Engage and Report:
2024 elections by young people
The project aims to encourage and equip young people with the necessary skills and knowledge to actively engage in the democratic life of the EU, and particularly, in the elections to the European Parliament in 2024.
PROJECT’S START DATE: 01/01/2023
PROJECT’S END DATE: 01/01/2025
TOTAL BUDGET: 60.000 €
Description and Objectives
- Young people aged 18-30.
- Youth workers and organisations.
- Policymakers and decisionmakers.
Project Partners
Expected results
- Development of the Toolkit of Participatory Methodologies for Youth Engagement.
- Learning acquisition for young people in media communication, active citizenship, media literacy, local event management, and youth participation.
- Shared best practices among partners.
- Developed group of young people who feel empowered and engaged in campaigning about the EU voting opportunity.
- Youth-friendly content about the European elections.
- A youth-led participatory process.
- Final conference and local events.
Dissemination of the project
First step: Kick Off Meeting in Berlin
The team from Alzira on Europe travels to Berlin (Germany) for a cycle of meetings for setting and officialise the working strategy to make sure the implementation phase matches with the objectives identified in the design phase.
We plan a step-by-step strategy, based on the design of a Toolkit, a learning activity, local spread and dissemination of project results.
The strongest point of this meeting is sharing our ideas, experiences and techniques to create a unique strategy/technique to achieve our objectives. We are also taking in consideration the Manual “Have Your Say”, created by the Youth Department of the Council of Europe.
Second step: Developing the Toolkit
The team from Alzira on Europe develop a Toolkit of Participatory Methodologies for Youth Engagement with the aim of giving the youth engagers and youth reporters the implements to become informative actors of the European Union and the European Parliament, focused on the European Elections 2024.
Experts of the department were in charge of produce a literature review related to youth participation and participatory methodologies, learn more about Non-Formal Education, and identify and develop some participatory tools.
The Participatory Tool developed by the team from Alzira covers three main aspects or pillars, based on past experience in terms of engaging local young people:
- Liaising with local authorities.
- Learning by doing & Peer Learning.
- Event organisation & Communication skills.
After studying these three aspects, we designed four techniques that we apply in this project:
- School Ambassadors.
- Oxford-style debate.
- Podcast: A Coffee with the Mayor.
- Training & Contest.
The Participatory Tool is available here (in English). The Spanish version of the Participatory Tool is available here.
Third step: Learning activity in Bologna
Alzira on Europe sends a team composed by one expert in local events and a group of five young people to Bologna.
15 young people in total, coming from Germany, Spain and Italy, are in Bologna to receive a high training in European Union Institutions, reporting and local events managing. All of them collaborating and sharing opinions and techniques from different parts of Europe.
The purpose of this training and this week of conviviality is making them the youth reporters and youth engagers Europe needs to motivate young people to participate in the European Elections 2024.
This is a great way of connecting people and making them feel citizens of Europe.
The slogan of this training? We all are Europe!
Fourth step: Participatory Process in Spain
Between November 2023 and January 2024, the team which travelled to Bologna and received training on the European Union and the Parliament prepared a series of sessions to encourage young people to vote in the next European Parliament elections. These sessions took place in the secondary schools of the young people participating in the project and we thank them for their collaboration: Xúquer Centre Educatiu, IES José Mª Parra and CIPFP Luís Suñer.
The sessions have been carried out by the students from secondary schools who participated in the training in Italy, and have served for young people to learn more about what is and how the European Union and the Parliament work, as well as to encourage constructive criticism and debate. The structure of the sessions was as follows:
- Presentation on the European Parliament and Elections 2024 (available at this link).
- Quiz on the presentation.
- Oxford-style debate on a topic proposed by the audience.
This part of the project has been coordinated from the IDEA European Projects office in City Council of Alzira, simultaneously with our partners in Italy and Germany.
We are looking forward to seeing the results of these sessions regarding youth participation!
Fifth step: Final Conference
The European projects department of the Ayuntamiento de Alzira organised the Final Conference of the European project Engage & Report: 2024 elections by young people on the 18th of June 2024. The conference took place in the MUMA museum in Alzira (Spain) and was attended by representatives of the partners Eurobox (Italy) and European Youth Press (Germany).
The final conference was structured starting with a welcome by the local authorities and followed by information about the project. Then the participatory process in each country and the results regarding participation in Spain were presented. Finally, one of the participants from the Spanish group gave a short demonstration of the sessions that were implemented in the schools of Alzira during the participatory process.
The conference was a success, not only in number of attendees, but also in their participation in the conference and the demonstration of the participatory process.
Results of the project
From the consortium of partners and the European projects department we consider the project a success, not only for the results obtained, but also for the work well done.
The main result of the project has been the toolkit. Although we have applied it to promote youth participation in the European Parliament elections, this toolkit can be used in countless projects and organisations, and it is a resource that is openly available in Spanish, English, Italian and German.
Of the other results of the project, we would like to highlight the 5 informational sessions for young people in schools in Alzira, the more than 100 young people involved in the project in Spain and the more than 40 publications on social networks.
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This communication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.