YOUARE3R

The general objective of the
project Youth and COVID-19: Response, recovery and resilience is to
enable young people to be architects of their own lives, build their resilience
and equip them with life skills to cope in the context of COVID 19 pandemics.

Specific objectives:

1. Promoting
active citizenship, young people’s sense of initiative and youth
entrepreneurship including social entrepreneurship

2. Increasing
quality, innovation and recognition of youth work

3. Strengthening
the employability of young people

4. Reinforcing
links between policy and practice

By the project,
more than 2000 youth from six countries from Europe: RO, HU, PL, SI, CZ, SK
will participate in an intensive learning platform allowing them to cooperate
across borders, exchange case studies and communicate.

This way the project transfers a developed innovative learning model and learning content
which are flexible enough to address the specific needs, are adoptable and
modular (different backgrounds, sectors) which reflect the practical needs of
the end users. Also, the project upgrades on youth strategy and strategic
management for decision-makers.

The project willfocus on three key pillars: personal development, education and training, and
economic empowerment.

In addition, we encourage youth to actively participate in their communities aiming to create
an enabling environment by engaging with local employers, services and
institutions.

The activities of
the project are participatory, outcomes-focused and inclusive. Mixed methods
will be used to collect both quantitative and qualitative data from primary
sources.

By organizing workshops and face-to-face
meetings partners will manage to promote their goals during debates, where also
critical issues that the EU needs to resolve will be identified, such as
building a common identity, increasing inclusion, increasing equality between
men and women and involving youth in the policy-making process.

2020-2021 The future of Europe - Hearings from Youth

A project which was realized with the support of EU, there
were organized workshops, meetings, round table discussions, seminars, cultural and recreational programs,
for more then 300 participants from 6 countries. Each country was invited to present of specific topics related to the EU.

The goal of the event was to enable young people to be architects
of their own lives, build their resilience and equip them with life skills to
cope in a changing world.

Specific goals/results: 

- Encourage
young people to become active citizens, agents of solidarity and positive
change for communities across Europe, inspired by EU values and a European
identity;

- Help prevent
youth social exclusion;

- Improve the
impact of policy decisions on young people through dialogue and addressing
their needs across sectors.

The impact pf the porject:

SPECIAL mid- term effects produced by the project:

• Spreading methods for measuring and reporting on solidarity impact

• Collecting good practices: what works, what not, and how (not only
related to social businesses as such, but also to models of social enterprise
infrastructures).

• Supporting networks of stakeholders, as well as (sectoral, thematic)
networks of social businesses;

• Supporting / partnering with existing events focusing on solidarity

SPECIAL long- term effects produced by the project:

• Mobilising citizens in decision making processes

In conclusion citizens benefited most from the event, they were be better
informed, enjoy easier access to existing aid mechanisms (which often go
unnoticed) and benefit from new types of development. And last, but not least,
Europeans, who have suffered the consequences of the financial and migratory
crisis benefited from the creation of new perspectives for the future.

GENERAL effects produced by the project: direct participation of citizens
affiliated and unaffiliated to the decision-making process, empowerment of the
direct and indirect target groups  as
active citizens, developing a pro-active and positive approach to local issues,
developing dialogue between citizens and public authorities responsible for
public policy and integration of the real needs of citizens in public policy
strategies at local, national and European level, which has as long term effect
a sustainable development.

Initially the event was planned to be held between 10-12th of July 2020.
Due to COVID-19 pandemics and the restrictions introduced in generally by the
EU member states, the activities of the project could be held only after a year
in the summer of 2021, when travelling possibilities also were favorable for
all of the partner countries in the project.