Long-term project “Brave New Youth – Breaking the glass ceiling”

 

ABOUT THE PROJECT

The vision behind the “Brave New Youth – Breaking the glass ceiling” is a tolerant and open-minded society that perceives its differences as enriching power and distinctive advantage. YEU Workplan will contribute to it by developing capacities of youth workers to reach out to disadvantaged young people and tackle narratives that exclude them or that have negative impact on them.  Reaching out, getting together, challenging old and creating and disseminating new narratives for more inclusive Europe – this is “Brave new YOU – Breaking the glass ceiling” workplan in short.  It will consist of 3 international activities, one small research, online campaign and publication.

With this workplan we will focus on:

• Creating counter narratives by getting to know the Others: people are less interested in facts, they react emotionally to what they identify with. By getting to know those whose presence, existence and difference they are afraid of, new narratives will come more naturally as they will be an everyday reality. 
• Developing capacities of youth leaders and practitioners: YEU wants to be able to reach out to those who are usually under the radar of youth organizations due to various reasons. By developing new or empowering existing leaders and giving them educational and practical tools, they will be more empowered to reach out to young people of different backgrounds in their own communities. 
• Showcasing the power of quality youth work: Youth work and non-formal education are complementary to formal education but we want to showcase its power to change lives of young people and, subsequently, communities and societies they get actively engaged in. 
• Promoting intercultural and gender perspective in youth work as a cross-cutting/transversal issue: YEU believes youth work should be inclusive and open for all, no matter of background or walks of life. Intercultural dialogue and understanding of gender diversity should be “standards” of youth work. 

 

Aim of the workplan:

Empowering youth workers to support social cohesion and creation of equal opportunities for young people of different backgrounds on local level by questioning current and creating new narratives for more inclusive Europe.

 

Objectives: 

• To build capacities of youth workers to reach out and empower disadvantaged young people of different backgrounds (ethnic, religious, cultural, gender) to be more engaged in societies and voice up their realities
• To enhance social cohesion in communities by bringing closer realities of disadvantaged young people of different backgrounds (ethnic, religious, cultural, gender) to majority population
• To challenge and deconstruct current narratives related to position of disadvantaged groups in societies (newcomers, women, LGBT+ youth), create newones and implement them in local communities by using We Can! Manual of Council of Europe and putting it in practice
• To strengthen the impact of youth work on local level by engaging disadvantaged youth and majority population (youth) to work together for better and more inclusive societies by celebrating instead of being afraid of differences between them
• To promote this approach to social cohesion and disseminate it through online campaign and publication of good practices and lessons learnt  

 

Results: 

– At least 20 youth workers from at least 10 countries/communities around Europe empowered to reach out and engage disadvantaged young people to voice up their realities.

– current harming, hateful and divisive narratives identified, deconstructed and challenged

– new and inclusive narratives created based on reality of communities involved, but still implementable in communities with similar realities around Europe

– organizations and communities involved are safer and more inclusive for disadvantaged young people and are examples of how Europe can be – inclusive, supportive and celebrating varieties that enrich us

– online campaign (website and social media) with videos, testimonials, challenged and new/alternative narratives

– Publication with examples of good practices based on “We Can! Taking Action against Hate Speech through Counter and Alternative Narratives” and user-friendly methods and approaches, on how to use the publication

 

Profile of youth workers:

• Between 18-30 years old
• With certain experience but more importantly willingness to work on reaching out to disadvantaged young people
• Clearly linked with a youth centre or organization in communities 
• Experience in working with young people of different backgrounds
• Able to work in English
• Able to be part of the whole process 

IMPORTANT: We are looking for youth workers clearly linked with a youth organisation/centre in their community – this is important due to impact of youth work we want to showcase and more importantly reaching out to disadvantaged young people who can later on be more involved in youth organization/centre and promote further the narratives created within this workplan

As there are different definitions or perceptions of what a narrative is, YEU will understand a narrative as stated in WE CAN! Manual: “Narrative is often a formal way of referring to stories and storytelling. It is a logical, internally coherent report and interpretation of connected events. Narratives are present cultures transcending a particular moment and space. They are rather stable and collectively shared interpretations and explanations of social reality in which emotions and meaning play an important role.”

 

Activity 1: What’s the story?

Activity 1 will happen in Crnomelj, Slovenia, small community with youth centre that supports disadvantaged young people through a social enterprise. The basis for Activity 1 and the whole process as well will be “We Can!” publication which we want to disseminate and put in practice around Europe.  As a follow up of Activity 1, youth workers will identify and reach out to young people from their communities to participate in the further process by creating a local action group including at least 3 young people from disadvantaged backgrounds that reflect the diversity of community they are coming from.

Venue: Crnomelj, Slovenia

Dates: 18-25^th April (including travel days)

Number of Working days: 6

 

Activity 2: Breaking the glass ceiling – 37^th YEU Convention 

In 2018, YEU Convention will be part of the Brave New YOU process!

Activity 2 will be a gathering of youth workers and young people from their local communities with a purpose of developing new/counter narratives, plan of their implementation in local communities, how to multiply them in other communities and preparation of online campaign. This activity will gather approximately 55 young people (together with team and youth workers) who will get to know each other, learn about situation in different countries/communities, identify the harmful and non-inclusive narratives they want to tackle, deconstruct them and develop new/counter narratives (As described in Chapter 7 of “We Can!” manual).

Activity 2 will also encompass planning of local activities in communities and preparation of online campaign – videos, testimonials, information regarding the choice of narratives to challenge and our answer to them (new/counter narratives). Local activities will mean putting new narratives in practice and they will be a follow up of Activity 2. Activity 2 will be held in three different venues in Portugal, small country whose inclusive policies made society more cohesive and open minded. 

Venue: Algarve region, Portugal (to be confirmed)

Dates: 24/06-08/07/2018 (to be confirmed)

Number of working days: 13

 

Activity 3: Discover a new world! Participation in University on Youth and Development 

Activity 3 will be a closing event intended to gather youth workers to share their experiences, evaluate the process, plan the follow up activities and finalize the online campaign (to be continued until December 2018) and publication with examples of good practices based on “We Can! Taking Action against Hate Speech through Counter and Alternative Narratives” and user-friendly methods and approaches, on how to use the publication. 

YEU plans to hold this activity as part of University on Youth and Development in Molina, Spain where we intend to present the results and campaign, seek for feedback from community present (both educators and participants) and disseminate good practices together with presentation of We Can! Publication and how we used it in practice. 

Venue: Molina (near Malaga), Spain

Dates: 09-16^th September 2018 (including travel days)

Number of working days: 6