Youth envisage and design their ideal future (YiA 5.1)
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Background and Overview
Over the last years, the election process in all countries in Europe suffers from a continuous decrease of the level of young people’s participation. For Cyprus this is particularly annoying because (a) it’s a new phenomenon; (b) the level of unemployement has risen to high levels; (c) it is accompanied with raise in racism, violence and loss of interest. While all countries consider this as a problematic situation that needs serious addressing, many politicians blame the youth itself for loosing interest towards acive participation. But is the lack of participation a sign for non interested youth, or are youth trying to say something to politicians? The project “Youth! Envisage and design your ideal future!” will capitalize on the benefits of the structured democratic dialogue process to examine the reasons that youth refuse to cooperate with modern world’s system. In addition, through this process, youth will explain how they envision an ideal world to function and thus propose and design their ideal future. This project falls under the objectives of the Danish Presidency in first semester of 2012. Although the questionaires of Danish Presidency will already been completed by the time this project is implement, we strongly believe that the topic of this seminar is very important for the emerging 21st century society. It is going to be a national project, aiming to give results on local level. It will last 3 months and will include a 5 days face-to-face meeting in combination with virtual pre- and post event interactions. It will take place in Pafos and will engage young people of Cyprus from all walks of life (including disadvantaged, unemployed, highly educated, and engaged), politicians and other stakeholders.
Vision and Objectives
The project aims to generate an online platform for the collection and exchange of views of young people regarding the concept of active citizenship and actively engage youth in the development. Specifically, it aspires to create a Joint Vision of a European youth environment based on the concepts of active citizenship and a Joint Action Plan towards an increased youth participation.
Target Groups
- Youth organisations in all EU countries
- Young people involved in youth projects
- Youth workers and trainers
- Youth policy makers
Dissemination
A dissemination plan is being developed for the production:
- Web-based portal and website;
- Joint Action Plans and Vision Maps for the political empowerment and participation of youth;
- A Joint Declaration on Citizenship and Participation, submitted to local, regional, national and EU authorities;
- A CD and a Booklet
