In the summer of July 2015, 33 youth workers met in Warsaw to exchange experience and knowledge. They came from 11 countries, EU members, Candidate members and neighbor countries to deeply research the topic of European Citizenship, and try to find ways to motivate the young people they work with to become more active citizens of their countries and the European Union. GEYC Community parts took part to this project and we
Understanding that the European citizenship is not only a concept anymore, but it is a practical reality that brings tangible benefits to citizens, we wanted to empower our participants to act as multiplies in delivering this information to their peers and youth groups who are not familiar with it, and increase the capacities of their organisations to raise awareness for the EU citizenship on local level. This way, we wanted to help the groups of young people participating organisations work with, to understand how they can directly benefit from their rights by knowing them better, and participate in the policy making, thus become an active European citizens ready to participate in the decision making process on all levels.
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| The participants during a nonformal session |
The experienced international team of trainers facilitated the learning and deliver several workshops on Human rights, EU Citizenship, Active citizenship, etc... It gave clarity and guidance to Erasmus+, enabling and empowering those support workers to increase and improve the number of worthwhile youth projects in Europe.
In the 7 days spent together, we explored the topic deeply and critical approaches questions and hot topics that EU is facing nowadays, letting everybody shares their opinion and face the ambiguity when it comes to international issues and different solutions.
We spoke about the problems people face in different countries, and the issues they have as a young people in these times of economic and social crisis, and how to motivate other young people to join us in the organisations we work at make impact, say their words. The outcome of this was the Guide for active citizenship we produced and spread to the participating organisations and their partners.