The YouPart, a 30-month Erasmus+ project, is implemented aiming to encourage young people to become active citizens, help prevent youth social exclusion, and improve the impact of policy decisions on young people. The YouPart project intends to empower the political participation of disadvantaged youth in 6 CEE and Balkan countries in three phases by providing opportunities to find and formulate demands and wishes (Engage), discuss and connect them transnationally (Connect) and voice these demands to politicians on different decision-making levels (Empower).
From the 13rd until the 17th of June 2022, the partnership of the YouPart project participated in the first of the three Youth Conferences, in Vienna, Austria, with Sudwind, the coordinator, as the host organization. Partners from Austria (Sudwind, BOJA), Greece (KAINOTOMIA, InnovED), Italy (WeWorld, Associazione Culturale Oltre), Slovenia (Drustvo Humanitas-Center za Globalno Ucenje in Sodelovanje, Zavod Mladinska Mreza MaAMa), Serbia (Timocki Omladinski Centar, Narodni Parliament), Czechia (Ekumenická akademie, Spolek zastáncu detskych práv) joined the 3-days workshops with 10 participants, 2 youthworkers and/or staff member per country.
During the first day, participants joined a series of ice-breaking activities, in order to get to know each other better, while staff and youth workers summarized the feedback received during the local and national workshops. Afterwards, participants were divided in ethnically mixed groups, in order to delve deeper into the demands that they proposed.
The second day began with the presentation of the flipcharts that the groups of young people created, and a reflection and brainstorming session followed. In the evening session, participants attended a workshop delivered at the House of European Union, where Katarina Pacher introduced to young people possibilities for youth political participation at EU level, like the project together.eu and Schuman traineeships. The day closed with an intercultural fair, where participants exchanged traditional food, and organized a song-dance contest with traditional music from each country.
The third day started with a reflection session on the flipcharts that groups created regarding the demands at EU level, during which they highlighted the main challenges and summarized the demands on which they will elaborate on in the next Youth Conference in Prague, Czechia. The closing event took place at a restaurant with music stage, where participants renewed their date for September.
Stay tuned for the next Youth Conference in Prague on 29/9 – 3/10!
