European Hackaton: shaping youth ideas on the future of EUROPE
EUROTHON wanted to address the needs by young people concerning first the understanding of the functioning of the European Institutions (as it is essential to know the framework in which someoneis supposed to be actively engaged) and than developing awareness of a serie of opportunities (social entrepreneurship and EU funded initiatives) and threats (climate and environmental issues).
Cross-border/international
Italy
Spain
Member State(s), Western Balkans and other countries: Romania
Member State(s), Western Balkans and other countries: Greece
Member State(s), Western Balkans and other countries: Cyprus
Member State(s), Western Balkans and other countries: Other
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Mainly urban
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
Yes
ERASMUS
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No
Yes
2022-11-30
As a representative of an organization, in partnership with other organisations
Name of the organisation(s): e-Medine Type of organisation: Non-profit organisation First name of representative: Giuseppe Fabio Last name of representative: Ursino Gender: Male Nationality: Italy Function: President Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Via Mario Sangiorgi 37 Town: Catania Postal code: 95129 Country: Italy Direct Tel:+39 095 093 6053 E-mail:epo@jogroup.eu
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Yes
New European Bauhaus or European Commission websites
The objectives persecuted by the partnership of EUROTHON have been:
To enhance young people’s civic participation, providing them with the right information, tools and channels to make their voices heard by policy makers and relevant organisations and stand up as tomorrow'schange makers & new EU ambassadors.
To increase social inclusion of young people on European values, while promoting intercultural dialogue and acceptance of diversity and tolerance, involving them in initiatives aimed at sharing experiences anddifferent points of view with their peers from other countries and through the development of resources thought to make them appreciate other european cultures.
To strengthen young people's sense of initiative, notably in the social field to support their communities, by providing them with skills and competencies needed to undertake similar initiative and with bestpractices and opportunities to do so.
To promote open learning, collaboration and self-learning, by developing Open Educational Resources thought specifically to be appealing for young people.
The methodological framework and training modules (IO1): modules thought to have a more interactive and practical approach than a theoretical one and employed both formal and non-formal educationmethodologies. The modules included are: How to become a changemaker, United in diversity, Save the planet, Social entrepreneurship is the way, Be an EU ambassador!
The EUROTHON Online Area (IO2): the modules developed under IO1 have been transformed into a sort of interactive course with theoretical notions and practical exercises. The online area also contains adigital map with topics related to common heritage allowing users to discover and analyse similarities and differences around the various cultural aspects included in the map.
The toolkit for EU Ambassadors & Influencers (IO4): a toolkit including best practices of young people engagement, tools, methods, strategies and opportunities
Engagement
Sustainability
Entrepreneurship
Integration
EU Values
One of the modules developed by EUROTHON has been:
SAVE THE PLANET This module highlights how the EU has always been very attentive to environmental issues within and outside its borders, by supporting environmental sustainability initiatives aimed ateliminating pollution as much as possible. Being a good European citizen also means working alongside EU institutions with small daily gestures to protect the environment and its resources
4th MODULE - SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP IS THE WAY! Social enterprises are essential to the European Union: they contribute to achieve smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. Byanalyzing different areas covered by social entrepreneurship, this module aims to achieve a more in depth understanding of this new economy, showing youth the opportunities, at EU level,that may arise from a social activity. → 5th MODULE - BE AN EU AMBASSADOR! This module shows what youth can change and/or improve to become European ambassadors. Since thisprofile is still not well-known among young people and thus they cannot fully appreciate the opportunity deriving from active participation in the decision-making process, one of the main scopeof the module will be to clarify the features and the possibilities given to the Young European Ambassador.
The project EUROTHON has been thought with the ambition of being a catalyst of european young citizens engagement, on the basis of a survey conducted that indicated how there was a general lack ofresources aiming at addressing and popularise various methods of active citizenship.
In particular, the kind of need that wanted to be addressed were those concerning first the understanding of the functioning of the European Institutions (as it is essential to know the framework in which someoneis supposed to be actively engaged) and than developing awareness of a serie of opportunities (social entrepreneurship and EU funded initiatives) and threats (climate and environmental issues).
SO1: It has been reached through all the activities implemented during the lifespan of the project, going from the development of the training modules - focused on the topics deemed as most relevant to becomechange makers/EU Ambassadors, the EUROTHON Online Area, providing more in depth knowledge on those topics as well as on Cultural Heritage of the countries involved and, most relevantly, the Toolkit forYoung Ambassadors and Influencers aimed exactly at providing all the tools and knowledge needed to successfully act as EU Ambassadors.
SO2: it has been achieved through the successful implementation of the EUROTHON Event (C2 Activity held in Cyprus in 2022) through which a group of young people coming from all the countries involved inthe project has shared their own cultures and specific points of view in addressing the topics of the project and in shaping the “mission” as aspiring EU Ambassadors and change makers.
SO3: Beyond what mentioned above about the positive impact on participants to EUROTHON Event, the Toolkit for EU Young Ambassadors and Influencers has been the resource thought exactly to achieve thisobjective containing opportunities and best practices, collected through the wide experience of the whole partnership in this topic, of which young citizens should be aware.
The goal of the project was that of acquiring new teaching methodologies and approaches on the project topic to strengthen youngsters’ (between 18-30 years old) civic engagement and their participation inrepresentative democracy processes at the international, European, national, regional and local level.
Thanks to the quality of the resources developed by EUROTHON it can be said that such objectives have been reached:
Essential competencies needed to be actively engaged as well as knowledge on EU values and the main socio-economic challenges that are going to be faced in the upcoming years have been provided throughthe resources developed in IO1.
The Eurothon Project provided support and increase the social inclusion of young people from different social, cultural, religious and philosophical backgrounds including participants coming from diverseprovenance, strengthening deeply the social cohesion amongst young Europeans through the EUROTHON Online Area (IO2) which makes its users appreciated the beauty of the share cultural heritage ofeuropean countries.
At the same time, the contents of this resource significantly increased the participants’ personal commitment to the European Project and European Values, and enhanced their practical skill providing them with aproper set of tools for such a strengthened commitment, promoting and disseminating further the European Project and Values.
The EUROTHON event gave particpants impetus towards a further civic engagement as EU Ambassadors and EU Influencers within their social groups.gaining at the same time an increased sense of initiative,notably in the social field, that will also strongly support further the social, cultural and economic entrepreneurship.
IMPACT ON OTHER KEY TARGET GROUPS:
→ Increased number of conscious individuals who demonstrate more positive attitudes towards EU values preventing the spread and rise of nationalisms and populisms.
→ The whole society and political environment will benefit from a greater and more “prepared” participation from young people, perfectly in line with the hopes and aim of the European Commission.
OTHER TARGET GROUPS AND STAKEHOLDERS will be positively affected as follows:
→ European and national organizations, Public authorities and administrations, businesses, will all enjoy the availability of the project’s outputs which will surely be useful in pursuing the implementation of thosesocial policies which try to improve the activity and engagement of people in society;
→ As a target group of the project, policy makers hopefully will be “inspired” into improving their activities toward youth civic engagement.
These last points are essential in the optic of sustainability of the project’s results also in the long term.
How to become a changemaker: the focus has been that of encouraging concrete actions towards change by young people by providing guidelines on decision-making processes, how democracies work, ethicalissues and concepts about “citizenship”.
United in diversity: diversity is one of the main richness of the European Union and as such it should be appreciated and valorized by young people. EU laws and rules to be taken into account when engagingdirectly on these topics have been presented here.
On this core topic, beyond the theoretical general information provided in the module, given the great relevance that it has in creating “attachment” from a EU Citizen for the European Union and its values, theproject has also developed a whole section of the EUROTHON Online Area dedicated to the discovery of others’ cultural heritage. The topics covered in this section “The interactive map of Tangible andIntangible Heritage in Europe” are: Archeology, Travel itinerary, Culture, Nature (tangible), Religion, History, Music, Politics, Literature, Food (intangible).
Save the planet: environmental topics are among the most “trendy” ones and that can give lots of opportunities to young people to get engaged. Therefore, we wanted to provide them with the neededunderstanding of the issue, its societal impact, the potential solutions and the initiatives that can be undertaken.
Social Entrepreneurship (is the way): one of the best way for a young citizen to get involved in society with a positive impact and becoming also independent is that of undertaking a social ventures; through thismodule we have provided users with the essential knowledge needed on the topic, potential resources to be used and reasons why social entrepreneurship is a positive trend.
Be an EU Ambassador: finally, encouraging our participants to embrace EU values and become defenders and promoters of such values
The concrete outputs and results of EUROTHON have been:
The methodological framework and training modules (IO1): modules thought to have a more interactive and practical approach than a theoretical one and employed both formal and non-formal educationmethodologies. The modules included are: How to become a changemaker, United in diversity, Save the planet, Social entrepreneurship is the way, Be an EU ambassador!
The EUROTHON Online Area (IO2): the modules developed under IO1 have been transformed into a sort of interactive course with theoretical notions and practical exercises. The online area also contains adigital map with topics related to common heritage allowing users to discover and analyse similarities and differences around the various cultural aspects included in the map.
The toolkit for EU Ambassadors & Influencers (IO4): a toolkit including best practices of young people engagement, tools, methods, strategies and opportunities for them to act as change-makers and EUAmbassadors.
Therefore, the project has increased the participants’ personal commitment to the European values and to enhance their practical skills, by providing them with a proper set of tools for such a strengthenedcommitment.
EUROTHON has been considered relevant and innovative for the targeted audience of all partner countries for a series of reasons:
It has been innovative in the sense that it brought young participants together to provide them with a good insight and a broad overview of the state of the art European Values in their current dimensions andimplications. It also provided the participants with a useful set of tools, which enabled them to properly constitute their further roles as EU Ambassadors, disseminating and promoting the state of the art EuropeanValues on which the European Project is in practice founded at the juncture of our present times.
For this reason, EUROTHON represents an added value for the portfolio of young people, as it brings them EU skills and knowledge. Involving young people through online and offline activities is linked to anempowerment of democracy and social values.
The promotion of social dialogue pursued through the lifespan of EUROTHON created powerful messages generated by young people themselves which will allow other young people to increase their self-esteem and self-confidence. Fostering the motivation and inspiration strategies has provided young people, as well as key actors in the field to re-engage with learning through diverse conditions and methods.
In particular as project largely develop during the Covid pandemics, the project has also shown how the digital technologies are nowadays an indispensable weapon needed to achieve democratic values andpopular behaviour, even though they can also negative backlash (fake news, violence etc.) on which young participants’ awareness has been raised.
Another innovative aspect of the project has been the methodology adopted, as young people experienced democracy and the importance of civic participation through a learning-byinteracting-with-othersapproach.
The methodology applied to the project has been defined taking into account the main goal of the project which is that of fostering, strengthening and promoting young people engagement in the civic life of theirterritories and of the European Union.
Therefore, methodologically, the partnership has never had in mind the idea of developing purely theoretical resources “for their own sake”. From the beginning the goal was that of developing resources thatalthough providing users from the main target group (young people 18-30 years old with the desire to be active citizens) with the theoretical knowledge they might need, was still base on practical needs and thatmight somehow lead to real-life actions.
Therefore, the first step was that of defining the topics of the modules of the “Methodological Framework and training modules” (IO1, available as free e-learning course within IO2) which have been developedcoherently with what had been defined already in the phase of drafting the proposal for the EUROTHON project.
The approach used for EUROTHON given its simplicity and effectiveness has a strong potential to be applied in other contexts and in particular on a larger scale.
In fact, methodologically, the concept of proceeding in an orderly way from the provision of basic knowledge and competencies in a topic (like it has been done with the project’s IO1, the one settling the thematicbackground and the essential information on the topics of the project), going through its further deepening (like we have done with EUROTHON Online Area which allows users to go beyond basic knowledge anddiscover several interesting curiosities on other cultures) before having the chance to discuss with others and than having the opportunity to compare their own opinions and values with peers (like in theEUROTHON Event).
Finally, creating a toolkit summing up all the experience gained during the project in order to provide guidance for long term engagement of the target users with a list of best practices, opportunities andinstruments is a strategy that can be effective in fostering in a sustainable way the aims of a project.
A similar approach could be easily replicated in another project of a larger scale as such a methodology is independent from the size of the target group or the scope of the project. At the same way it is anapproach easily adaptable to several contexts requiring engagement on the basis of previously acquired knowledge.
The objectives persecuted by the partnership of EUROTHON have been:
To enhance young people’s civic participation, providing them with the right information, tools and channels to make their voices heard by policy makers and relevant organisations and stand up as tomorrow'schange makers & new EU ambassadors.
To increase social inclusion of young people on European values, while promoting intercultural dialogue and acceptance of diversity and tolerance, involving them in initiatives aimed at sharing experiences anddifferent points of view with their peers from other countries and through the development of resources thought to make them appreciate other european cultures.
To strengthen young people's sense of initiative, notably in the social field to support their communities, by providing them with skills and competencies needed to undertake similar initiative and with bestpractices and opportunities to do so.
To promote open learning, collaboration and self-learning, by developing Open Educational Resources thought specifically to be appealing for young people.
