SALTO-Youth Participation - EuroMed Youth Programme IV

Day one – Wednesday
So who is here and why
The seminar started directly after
lunch and was launched with an official
speech from the Lord Mayor of Dublin
City, Cllr Emer Costello. As with
all contact making seminars, the most
important thing is to get to know who
is attending for the same reason and so
the trainers started with some fun ice
breakers. The second part of the afternoon
led participants into the concept
of youth participation by engaging in
a moving debate and creative reflection
on youth participation and democracy.
The day finished with relaxing
table talks where all present represented
their organisations and discussed
their initiatives, activities and experience
in the field of Youth Participation.
Day two – Thursday
Information and facts
Day two started with providing information
on the Youth in Action programme,
The European Youth Policy
and how it links to Youth in Action
activities presented by the Irish National
Agency. SALTO- Youth Participation
presented the current situation of Youth
Democracy projects based on 2007 &
2008 figures. Once participants had the
information on facts, figures and criteria
it was time to lighten the information
overload and allow a current project
to give their experience of setting up a
Youth Democracy project. Two young
people from Fishbowl Youth then presented
their project as an example of a
Youth Democracy Project. The afternoon
saw the start of everyone getting
actively involved in the process of
developing project ideas. It started with
reflecting and exploring the national
partnerships and to think about basic
elements of youth participation as the
needs are also a first step towards Action
1.3 project management. A variation of
Edward De Bono’s six thinking hats was
used for this part of the programme The
day graduated into the busy and loud
Dublin ‘intercultural’ market where the
main product to be sold was the national
partnership project idea. This also provided
the opportunity for participants to
share food and drinks from their locality
and country as well as discuss their
projects and find a suitable partner.
Day three – Friday
Day three mainly addressed matching
partners. The day allowed participants
to explore criteria for a quality
partnership, time for negotiation, decision
making on merging project ideas,
international partnerships and defining
a common project idea. All projects
presented their possible partners and
simmering project ideas to the group.
Following the morning session which
was very must a product orientated
process of finding a partner, the seminar
took some time to support teambuilding
and the process of working together,
reflecting on future project cooperation
together. This activity involved each
project partnership working with spaghetti
and marshmallows to create a
structure together that represented their
project idea and team. It allowed for lots
of discussion, laughter, frustration, and
most importantly working together. Following
an intensive couple of days the
participants had the opportunity to enjoy
Dublin city in the late afternoon and
to strengthen their formed partnerships
in a relaxed way. It also provided the opportunity
for participants to discover the
city and country they were working in.
Day four – Saturday
The final working day of the contact
making seminar provided time, although
limited, to work in the project idea
groups finalising face to face preparation
and action planning. They were also
provided with the opportunity to meet
with the National Agency project officer,
SALTO- Youth participation representative
and trainers to present their project
plan and get feedback on how to develop
the idea and to ensure the Youth
in Action programme criteria was addressed.
The day was closed with a final
reflection and evaluation to feedback
their impressions and to consider their
next steps in the process of developing
an Action 1.3 Youth Democracy Project.
22
6
thinking
hats
23
Conclusions
‘Demonstrate Democracy’ CMS
was structured as an intense non formal
learning activity. It supported the
development of projects with Action
1.3 Youth Democracy Projects of the
Youth in Action programme based on
a two step strategy of developing National
partnerships followed by supporting
the creation of International
partnerships. Partner finding, contact
making and the opportunity to create,
merge and develop project ideas was at
the core of this contact making seminar.
The entire learning process of the
CMS was supported by a booklet as an
educational and reflective tool. Overall
the conclusions reached among participants
were positive. As with all seminars,
the intensity and restrictions in
time can prove a challenge but by the
end of the seminar the majority of the
groups found partnerships. For those
that did not find partners at the seminar
they reported being were equipped
with a strong project idea and good
knowledge of the action to continue in a
stronger light to approach new organisations
to form partnerships in the future.
Since the seminar, the Irish National
Agency has approved two Youth Democracy
projects presented by eight
of the participants that attended the
seminar. Donegal Youth Council in
partnership in Ireland with Health
Service Executive-North West and with
Tinn Kommunes Ungdomstrad and
Nature & Youth, Norway began their
Action 1.3 Youth Democracy project in
February 2010. Their project “Solas :
A heart warming project against global
warming” supports increased understanding
on environmental issues and
on different democratic structures. The
groups will explore shared history and
share perspectives on European citizenship.
They plan to facilitate the development
of a group of young people
on using their voice in the democratic
processes and strengthening their active
citizenship by creatin opportunities for
dialogue between young people in Norway
and Ireland on the environment,
democracy and youth participation.
Letterkenny Youth Information Centre
in partnership in Ireland with Letterkenny
Community Development Project
and Combeat, a youth multimedia
organisation and Argan, a youth organisation
supporting the Moroccan community
in the Netherlands have received
approval to emabark on their project entitled
‘Welcome to our World’ which will
focus on European citizenship rights,
with specific references to young people
whose citizenship status is uncertain in
Ireland and Holland. The objectives will
be to raise awareness of the effects that
uncertain European citizenshisp status
has on young people from minority communities
in Holland and Ireland. It will
also focus on whether or not the young
people from minority communities feel
accepted as European citizens Their plan
is to record the stories of young people
in Ireland and Holland in relation to the
obstacles they face due to their situation
and to research the causes of this
uncertain citizenship status and with
that information, lobby for change via
democratic structures in both countries.
A truly postive outcome of the contact
making seminar and reinforces the
importance of groups coming together
to discuss the elements of youth particiapation
and democracy. For the
Irish National Agency it was an amazing
seminar with fantastically motivated
and interested participants.
So it was no surprise that the quality
ingredients present for the Youth Democracy
‘wedding cake’ proved a strong
basis for long lasting relationships.
Trisha Dalton
Action 1 Project Officer, Leargas,
The Irish National Agency.
Contact
pdalton@leargas.ie