YEPP EUROPE is a partner in this project which has been funded under Erasmus+ Key Action 2 YOUTH, the project timeline is 01/12/2023 – 30/11/2025.
The project aims to analyse and understand current models and mechanisms for youth engagement in Europe. It collects and shares successful practices to encourage young people, policymakers, and practitioners to involve youth perspectives in policymaking. Additionally, the project creates an accessible tool for implementing youth engagement mechanisms and establishes two networks (young democracy facilitators and young city councillors) to promote citizen participation and democratic engagement at local and regional levels throughout Europe.
Key stakeholders, including youth workers, youth organisations, young leaders, and young people, often lack the capacity, knowledge, and tools to improve these mechanisms. Young people rarely share decision-making power with elected officials or civil servants. To address this, the project uses the Ladder of Youth Participation, re-elaborated by Roger Hart, to explore and evaluate participation mechanisms and understand the roles assigned to young people.
The project addresses the need for effective structures and spaces for the active engagement of young people in policymaking and decision-making processes at local, regional, national, and European levels. Its key objectives are to analyse current youth engagement models in Europe, collect and share successful practices for involving youth in policymaking, create an accessible platform for implementing youth engagement mechanisms, and establish networks of young facilitators and councillors to promote democratic engagement at local and regional levels. By achieving these goals, the project aims to empower young people and enhance their involvement in shaping policies that affect their communities.
THEMATIC AREAS:
- Youth and community empowerment
- Social Inclusion
- Entrepreneurship Learning
- Advocacy
- Social Development Goals
FOREGROUNDED SDGs
Roger Hart’s original 1992 illustration of the Ladder of Children’s Participation from Children’s Participation: From Tokenism to Citizenship. The Ladder of Participation describes eight ascending levels of decision-making agency, control, and power that can be given to children and youth by adults.
https://organizingengagement.org/models/ladder-of-childrens-participation/
PARTNERS
- DYPALL Network
- Europiamo, Italy
- Nordland County Council, Norway
- SQ Learn, Greece
- EDYN, Slovakia
- Assembly of European Regions – AER, France
To learn more about the project and related topics, explore the following hashtags: #YouthEngagement #CL-YE #ClimbingTheLadder