“Active Europeans for Active Citizenship” is a 9-day Training course, hosted in Belgrade, Serbia from 02.03.2016 until 10.03.2016 that will gather 30 youth workers, youth leaders and active young people from Serbia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Italy, Romania, Slovakia, Turkey, Poland, Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Many of recent reports and studies state that people, especially young people, are losing community ties, have little or no interest and knowledge in economic, social and political processes and have low level of trust in democratic institutions and political representatives. This leads to weakened sense of citizenship and engagement in social and political life. In European Union context, these tendencies of low engagement and participation are expressed even more, especially when it comes to young people. Reports and reality show that big part of European youth has little or no interest, knowledge or motivation: to take active participation on local, national or international level; to know their rights and obligations as citizens of their countries and EU; partly understand the work and role of EU institutions and decision-making processes in the Union; and partly understand and feel the sense of belonging of European Citizenship. The situation on these issues in Serbia and Western Balkan countries in general is not far off the EU reality, even worse in some regards.
We believe that youth organisations and youth work in general, especially youth organisations working with citizenship education and active citizenship can and should address above mentioned issues and can encourage, educate, train and engage European youth to take active part in society. In order to achieve this, the project will support the professional development of youth workers and youth leaders by equipping them with the right knowledge, skills and attitudes to organize and run activities on local, national or international level that aim to educate young people about citizenship, the European Union and participation in political, economic and social life by promoting European citizenship, European awareness, European identity, European values and active participation.
The Training course provides the opportunity to share knowledge, experiences and best practices from participating countries, foster sustainable partnerships, support capacity building in the youth field and contribute towards active and motivated youth. On the long-term, the project aims to help raise the quality of (European) citizenship education and active participation of young people in European youth work.
The project methodology is based on non-formal education, experiential and intercultural learning with strong encouragement of sharing personal experiences, knowledge and best practices. The working methods used throughout the training course are be various non-formal educational and creative methods.
The project “Active Europeans for Active Citizenship” is funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union through the Key Action 2: Capacity Building in the field of Youth: Western Balkan Window.
Active Europeans for Active Citizenship 