"VAN" (Europe Bureau - Aleksey Vesyoliy) :: Young people are on the political map around the world, and their role and importance are highlighted. The economic crisis has increased youth unemployment and risks of social exclusion of young people to unacceptably high level. Despite progress and improvements been made over the last years, early school leaving and youth unemployment remain at unacceptable levels in several European Union Member States. Young people are often referred and seen as "citizens in the making", "future leaders" and are never fully integrated and actively engaged in solving socially relevant problems contributing in creating the society at large.
Participation is a fundamental right. It is one of the guiding principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that has been reiterated in many other Conventions and Declarations. The view that young people are active participants who should be involved in decision making processes on matters that directly affect them is found in international treaties. The Convention on the Rights of the Child is notable for its comprehensive view of children’s rights, including the right to participate in decision-making processes on matters that affect their lives, in accordance with their capabilities.
Youth field activists from Greece, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, Germany Ukraine, Latvia and the Netherlands took part in international Erasmus+ youth conference " Return our Hug to the Hague" taking place from 18-22 July, 2022 in the Hague, The Netherlands.
Active participation is a key expected outcome that young people can achieve when taking part in youth work. Young people are the core of a nation’s future, yet this significant stakeholder is rarely involved in poverty reduction strategies, environmental planning, and sustainable urban development. "Youth" is everywhere across the world, young people’s participation and activism is in the spotlight.
Participation is about being able to take part in and influence decisions that impact our lives. Through active participation, young people are empowered to play a vital role in their own development as well as in that of their communities, helping them to learn vital life-skills, develop knowledge on human rights and citizenship and to promote positive civic action. To participate effectively, young people must be given the proper tools, such as information, education about and access to their civil rights.
Teodors: "In order to increase youth participation in politics and decision making it's necessary to show examples of how young people can positively affect society around them and to create and environment where young people can discuss relevant problems with decision makers, offering their own solutions to them. The conference in the Hague was a great environment to increase youth participation of this sort, because: Firstly, the conference gave an opportunity for youth from around Europe to learn from each other and decision makers about practical and effective solutions, on how to solve problems created by C19 and the war in Ukraine. Secondly, during the conference decision makers worked together with European youth, listening to the questions asked by the youth, answering them and discussing their ideas about possible solutions to C-19 and the war in Ukraine. I would recommend organizing more international events like this one, where youth can meet decision makers. These sort of events teach youth political reasoning on pressing matters and how to solve crisis in a practical manner, also giving them an opportunity to voice their opinions and ideas on pressing matters directly to decision makers."
Education is often about power, which may end up in learnt powerlessness in the context of learning. Education needs to drive up both standards and levels of achievement to match this demand, as well as encourage the transversal skills needed to ensure young people are able to be entrepreneurial and adapt to the increasingly inevitable changes in the labour market during their career.
Young people are a major human resource for development and key agents for social change, economic growth and technological innovation.
Businesses also require the language skills needed to function in the global marketplace. Increasing transversal and basic skills alone will not be sufficient to generate growth and competitiveness, and there is still too much distance between the educational environment and the workplace. Attention should be focused on the development of entrepreneurial skills, because they not only contribute to new business creation but also to the employability of young people.
Modern and knowledge-based economies require young people with higher and more relevant skills. Languages are more and more important to increase levels of employability and mobility of young people, and poor language skills are a major obstacle to free movement of workers.
The demand for a qualified workforce in technology and research intensive sectors is and will remain at a high level, with an impact on the demand for science, technology, engineering and mathematics related skills. Literacy, numeracy and basic maths and science are key foundations for further learning. These skills are nonetheless being redefined by the ongoing digital revolution. In a world of international exchanges, the ability to speak foreign languages is a factor for competitiveness.
The development of youth leadership is critical building civic capacity and long –term community sustainability.
Young people across the world are encouraged and have the right to take part as active citizens in creating the communities they belong to, locally and in society at large. Youth active participation has direct economic, political, social and cultural implications, and it requires the availability of institutional channels for active engagement in community and public life.
Youth work is provided through both the voluntary and local authority sectors and through a variety of youth work settings and methods, including youth forums and youth councils, and gives opportunities for young people to be involved in decision-making processes. Youth work takes place in a wide range of settings: youth clubs, youth organisations, youth units, youth cafes etc. Youth work offers young people opportunities for learning that are participative: it encouraging and supporting young people to become partners in, and share responsibility for, the opportunities, learning processes and decision-making structures which affect their own and other people's lives and environments.
How to boost youth more active participation?
Recommendations by the participants from Latvia:
Ernests: "Since young people are the ones who will live in this world in the future, but also those who have less experience in politics than the older generations, I think that a platform for young people should be created where they can practice political and/or diplomatic skills without fear of making mistakes, because mistakes usually contain the most useful knowledge. This would give them the opportunity to acquire vital knowledge and skills even before starting their work or studies, which in turn would broaden young people's scopeon problems and methods of solving them. As an example, this platform could be a meeting organized by a public authority once a week, to which every young person could apply. Each meeting would have a specific topic or problem, the solution of which would then be discussed. Since young people are very diverse and come from many diverse social situations, this could represent the real essence of politics - the search for compromises. Experts in the respective fields should also be invited to the meetings to provide additional knowledge in the specific field and comment on the decisions and solutions proposed by young people. Such meetings, in my opinion, would certainly improve young people's debating and diplomatic skills, which would allow them to participate more successfully in politics and decision-making, and simply be more politically active citizens."
Erika: "For political systems to be representative, all parts of society should be included. Also, it is crucial not to make a gap between youth and policy makers. For non governmetnal organisations and policy makers my recommendation is to create a space where the youth can communicate and be educated about decision-making processes and politics in general. It can be open lectures about the decision-making process, how they are made in the government and local municipalities. Also, using social networks to educate about important topics in a simple way. It is important for youth to be open minded and hear other people’s opinions and try to put themselves in the other’s shoes to fully understand where they are coming from. It is fundamentally important for youth to study history, because only when knowing your nation’s and culture’s history, you can make informed decisions about the future."
Teodors: "Young people need to be informed on how decision making takes place in both their local municipalities and their government. This can be done in 2 ways - during politics classes at highschool, students can be given a task to have a municiplaity and a governemt meating where they have to discuss issues and come to a consensus following the same guidlines, as politicians do. The other way is to give out municipality/government made leaflets, brochures, booklets and host events, explaning how decision making happens in the municipality and government. In order to directly include youth in the decion making process, local municipalities can host public hearings where they discuss with young people their needs. This would be made easier by appointing a youth representive, as a special position in the municipality, who organises these events and works with the involved stakeholders to implement these changes in schools."
Kārlis: "The only way how we (the youth) could be active in decision making is if we start thinking about it. If we don't think and just act without thinking, there is no point in that. If we start talking about politics, we start thinking about it and then we would get interested in decision making processes. International projects, lessons in shools about politics, coferences, where young people gather around and speak about problems, talking in spare time about politics would mean that we think and we care. If we care- we do, we would act to make the world a better place. I would suggest to start talking about and start thinking about politics in school, maybe learn maths less but learn to think. If youth would get interested in politics after that everything would come natural- talking and acting."
Rihards: "In my opinion, to gain more complete and objective insight about Europe and what is ongoing, it's necessary to have more face to face meetings, where there can be different opinions among other European participants. Face to face meetings are better about opinion exchanges then compared to social media, because only face to face a person can think about what they are saying."
Laura: "In my opinion, in order to increase the participation of young people, first of all, young people should be educated about their rights and opportunities to influence political decision-making. Today, young people's knowledge is very limited and adults unfortunately are not creating a certain environment for young people to engage. However, projects like Erasmus+ are one way to increase youth participation, but it is not enough. Even not all young people know that they have the opportunity to participate in such events with small expenses. More face-to-face events in home countries, which give young people the opportunity to express their opinion on the most current events in the country and in the world, would popularize the idea among young people that it is worth getting involved and that it can have an impact, but adults, of course, must also show us wherethe opinion of young people/ the view of a specific problem is reflected in the decisions made by adults."
Youth participation develops as they become more involved and experienced. It does not happen at once but is a gradual progression as young people learn through different experiences, activities and opportunities. Youth work contributes to young peoples’ learning and development enabling young people to develop holistically, working with them to facilitate their personal, social and educational development. Youth work enables young peoples’ voices, influence and place in society to reach their full potential.
Are youth workers ready to respond to the challenges that youth face? There is an increasing need to offer youth workers and practitioners more hands-on advice and long-term approaches for supporting young people in overcoming barriers to social inclusion. It is important for young people’s self-esteem to feel valued by the people they care about, and bythemselves. A lack of this can lead to frustration and aggressive behaviour. Youth workers do play an essential role in working with young people with fewer opportunities.
Working with a very dynamic group, in contexts and situations that are permanently changing, the work done requires a permanent change in methodologies and approaches as well as constantinnovation. Excluded young people are hard to reach and the more excluded they are the harder it is. Making contact with young people is not enough; we need to engage and work with them. The problem iscompounded by the fact that many marginalised young people express suspicion, even hostility,towards the involvement of professionals in their lives. This shows importance of youth work. Its often voluntary and community-based nature means thatyouth workers and youth organisations have a better chance than most to make contact and buildtrusting relationships with young people on the margins of society.
Youth workers need to understand well the policy context in which they operate, and to use the opportunities it provides to support young people in overcoming barriers to social inclusion.Youth work has direct impact on young people:
• Building young people’s self-esteem and self-confidence.
• Developing young people’s ability to manage personal and social relationships.
• Creating learning opportunities for young people to develop new skills.
• Building the capacity of young people to consider risk and make decisions, take social commitment.
Youth participation is important and has benefits for the young people themselves, and the community as a whole. Young people become more confident and enthusiastic when they see that their views are being taken seriously and acted upon. They feel increased ownership and responsibility for activities they initiate and implement. Their self-esteem improves, they gain skills, and they become more likely to actively participate in other areas of their lives, for example their local community, school, politics. If young people are involved in planning and decision-making, the youth activities are more likely to be relevant and enjoyable for young people. This means young people are more likely to attend, and display good behaviour when they do.
Youthpass learning process encourages young people to take responsibility for their own learning and do it step by step focusing on young people’s strengths and successful learning experiences.
Youth work empowers young people to shape their own future through providing space for the development of their competences. The educational aspect of youth work lies within its principles and practices which empower young people. Through non-formal education young people not only gain knowledge but also build up skills for their personal development and social interaction. Non-formal education includes a cognitive learning process and encircles it with emotional and social learning processes. Young people are also able to develop certain attitudes towards themselves as well as in interacting with others.
Creating a nurturing environment offering possibilities for youth, specifically with fewer opportunities, to impactfully participate can build a strong sense of ownership and belonging of a community and foster active participation. Communities, society at large can greatly benefit from the rich diversity.
International Erasmus+ Conference "Return our Hug to the Hague" was implemented thanks to financial support of European Union Erasmus+ program. Conference organizers was Stichting Respect International – West-East Bridges Foundation (The Netherlands) and partner organisation from Latvia was Non — Governmental Organization "Donum Animus".
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