YOUth decide – new media for active democracy

Youth workers will acquire skills and knowledge how to engage youth in community media and to encourage their participation and active citizenship. Our project YOUth decide (30.08.-6.09.2013 in Nowy Sącz, Poland) aims to foster youth involvement in local governance through enhancing cooperation with representative democracy authorities and tries to downsize the gap between citizens and the EU institutions.

The implementation of action-oriented methods by this training course will enhance the employability of disadvantaged youth intensively by educating new communication skills, teamwork, analytical/critical skills, language skills, creative thinking, flexibility and leadership.

Youth workers will develop skills how to engage young people in creative media design and encourage their engagement for representative democracy. They will act as media reporters to inspire our democratic culture, in which the citizens participate in the democratic process, establishing a dialogue with their representatives in parliament, in order to really have their opinion voiced there.

Participants will meet with European politicians at the 8th Economic Forum of Young Leaders in Nowy Sącz, discussing with them relevant issues like EU elections 2014 and youth unemployment.

European Youth4Media network is main Media Partner of the 8th Economic Forum of Young Leaders in Poland (3-6.09.2013).

Youth will make live broadcasts of the debates to the internet and will report on social and community media platforms. 31 multipliers will be enabled to train the youth and to initiate public discussions and reports about civil society and representative democracy in the EU.

Together they will establish new cross-border networks providing best practice of youth work for capacity building of NGOs and youth workers from Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus and the EU. Improving key competences of young people with fewer opportunities living in rural or deprived urban areas and make EU-youth aware of problems in Eastern Europe.

New trainers will later on train the youth in their home countries how to work creatively with digital media to promote youth participation in a representative democracy and the employability of youth.