Conference - Speak UP, Step UP! European youth work empowering young people’s democratic values & active citizenship - Germany

Conference: Speak UP, Step UP! European youth work empowering young people’s democratic values & active citizenship

Location: Berlin, Germany

Dates: 16-18 October 2017

Number of participants: 100

Participating countries: Erasmus+: Youth in Action Programme countries, Western Balkan Countries

Organizer: JUGEND für Europa – National Agency

Apply here: Application form

Deadline to apply: 27th August 2017

Inquiries about this training course: Inge Linne, E-Mail: linne@jfemail.de

Costs: This project is financed by the Erasmus+ Youth in Action Programme.

Being selected for this course, all costs (accommodation, travel, visa, etc.) relevant to participation in the course will be covered by the NAs or SALTO involved in this project – except a participation fee which varies from call to call and country to country.

Please contact your Erasmus+ Youth in Action NA to learn more about the financial details, and how to arrange the booking of your travel tickets and the reimbursement of your travel expenses.

If you come from the Western Balkans please contact SALTO SEE under see@salto-youth.net to learn about further information about the financial details.

Speak UP, Step UP! European youth work empowering young people’s democratic values & active citizenship

Speak UP, Step UP! A European conference to consider the practice, impact and future role of Erasmus+ Youth in Action in promoting democratic values and attitudes and active citizenship among young people in Europe.

General Description

Over the last decade Europe has experienced unprecedented political challenges: an economic and financial crisis that has disproportionately negatively impacted on Europe’s young people, the threat of violent extremism, terrorist attacks, growing intolerance, racism and xenophobia, the proliferation of on- and offline hate speech, and backtracking on democratic values.

Whether as victims, perpetrators, bystanders or activists, young people all over Europe are concerned about, but also directly affected by, these phenomena. Politicians, researchers and educators all over Europe are asking questions about why and how young Europeans are becoming radicalized and engaging in violent extremism, why the majority of millenials claim to be interested in politics and socially engaged, but do not go to vote and why in some parts of Europe populists are more convincing to youth than mainstream parties.

For more than 30 years, the European youth and mobility programmes have promoted European values in accordance with Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union, and especially participation in democratic life, active citizenship, intercultural dialogue, social inclusion and solidarity among young people around Europe and beyond. Since their very beginnings, these programmes have provided young people with opportunities to work on issues of political and social importance, in an effort to engage them as makers of the changes they want to see in their local communities, national societies and Europe.

However, and although the civic and political engagement of young people has always been a priority for Erasmus+ Youth in Action, and there is much to be proud of in regard of the role of Erasmus+ Youth in Action for young people’s active citizenship, the idea that European and international youth work could and should have explicitly political aims is not universally accepted. Members of the Erasmus+ Youth in Action community of practice daily grapple with the challenge of implementing a coherent and effective political dimension in their projects with and by young people.

Statements such as the Paris Declaration show the extent to which there is growing concern among political decision makers at the highest level regarding the direction of democratic development in both the European Union and individual societies in Europe, and regarding the role young people have in those developments. As a statement of the Ministers of Education of all EU Member States, the Paris Declaration emphasizes concrete political aims and objectives for Erasmus+ and Youth in Action, such as:

_ Ensuring young people acquire social, civic and intercultural competences, by promoting democratic values and fundamental rights, social inclusion and non-discrimination, as well as active citizenship;
_ Enhancing critical thinking and media literacy, particularly in the use of the Internet and social media, so as to develop resistance to discrimination and indoctrination;
_ Fostering the education of disadvantaged children and young people, by ensuring that our education and training systems address their needs;
_ Promoting intercultural dialogue through all forms of learning in cooperation with other relevant policies and stakeholders.
The time seems ripe to dive deeper into the role and impact of European and international youth work and to try to understand how (specifically through which practices and with which results) Erasmus+ Youth in Action is contributing to the formation of young people’s democratic values, active citizenship, political literacy and social agency. Does it really deliver on the expectations of European political decision makers in relation to political objectives, as enshrined in the Paris Declaration among other key documents? If so, what kind of educational work with young people is proving most effective for such objectives? Which are the policy and quality development processes that are addressing this theme? Do they need to be linked up? And what would be needed to ensure that the political dimension of European and international youth work is able to flourish within Erasmus+ Youth in Action and other programmes that are offering support?

Aim of the conference
To reinforce the role and impact of Erasmus+ Youth in Action in the promotion of active citizenship and common European values including pluralism, non-discrimination, tolerance, justice, solidarity and equality, in view of the aims of the Erasmus+ Youth in Action programme and those expressed in the Paris Declaration.

Objectives of the conference
_ to explore, document and celebrate the diversity of practices of political education and critical pedagogy that can be found in the Erasmus+ Youth in Action programme, and which provide young people with the opportunity to work on values (e.g. freedom, tolerance and anti-discrimination) and on social/political change-making;
_ to gather evidence for how youth work practice in the programme is responding to the political and social challenges of European societies that young people themselves consider

important;
_ to problematize and debate the challenges and dilemmas that arise in implementing the value-oriented objectives of the programme and in the practice of value-based European and international youth work;
_ to consider the relevance of the history of the European youth programmes and of the educational traditions out of which they developed for the future practice of international youth work, critical pedagogy and intercultural political education in Erasmus+ Youth in Action;
_ to identify gaps that could be filled, measures to meet needs, opportunities for cooperation and recommendations for future action, that could support and further effective engagement of Erasmus+ Youth in Action with the political and social challenges of European societies;
_ to link the different policy and practice processes where these issues are being addressed, debated, developed and decided upon so as to ensure effective integration of initiatives concerned with similar aims