We are looking for youth workers / youngsters / team member ages from 15 to 26 for creating our team for the project. Members need to be able to coming to Pissouri and creating activities in Pissouri and other places.
Project Name CERV: Cities for YOUth–Next Generation
Project Dates: from 1st of January 2025 till end of December 2026
PartnerShip
1. MIASTO STARACHOWICE PL Coordinator, Starachowice, Poland
2. ACPELIA, Cyprus Partner, Pissouri, Limassol, Cyprus
3. AYUNTAMIENTO DE ALZIRA ES, Partner, Alzira, Valencia, Spain
4. Opcina Podstrana HR, Partner, Podstrana, Croatia
5. UNIONE DELLA ROMAGNA FAENTINA Italy Partner, Faenza, Italy
6. MUNICIPIO DE VALONGO Portugal Partner, Valongo, Portugal
Summary – Main Idea
Project ‘Cities for YOUth–Next Generation’ is the sequel of the project from 2019 ‘Cities for YOUth’. Project gathers municipalities and ngos from Poland, Cyprus, Spain, Croatia, Italy and Portugal to:
· -exchange of good practices regarding youth policy in small cities
· -improving the activities of partner organizations in the field of youth policy
· -increasing the competences and knowledge of youth workers and youth
· -creating the basis for encouraging young people to return to their small homelands
· -creating a tools and methods in youth policy in cities
Main activities will focus on:
- training for youth officers and youth
- creating Youth Activity Maps in each municipality
- organizing 6 Cities 4 YOUth events for youth and municipal workers including - seminars, study visits, workshops and festivals
- final online conference
- implementing by youth Local Youth Project Initiatives in each country including picnics, debates, workshops, festivals
The main result of the project is networking of cities and organizations working with young people and increasing the competences, knowledge and skills of young people and youth officers useful in the development and implementation of youth policy.
In the project we will have a team that will work for the project and will take part in the activities of the project of 4 young people and 1 youth worker. We want to complete the team soon so to be ready for all activities of the project.
Work Package 1 Initial Workshop in Poland
M1-M2 (Probably February to March its going to be the Workshops): Workshops for youth 15-24 years old (4 per country, total 24) and youth workers (1 per country, total 6) in Poland designed to set the background for young people on nonformal education and soft skills that they will use in
their social activities and in projects through organizing Local Youth Project Initiatives in each country (other WPs). In this training we will invite youth who are active in Youth City Councils, youth NGOs (cooperating with municipalities), schools & universities, students governments etc. So we will focus on teamwork, team building, how to manage the group, how to be a leader, public speaking, moderating discussion in different methods (world cafe, oxford, discussions, debates), how to inspire others, how to talk with politicians and companies and get the
(youth) business done, how to cooperate with public institutions and NGOs, how to promote youth activities and stay visible to locals.
Know about different methods of participation: debates, webinars, hackathons, festivals, workshops, contests, presentations, trainings, charities kind of events and talk and exercise how to plan those with all the methods and
tools - planning, set the timetable, division of work, coordination, talking with sponsors and partners, promotion, information, DEOR etc. The main goal of this training is to create a preliminary ideas of 6 Local initiatives, which young people will implement locally in their countries
Close cooperation with youth workers and youth to better understand each other.
4 full days + 2 travel days in Swietokrzyskie
Work Package 2: Youth Activity Maps (months 2 to 7) From February till July of 2025.
The main goal of WP2 is to develop a comprehensive diagnosis of the situation of young people in small towns, which will be the basis for the future development of a Development Strategy for Young People in each city to strengthen the local youth policy. Project partners currently do not have complete data on youth, without which it is impossible to comprehensively design support for them. The biggest problem in our cities is a very large outflow of young people who go to study in larger urban centers, from which they no longer return to their towns. The development of such an analysis will be the next step in changing the approach to activities for young people and creating a strategy for young people (the next stage of our partnership in the future) and specific activities. Thanks to the international partnership of small towns, it will be possible to exchange experiences and ideas more, as well as inspire and motivate each other. WP2 perfectly complements the other activities in the project and allows to create contacts both locally and internationally between youth, youth workers and build activities with which everyone can identify.
Youth Activity Map in Pissouri
1. Comprehensive diagnosis of the situation of young people - desk research, survey (500
young people + 25 enterprises), focus meetings x 5 (3 for youth, 1 for public servants, 1 for residents / NGOs – total number of participants = 50), Oxford debate entitled "Small City IS NOT attractive to young people". (number of participants = 50)
2. Self-diagnosis / reflection on activities for young people in the municipality +
benchamarking with other (comparable) cities from a country / region
3. Description of the youth policy in the country and the city's youth policy
4. Development of recommendations based on the diagnosis - opportunities and
challenges for young people in a small town and how to encourage young people to return
5. Meeting young people using the design thinking method - generator of ideas for
making the city more attractive for young people (number of participants = 20)
6. Online meeting of partners - summary and confrontation of conclusions
Work Package 3: Cities 4 YOUth Event in Poland (months from 6 to 8, June to August of 2025)
Main objective: Increasing the potential of partner organizations in the implementation of youth policies in smaller towns and rural areas, exchange of good practices
regarding youth policy in small towns, e.g. Youth Centers, civic budgets, Open/Eco Schools, Youth City Councils, public consultations, Youth Strategies, youth projects
including exchanges, etc., improving the activities of partner organizations in the field of youth policy, including activities of Youth City Councils, youth workers in local governments, preparation for the development of a Strategy for the Young, etc. creating a long-term partnership of local governments for the implementation of further projects in the field of youth policy, ecology, social activity, education (including non-formal education, adults), intergenerational activities, etc.
The questions of this activities is to discuss about:
· what we do for youth policy in our cities,
· how the Youth City Council works (including regulations, projects, activities, exchange of good practices),
· how to set up a YCC (meetings with local politicians, networking, youth NGOs, etc.)
Events will play a special role in achieving the main goal of the project. They will allow young people to learn more about the youth policy in other European cities, its functioning and adopted solutions.
Description
Cities 4 YOUth Event in Poland
We will have the same pattern in each Cities 4 YOUth Event in each partner country
including: a. organizational information, presentation of each partner organization, presentation of the project - an overview of the contents, objectives, work packages, internal meeting about financial issues (report, time-line, documentation-sheets), monitoring.
b. presentation of the Youth City Council/youth policy/activities for youth, meeting with the city and regional authorities - discussion about youth policy. Meeting with youth organizations from the region and the city, youth policy in Cyprus /Poland /Croatia /Spain /Portugal /Italy - current state, meeting with school authorities on the possibility of implementing youth policy tools. This part will allow for more effective results, will be a valuable contribution to report with good practices.
c. visit in youth organisations, places for youth, networking with other institutions - we
will visit associated partners and others.
d. youth festival – workshops world café (ecology, disinformation, social activity,
values), debate “Small City – Big Opportunities”, exhibitions, performances,
inspirational lectures about youth policy
5 participants from each visiting country (at least 3 young people, and 2 representatives
of partner) = 25
Representatives of youth organisations = 10
Representatives of municipality = 5
Youth Festival = 100
Total = 140
Local Youth Initiative in Poland
Organization of Local Youth Project Initiatives will be the direct effect of Cities 4 YOUth event, where youth will create their own initiatives. There will be 1 youth event for young people in each country, dealing with issues that are currently of most interest to young people. We leave the subject open and can be chosen by young people from the following catalog (diagnosed by young people at the preparatory stage and WP 1 and WP2):
1. climate crisis and environmental protection
2. how to involve young people in social activities in small towns
3. hate speech fake news and how to use social media responsibly
4. European values and future European integration
5. the security of Europe overshadowed by Russia's invasion of Ukraine
6. mental health of young people
7. chances and opportunities for young people in a changing labour market
Of course, young people will have the opportunity to combine topics. The form of the
initiatives and the duration are an open question as it is the youth who will develop
and implement the entire concept and event from start to finish with the support of experts,
coaches and youth workers. A total of min. 50 people from the local community and will have to be accompanied by an information and promotion campaign.
Each partner will have to implement Local Youth Project Initiative in their cities including:
- set the timetable
- facilitate young people in implementing their initiatives
- recrutation
- buy necessary materials according to youth's needs
- write a report from initiatives with conclusion and recommendations (connection to WP 1 and WP2 of the situation of young people)
- promotional activities
- evaluation
Each initiative will be very unique and tailored to the local needs and capabilities. The forms of initiatives is open and they can choose from the open catalogue such as - festivals, concerts, debates, workshops, social campaigns, hackathon, gamification etc.
Descriptions for the following Work Packages from 4 to 8 are the same as the description for the Work Package 3.
Work Package 4: Cities 4 YOUth Event in Spain (months from 9 to 12, September to December of 2025) Alzira, Valencia, Spain
Work Package 5: Cities 4 YOUth Event in Cyprus (months from 12 to 14, December 2025 till February 2026), Pissouri, Limassol, Cyprus
Work Package 6: Cities 4 YOUth Event in Croatia (months from 14 to 16, February to April of 2026), Podstrana, Croatia
Work Package 7: Cities 4 YOUth Event in Italy (months from 16 to 18, April to June of 2026), Faenza, Italy
Work Package 8: Cities 4 YOUth Event in Portugal (months from 18 to 21, June to September of 2026), Valongo, Porto, Portugal
Work Package 9: Final conference ONLINE (Month 22, October 2026)
Objectives
· Enrich youth’s knowledge of the importance of active citizenship and participation thanks to their participation in the events and contest, their interaction with people from other countries, different backgrounds and different ages.
· Increase their awareness of the importance of the shared history of Europe, the significance of the values it stands for and their appreciation of diversity as intrinsic part of European societies.
· Increase their level of understanding of the values, rights and freedoms of the EU through increasing young people’s capacity for contextualization and encourage young people to get involved in social life and civic activity
· gain encouragement to engage for the future of their community through better understanding of the policies of the EU and the instruments the Union provides for employment, mobility, education and training and volunteering.
· Gain awareness of the impact of political choices individual citizens and communities make on the long-term welfare of society.
Final Conference ONLINE: Conference summarizing the project - presentations of youth, youth policies, project results, debate, networking, discussion on
future projects.
ONLINE. 2 hours, 110 participants.
If you ant to be part of our international team please complete the following application (just to know that we will have a lot of local meetings in Pissouri in cooperation with Pissouri Community Council). Application for interest in participation in our program in this link: https://forms.gle/hquNN1Loeeda7qij6
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