Do young people engage actively in active citizenship in the EU?
In what ways? Is it even worth participating?
These are some of the questions that the EU4Youth2Act project team has been busy debating during the last month. After delivering some very interesting results such as Pinning of Good Practices of Youth Engagement on the European Map and the Debate Forums that discuss youth engagement with different stakeholders such as young people, youth workers, politicians etc., the project partners got together on two online meetings to discuss these findings
The aim of these meetings was to understand better the participation needs of young people, as well as the challenges they struggle with in their daily life that keep them from engaging actively and realize their full potential.
Different perspectives from different countries revealed that young people are active and engaged in initiatives related to the environment, inclusion, equality, local community etc. However, they are rather distrustful of the EU and its institutions and their knowledge of it is not very profound (generally revolving around benefits like opportunities to study, work and travel freely and easily in member countries), which discourages participation preventing more knowledge of the EU to be built which once more fuels distrust, entering so in a vicious circle that perpetuates itself.
In the case of youth with fewer opportunities, participation is even lower. On one hand, the economic and social hurdles they face impede their participation and on the other the lack motivation due to lack of qualification, discrimination, being blackspotted etc.
Therefore, projects like EU4YOUTH2ACT are very important because they answer these challenges by building competences that enhance understanding and boost youth participation. Some of the competences that were identified were critical and analytical thinking, media literacy, problem solving skills, awareness and fostering of EU identity etc.
These competences help young people to increase and also analyse information they receive regarding the EU (along with the identification of hoaxes and fake news that increase distrust) and help them have a deeper comprehension of the advantages that come with its existence (especially for young people who are already born in it and are not able to compare the before and after).
The EU4YOUTH2ACT project will soon come with a Competence Framework that addresses all the above mentioned issues, to be followed by other meaning learning resources that will be available in its website (https://youthvoices.4learning.eu/) and social media channels.
Stay tunned!
Article by Erna Pulaj (DRAMBLYS)