The project aims to bring progress in the youth led development process, pursuing the development of skills among young people from Romania, Italy, Bulgaria, Greece, Spain and Ireland to intervene in the decision-making process through appropriate information and intervention in the dynamics of the candidacy program of future candidates for the European elections of 2024 and continue cooperating with them during the mandate in order to approach direct needs of young people, expressed by them. Through the project, we are pursuing the civic responsibility of young people not only by reaching a level up of young people’s participation in voting, but especially by getting involved in the public consultation actions initiated by the candidates for the European elections and during their mandate when they put in practice actions directed to support youth sector development. Through a methodology of the peer led initiative type, it is aimed to assume the role of participatory intervention in the debates regarding the development plan of the European youth sector, the young people going to provide a cooperation framework between themselves and the future decision-makers, regarding the youth policies assumed by the European Strategy of Youth 2019-2027.

The project aims to achieve the objectives of the European Youth Strategy regarding engagement, connection and empowerment of youth and the objectives of the EU Youth Goals regarding the consolidation of Information and Constructive Dialogue, Connecting EU with Youth and Space and Participation for all.

The project contributes to the resizing of the role of young people in the voting process, by going beyond the level of simple participation in voting and moving to a higher level of assuming the role of intervention in the consolidation of activities dedicated to the development of the youth sector in the coming years. The aim is to encourage young people’s participation in the democratic process and the development of society as such, by highlighting both the common elements of young Europeans, but also by encouraging debates regarding their connection with the great umbrella of the EU, with its democratic foundations and values.

• Creation and development of a peer led initiative community of 300 young people empowered with progressive civic skills within a 24-month period.
• Consolidation of the transnational cooperation of 6 European partners with 30 youth workers to facilitate the analysis and monitoring of the intervention directions of the European Youth Strategy, in an interval of 24 months.
• Increase by 100% the number of young people interested in the subject of politics and the intervention of decision-makers, followed during the exercise of the mandate, in an interval of 24 months.

  
  
  

Kick off meeting in Romania,

Middle evaluation meeting in Italy

Final evaluation meeting in Ireland: The meetings of the staff members will have the role to monitor and evaluate the progress in implementation, offer solutions and directions for next steps, share practices and develop financial arrangements in case of need.

Training course in Romania: Agenda of themes addressed: 

• Role of IE Community.
• Role of peer led initiative community and importance of active participation.
• New civic approach – the permanent and conscious assumption of civic responsibility.
• Ways of addressing decision makers in a transnational structured cooperation. 
• Platform usage – internal guideline.
• Toolkit draft and debate for IE to engage young people in the participation process.
• Sustainability of the support community; Evaluation of the learning competencies.

Study visit in Belgium: Agenda of the study visit:

• Understanding the structure and functioning apparatus of the European Parliament as a European decision-making forum.
• Discussions with an elected parliamentarian regarding the inclusion in the lucrative electoral agenda of the needs of young people from 6 European communities, extended as a generalization at MEP’s level. The assumption of a joint public dialogue plan between the young peer led initiative community and the European decision-makers, with a commitment role in the cooperation regarding the progress in improving the needs of young people.
• Evaluation of the competenies and assumption of the sustainability plan of their initiative and intervention.

• Mapping the community in terms of the needs of young people depending on the specifics of the community they belong to as well as the experiences lived within the communities (rural or urban, specific cultural, geographical aspects, socio-economic aspects, specific educational, etc.) done by 300 youngsters.
• The development of an online platform «Incubator public debates platform» to stimulate the active civic participation and social commitment of young people, in a structured and organized context, which favors maintaining the interest of young people and raising awareness of the importance of not waiting for «others» to he solves their problems as they wish, without communicating this and without taking the initiative in this regard. This instrument will also involve the development of numerous educational resources that can be taken over and replicated at the national level in addressing the same needs for cooperation with national decision-makers.
• Consolidation of the cooperation of young people from 6 European communities within an organized structure of mutual support and exchange of good practices regarding civic commitment.
• Application of the «Peer led initiative methodology for civic engagement» training course with the participation of 30 youth workers that will promote the exchange of good practices in the field of learning experiences for young people and in the field of developing active civic participation, constituting a group of workers of youth with socio-professional skills aimed at producing changes at the community level.
• Participation in a study visit that will have the role of breaking the barriers of cooperation between young people and European decision-makers and shaping the cooperation between them. The promotion and dissemination activity will be an on-going process within the project, providing information on the quality, relevance and effectiveness of the project results to key actors. This activity involves the realization of a Dissemination Strategy that will be periodically reviewed to ensure that the actions undertaken remain relevant for target groups and stakeholders. The entire dissemination process will have a centralizer of actions with associated indicators, thus quantifying success in the field of visibility and dissemination.

The project is designed in such a way as to involve different categories of social actors, manifesting a significant impact on each of them. The target groups are defined by young people from the partners’ communities, interested in understanding the mechanisms through which they can become involved citizens with a role to address their needs.

Impacted categories and the estimated impact in the short and medium term:

1. Young beneficiaries – young people from 6 European local communities, aged between 18 and 25 years, coming from different cultural backgrounds as well as different social backgrounds, within the group, equality of opportunities between young people is pursued (this is how we propose that half of the group of young people come from among those with fewer opportunities). The young people will be involved in each of the stages of the project and in the related activities, contributing to the development of the peer led initiative community by helping the peer led community growing with 100% in the full year of their involvement by attracting other young people, a community designed to offer them a context of structured and organized civic action. Young people will become aware of the benefits of united action regarding their needs and how to address them, understanding that it is in their power to act and abandon attitudes of passive waiting for someone else to come to their support. In this way, the young people involved will acquire new skills of civic responsibility and social commitment, as well as the development of a public-private collaboration with relevant people from the community and with decision-makers, also acquiring the skills to correctly address some needs through the use of unanimously accepted tools by the European decision-making institutions.
2. Youth workers involved in work at the level of partner organizations in activities and projects aimed at developing civic and social skills at the level of the young people they work with, having experience working with young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. 30 youth workers will benefit from the training course and in the establishment of the community of youth workers, acquiring professional skills to guide the young people involved and to manage and develop the peer led initiative community so that the two small communities created produce changes in the community and represent models of replicated in other communities as well as in national actions with the same goal (monitoring of social progress related to decision-makers’ decisions regarding addressing the needs of young people). Youth workers will be involved in the process of selecting young people, preparing and training them and guiding them in the process of action and development of the platform related to WP2. In this sense, the role of youth workers will be to promote cooperation between young people, local stakeholders, people with a decision-making role. The impact on youth workers will be manifested through the development of socio-professional skills as well as civic action. They will acquire useful skills regarding the stimulation of young people’s engagement in the social environment and will benefit from a transnational network of the peer’s exchange of knowledge and experiences replicable for other initiatives regarding the development of young people’s civic engagement.
3. Stakeholders and decision makers. Stakeholders are relevant people from the partner communities who will provide guidance to young people in the process of approaching the decision-makers as well as a useful set of information from valid sources regarding the way of cooperation with them in support of improving their needs. They will be representatives of the local public authority, representatives of public educational institutions, journalists and media persons, representatives of the European organizational environment, etc. The decision makers involved are candidates or European parliamentarians elected in the regions of affiliation of the partners involved in the project and who will undertake to maintain long- term cooperation with them in taking over their needs from the grassroots and addressing them through legislative means in accordance with European priorities. They will benefit from a model of civic cooperation between the relevant actors in the community, decision-makers, the organizational environment and young people, in a mix of good practices and innovative ideas regarding addressing the needs of young people. They will also benefit from a structure of civic commitment and assumption of social responsibility by young people, maintaining an open and lasting dialogue with them, strengthening their efforts and their own commitment to the assumed agenda.
4. The partner organizations being entities of which only 2 had a tangent with the financing program, will experience new opportunities for civic action through the directions of the European Youth Together program, acquiring new management skills and new experiences of transnational cooperation. Through their commitment within the peer led community, the principle of peer learning and exchanges of opinions and good practices between young people will be internalized, transposed into a continuation of the long-term approach thanks to the result of the created online platform and the community of youth workers who will lead cooperation at a higher level of depth. Throughout the project, the partners will cooperate with local and European entities active in working with young people, with public authorities and educational institutions, with policy makers and local stakeholders, gaining the experience and professionalism to cooperate and address European values. The entire project represents for partners an opportunity to reach an up level of civic engagement and cooperation for society development. Beside this, each partner (assigned to one WP according to his expertise) will reach a higher level of experience and competence in managing a package of activities that is based on this background of theirs.
5. The local communities being made up of young people interested in the theme of the project and informed participation in the vote, from members of some local entities interested in stimulating the civic engagement of young people, having a tangent with the project thanks to its promotion and dissemination actions. They will benefit indirectly from the project in terms of the social impact and the effects on the young people in the community, regarding the stimulation of self-information before exercising a vote, but also regarding the stimulation of interest in progressively following the actions of the decision-makers with reference to their needs by accessing the results of the project .

Long-term effects of the project:

• Consolidation of a transnational cooperation between young people, youth workers, organizations with the role of increasing indicators of civic commitment and the development of public-private dialogue, in a way of good practices easily replicable in several European communities
• The existence of an online platform that provides the structured pyramidal context of cooperation with the aim of monitoring the progress in legislative actions aimed at bringing improvements or improvements to the needs of young Europeans, growing with 100% in terms of youngsters involved
• The existence of an online platform as a valid source of information and documentation for young people who will exercise their right to vote, which will act as a resource bank for the community
• The socio-professional development of youth workers in a supportive structure with the role of supporting new initiatives of young people based on the principles of citizenship:
• Facilitating the involvement of young people with fewer opportunities in mechanisms that were otherwise inaccessible to them, contributing to the development of skills among them but also encouraging the expression of needs from their own experience