic object, an "alien" in the daily lives of youngsters. Indeed, this vision of Europe does not contribute to openness to cultural diversity and limits access to enriching experiences through European programmes and tools that could enable them to become full-fledged European citizens. Our challenge was to bring Europe to these audiences in order to lead them towards European citizenship, in a playful way, in order to build bridges towards social, linguistic and cultural diversity, and ultimately towards social inclusion. Our project contributed to a better understanding of the founding values of Europe, which are all the more relevant for young migrants and refugees who are in a project of integration and inclusion within our European societies that share these common values. Furthermore, the project targets the awakening to multilingualism, a strong component of EU citizenship. Moreover, this experience contributed to the development of new projects in the framework of the ESC and ERASMUS +.

Impact:

Project outcomes : Local partner organisations: 7; Young participants under 18: 45; Young people aged 18-30: 15; Young participants involved in project development and management: 4. Regarding mid and long term impact for the local partner organisations, the project aimed to stimulate an internationalisation dynamic in our territory. The challenge was to capitalise on our experience to spread our good practices to our peers from other youth organisations. It was also an opportunity and a lever to motivate and boost innovation and creativity in approaches and practices for local organisations. In terms of the expected impact on the final beneficiaries (young people), the project brought added value to the development of skills such as : - open-mindedness (being curious, respecting different opinions, taking diversity into consideration); - adaptation to change; - interpersonal skills (building relationships with others, getting involved in a group, developing one's networking skills); - sense of responsibility (understanding one's environment before acting, acting with respect for others, solving problems); - self-confidence (knowing one's strengths and limits, taking one's place, developing one's capacity to act); - oral/written expression in French; - organisational and managerial skills (learning how to work in a team, in project mode, sense of organisation).