A Kick-off meeting and a Seminar of youth workers were completed between February 4 and February 6 in the city of Kiel, Germany. The events marked the beginning of the SHINE: Shaping the Future of Europe project, which involves a total of 6 organisations from Bulgaria, Germany, Romania, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro.
The project aims to supply youth organisations and young people in the partner countries with tools, skills and attitudes to guarantee meaningful youth participation and dialogue with policymakers, ensure civic engagement of young people and provide an arena to have their voices heard by the local community, national state and European society.
The Kick-off meeting and the Seminar of youth workers were hosted by the German partner Kultur Life. The activities brought together a total of 19 participants, youth workers and project coordinators who engaged in a variety of non-formal activities aimed at stimulating debates and discussions about democracy, civic and community engagement of young people, governmental measures and instruments to support NGOs and youth work and the training needs of young people connected to empowerment and engagement of youth.
During the first day of the seminar youth workers got to know each other, presented their organisations and created group definitions of what is “democracy”, “community engagement”, “youth engagement in decision-making” and “media literacy”. The group dynamics were excellent and all participants took an active part in the creation of the common definitions meant to set the basis of the open educational resources which will be produced.
The second day started with fun energizers. The sessions allowed participants to engage in meaningful discussions focused on outlining key aspects related to the degree of development of youth work and the tools to involve young people in public life. A non-formal activity called “Making links” provoked youth workers to brainstorm on the key actors in a democratic society and their most important functions. In the afternoon the project coordinators discussed the project’s administrative and financial management and the dissemination strategy.
On the final third day, youth workers discussed the methodology for the delivery of the project products: podcast series, training toolkit for youth workers on civic engagement and board game on democracy and civic participation for young people. All participants received their Youthpass certificates. The Kick-off meeting continued with sessions focused on the monitoring and evaluation process and a summary of each partner’s tasks and responsibilities.
Among the activities to be completed under the SHINE project are also International training for youth workers and trainers, Local training sessions for young people (incl. young people with fewer opportunities) in all partner countries and a five-day International Academy for young leaders.
The SHINE project is co-funded by the European Commission under the Erasmus+ Programme.