Author: project_manager

The final curtain went down for COP27 on the 20th of November 2022 achieving breakthrough agreements concerning climate change. COP27 was an opportunity to move the needle on all governments, private sector, civil society, and communities to champion for responding to the global emergency of climate crisis, and for supporting countries to realize their pledges on climate action.

COP27 President Sameh Shoukry mentioned: “Despite the difficulties and challenges of our times, the divergence of views, level of ambition or apprehension, we remain committed to the fight against climate change…”

What is exactly COP27?

COP27 refers to the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference held from 6th of November until the 20th of November 2022 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. It took place under the presidency of Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sameh Shoukry, and brought together more than 45,000 participants – environment ministers, civil servants, negotiators, businesses, and members of the public-to share ideas, solutions, and build partnerships and coalitions. At the same time, indigenous peoples, local communities, cities and civil society, including youth and children, showcased how they are addressing climate change and shared how it impacts their lives.

It was the first time ever that children had an official space at a UN climate change conference in Egypt, with UN Climate Change’s Executive Secretary promising to urge governments to not just listen to the solutions put forward by young people, but to incorporate those solutions in decision and policy making. The newly-announced Children and Youth Pavilion enabled them to hold discussions and policy briefings. It was a unique chance to amplify the voices of young people and drive action on global climate policies vital to securing our future by addressing urgent issues of all fields.

What was finally agreed by the Conference?

After two weeks of intense discussions, the members of COP27 reached crucial final decisions dedicated to the prevention of more consequences of the environmental crisis and to the mitigation of the already existing impacts that sound the alarm for action.

More specifically, COP27 will go down in history as the UN climate change conference where the most remarkable deal was achieved after crucial climate talks: a global fund for “Loss and Damage”. It was an issue that dominated this year’s summit. But what is the significance of this decision? It refers to the financial assistance from nations, who are the greatest contributors to climate change, to developing countries stricken by the most severe consequences of climate change. After decades of pushing, this is a momentous victory for more than 130 developing countries, who were demanding for a new fund to help them save lives and livelihoods by coping with the irreparable damage of floods, drought and other climate impact.

Not only that, but also COP27 resulted in countries delivering a package of decisions that reaffirmed their commitment to the Paris Agreement, the goal of which is to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The package also strengthened action by countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the inevitable impacts of climate change, as well as boosting the support of finance, technology and capacity building needed by developing countries.

At the same time, mitigation was an important topic to be discussed.

A work programme was launched in Sharm el-Sheikh, aimed at urgently scaling up mitigation ambition and implementation. The work programme will start immediately following COP27 and continue until 2030, with at least two global dialogues held each year.

The final decision text recognizes that the unprecedented global energy crisis underlines the urgency to rapidly transform energy systems to be more secure, reliable, and resilient during this critical decade of action.

Finally, as António Guterres- the secretary-general of the United Nations- mentioned during the Conference:

“Justice and ambition require the essential voice of civil society.

The most vital energy source in the world is people power. 

That is why it is so important to understand the human rights dimension of climate action.…..

It will take each and every one of us fighting in the trenches each and every day. 

Together, let’s not relent in the fight for climate justice and climate ambition.  

 We can and must win this battle for our lives.”

ACTIVEYOUTH4Life project, funded under the Erasmus + program KA2 – Cooperation Partnerships in Youth KA220, is focused on shaping young active citizens, but also agents of change for environmental and sustainable development . Three non-profit organizations, one research and development center, one private company and one aggregator of people and companies from Spain, Italy, Ireland, Greece, Cyprus and Bosnia and Herzegovina join their forces to implement this project having a common goal: To apply a holistic approach, addressing both youth workers, trainers, educators and youths so as to provide new alternative, inspirational means for engaging youths and cultivating their active citizenship mindset, in order for them to be able to act as responsible citizens by adopting sustainable lifestyles and taking responsibility for the environment, embracing their dynamic potential to cope with complexity as thriving individuals/ citizens. How are we going to achieve these results? According to one of the main principles of the project, innovative practices and tools will be provided, such as filmmaking and serious gaming through ‘the art of storytelling’, so as, to prepare educators, trainers, youth workers and youths to become true agents of change via cultivation of LIFECOMP competences.

Why is it important?

The era that we go through is characterized by the distancing of young people from the participation of social life, but also by the immense problem of climate change. Consequences of the environmental crisis can be observed on many different aspects and for this reason it is urgent to act now in order to tackle climate change issues. Young people, who are the future of our society, are called to be the main actors of this reaction, of this change of our habits in a way to create a more sustainable daily life and to try to prevent side-effects of climate change to the most. For this reason, it is very important to cultivate active citizens, aware of the problems of the society and willingful to try to make a change.

The tools, chosen for the implementation of this project and for the attainment of the target goal, are associated with the realization that in 2022 young people receive much of their education, information and entertainment through phones, notebooks, iPads, TV. Filmmaking can,given these premises, be capable, in a safe and effective way, of exploring sensitive issues, of increasing the confidence of young people, but also the feeling of solidarity and cooperation among them. It becomes possible to create a virtual community space for the promotion of dialogue and collaboration among youths, motivating them to take initiatives towards a common goal: how to take action against climate change.

At what stage we are now…

“Active Youth 4 Life” will be implemented in the years 2022-2024.

It  is already in the process of making a change, as two meetings have already taken place : the first one in April 2022 in Spain and the second one in October 2022 in Cyprus. At this stage of the project, we start developing training approaches through the use of  different techniques-filmmaking and digital escape rooms- for enhancing young people’s civic participation, environmental and sustainability awareness.

You can find more about “Active Youth 4 Life” project:

On the website: https://activeyouth4life.eu/

On the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/activeyouth4life/

The World Youth Report on “Youth and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”, prepared by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), examines the mutually supportive roles of the new agenda and current youth development efforts. The report provides insight into the role of young people in sustainable development in the context of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and related frameworks, in particular, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development and the World Programme of Action for Youth.

The Report considers the role the 2030 Agenda can play in enhancing youth development efforts and examines how evidence-based youth policies can help accelerate youth-related objectives. It explores the critical role young people have in the implementation of sustainable development efforts at all levels.

Advancing Youth Development

Far from being mere beneficiaries of the 2030 Agenda, young people have been active architects in its development and continue to be engaged in the frameworks and processes that support its implementation, follow-up and review. The adoption of the 2030 Agenda represented the culmination of an extensive three-year process involving Member States and civil society, including youth organizations, in the development of specific goals and targets—and marked the beginning of a 15-year journey to achieve sustainable development by 2030.

Today, there are 1.2 billion young people aged 15 to 24 years, accounting for 16 per cent of the global population. The active engagement of youth in sustainable development efforts is central to achieving sustainable, inclusive and stable societies by the target date, and to averting the worst threats and challenges to sustainable development, including the impacts of climate change, unemployment, poverty, gender inequality, conflict, and migration. While all the Sustainable Development Goals are critical to youth development, this Report focuses
primarily on the areas of education and employment, underlining the realization of targets under these Goals as fundamental to overall youth development. Issues related to other Goals—including gender equality, good health, reducing inequality, combating poverty and hunger, and action on environmental issues and climate change—are also addressed briefly within the scope of the Report.

What triggered their engagement for climate change?

Why is this generation so committed to climate change? From a young age, they have heard about climate change, they are also seeing its impact in their daily lives. Nathan, a youth, got involved in Youth and Environment Europe, a platform which brings together many European youth organisations active in environmental protection; the revelation moment came directly from his homeland when he saw the Alps melting.

All of them want to make something meaningful in their life, connecting their studies and their interest in nature and environmental issues. This is the case of Alex, who has a masters’ degree in Conservation and got active in an NGO to build bridges between young people and policy-makers at European Level. “At the EU level there wasn’t a lot of youth participation in environmental decision-making and we really wanted to bring people together“. This is how he got engaged with Generation Climate Europe (GCE), an environmental coalition of the main youth-led organisations and networks active at the European level.

How to get involved

Youth are the torchbearers of the 2030 Agenda – young people all over the world are contributing to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.  Here are a few easy ways you can get involved:

1. Get involved in a local NGO

Participating in a local NGO is a worthwhile way of supporting sustainable development efforts. For inspiration, read about the NGOs featured as case studies in the Report – from Restless Development, which helps youth participate in national decision-making processes related to the SDGs, to The Butterfly Project, which gives young women in India the confidence to demand change in their local communities, there is an incredible range of NGOs all doing amazing work globally to advance the SDGs.

2. Get engaged in local politics

The engagement of young people in local politics is crucial to raising awareness of youth-related issues and demanding change.  Read about the Not Too Young to Run campaign, an initiative anyone can join to support young people’s right to run for office:  http://www.nottooyoungtorun.org/

3. Join Youth4Peace to help promote and maintain international peace and security

Youth4Peace is an UN-led initiative that supports young people’s participation in peacebuilding.  It recognizes that young people play active roles as agents of positive and constructive change and helps them achieve this.  Get involved here: https://www.youth4peace.info/

References

Youth and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development | United Nations For Youth. (n.d.). Retrieved October 7, 2022, from https://www.un.org/development/desa/youth/world-youth-report/wyr2018.html

What is sustainable development?

Sustainable development is a concept that appeared for the first time in the year 1987 with the publication of the Brundtland Report, a document established within the framework of the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) which warned about the negative environmental consequences of globalisation and economic development and sought possible solutions to the problems arising from industrialisation and population growth. However, it wasn’t until the year 1997 during the ‘Earth Summit’(La Cumbre de la Tierra) in Rio de Janeiro that the concept of sustainable development was made official.

What are the SDGs?

In the light of guaranteeing the balance between economic growth, environmental preservation and social welfare, in the year 2015 United Nations adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The agenda sets out the Sustainable Development Goals, a series of common objectives to protect the planet and ensure the balance between the latter outcomes becomes effective.

What measures can you take to support these goals?

• Find a charity which addresses any of the goals’ objectives and try to make a donation. No matter how small or big, everything counts!
• Donate books/clothes/toys/furniture you have already used and don’t need any longer to allow other people access resources.
• Offer yourself to be someone’s mentor/tutor and help them with those subjects they struggle with
• Support equal salaries between men and women
• Try to recognize and avoid gender stereotypes and make other people conscious about them
• Ensure you share domestic responsibilities with your partner/male figures at home
• Raise awareness about hygiene issues in your community through social media or other type of campaigns
• Participate in water-cleaning-up projects
• Turn off the lights whenever you aren’t using them
• Use renewable energies
• Buy consciously. Take into account that the consumption of very cheap items might be damageful for those producing them
• Buy from local producers rather than big multinationals
• Help people access the internet by promoting free hot-spot points
• Raise your voice against any type of discrimination
• Represent minorities and under privileged groups in the government
• Support migrants and refugees

Regenerating nature, respecting biodiversity, ensuring a dignified life for all people is an urgent duty that can no longer be avoided. Giving value to the environment on which depends our future as a species and the future of the planet we live on requires the abandonment of unsustainable practices and an urgent systemic change.

However, this change cannot be achieved only through political agreements, financial incentives, or technological innovations, however essential they may be. Lasting and true change also requires learning, which is crucial to building the present and future of the planet and new generations. Having a common understanding means acting through a shared strategy: understanding, acting and addressing this crisis together.

It is from these considerations that GreenComp was born, the new European framework of competencies on sustainability proposed at the beginning of the year by the European Commission. GreenComp is in fact the actual research of a common vocabulary, a shared horizon, a reference model for dialogue, learning, exchange of good sustainable practices to encourage a ‘participatory action towards a possible future, alternative to build.

The concept of Sustainability given its complex nature is ambiguous and constantly evolving and unilaterally irreducible only to specific fields of knowledge and actions. If by sustainability we mean, as GreenComp indicates “prioritising the needs of all life forms and of the planet by ensuring that human activity does not exceed planetary boundaries”, it is clear that the direction in which the Commission pushes us can only be a systemic and interrelated vision in which environment, society and economy intersect together. To further clarify this ambiguity there is the definition of sustainable competencies ” Empowers learners to embody sustainability values, and embrace complex systems, in order to take or request action that restores and maintains ecosystem health and enhances justice, generating visions for sustainable futures“.  It seems clear the necessary synergistic movement that Europe intends to emphasize: it is necessary to educate civil society and political governance to actions aimed at justice (be it social, environmental, economic) for the health of the planet itself and all beings who inhabit it by maintaining that vital balance improperly and fiercely disrupted by ‘over-exploitation of its resources. It is in this sense that the economy should only be functional to a society and the latter should live in an equal and dignified way within an environment that gives as much as it receives.

But, in order to achieve what today seems to be a sustainable utopia, it is necessary, as always, to start from education and training and, even before that, from a common language and the achievement of those skills – knowledge, attitudes – that allow us to orient ourselves in the complexity in question. For this reason, all twelve competencies illustrated by GreenComp become fundamental in a sort of movement that moves from the inside, from the assumption of sustainable values and their complexity, towards the outside, towards the imagination of collective, participatory, democratic sustainable futures possible only through individual, collective and political actions.

But since the refrain of the holistic vision never abandons us, the end becomes the beginning, the outside, the action starts from GreenComp itself, from the formation with the purpose of the new year to reach everyone regardless of age, education and geography so that the world and the future can be truly participated without leaving anyone behind. So the cover image that is given to us is evocative and symbolic of an eco-systemic balance that is reflected in the horizon of its understanding: a beehive that embodies the values of sustainability (embodying sustainability values), the bees, collective and individual individuals who inhabit and care for it (acting for sustainability) and rest on the flowers (envisioning sustainable futures) that will generate new fruits and new pollen (embracing complexity in sustainability), food for the bees and the foundation of life itself.

Reference:

https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC128040

Abstract: Active citizenship is an umbrella concept regarding the rights and responsibilities of citizens. It urges people to be more engaged with the world and communities around them, thus, practicing active citizenship can be as simple as volunteering or as complex as organizing actions with others to tackle a serious global problem, such as climate change. Youth are the core of the development process of each nation with holding the key of changing or continuing policies but their contributions will not achieve full impact unless they are engaged in their nation as a whole – encouraging and equipping young people with necessary resources to become active citizens, agents of solidarity and positive change inspired by EU values. We need citizens who feel their voices are heard and matter in the shaping of public policy; and who experience cultural inclusivity as a natural and dynamic part of who they are and of the good society.

Keywords: Active Citizenship, Environmental and Sustainable awareness, Good practices

What is active citizenship?

Citizens have a role to play in building a better, a more democratic society, and cultivating active citizenship skills and attitudes is critical. Active citizens are not only aware of their rights and responsibilities, but also demonstrate solidarity with others and are willing to contribute to society. The new priorities for European cooperation in education and training, which emphasize the role of education in promoting equity and non-discrimination and in instilling fundamental values, intercultural competences, and active citizenship, include developing active citizenship and civic competences.

What are youth’s efforts?

Youth efforts range from local initiatives to international campaigns, some influential enough to reach policymakers and national leaders. As more youth connect they are also using virtual platforms to educate, raise awareness, expand outreach and share knowledge. Additionally, youth are taking advantage of the availability and accessibility of information and technology to engage in all levels of environmental governance, especially towards implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

According to the World Programme of Action on Youth (WPAY), youth participation is crucial, but supporting youth participation and engagement in environmental preservation requires a holistic and inclusive approach. Youth are willing to take the lead to meaningfully engage in platforms related to the protection of the environment, at the local, national or global level. However, to harness their talents and innovations, there is need to ensure that youth are equal partners and torchbearers in creating and implementing the goals toward environmental sustainability.

Think about your environmental footprint and reduce your personal impact as far as possible

Youth have the power to make a change and these are some steps that you can adapt in your lifestyle:

• Start acting
• Volunteer
• Encourage others to make a change

What does the E.U. do?

The European Union is strongly in favour of addressing climate change at an international level. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called for a European Green Deal in December 2019. The Deal has an ultimate goal: make Europe become the world’s first climate-neutral continent by 2050.

Climate change and environmental degradation are an existential threat to Europe and the world. To overcome these challenges, the European Green Deal will transform the EU into a modern, resource-efficient and competitive economy, ensuring:

• no net emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050
• economic growth decoupled from resource use
• no person and no place left behind

How can every one of us make a change?

There are different ways to get active. “Every little bit helps. I know it can feel like being one person with a sign doesn’t make any political difference or being just one person flying less does not make a difference, but if we all do that, then it does make a difference. So believe in that and mobilise“, says Monika, from the European Students’ Union.

Go to strikes, get informed, get involved in youth-led NGOs and local initiatives, and in politics suggest Nathan, Corentin and Alex. Education to sustainable development should be a priority to raise awareness amongst young people, stressed Monika.

An environmentally oriented lifestyle is embodied in a person’s presence of environmentally friendly values, corresponding attitudes oriented towards the natural environment. Environmental models of behaviour are focused on preserving and improving the natural environment. Therefore, the practical activity of people is aimed at preserving nature and complies with the following principles:

• The reduce principle—reducing consumption, that is, avoiding unnecessary actions and purchases.
• The principle of reuse—reuse, donate, or alter unnecessary things that can have a “second life”.
• The principle of recycling—recycling of waste, as 80% of what is in the bin can be returned for recycling.
• The principle of refuse—refusal of the unnecessary, as refusing unnecessary purchases reduces the amount of garbage.

Conclusion

No matter where we live, we can all play our part for climate action, good health and well-being, whether it is through the personal choices we make in our households, the community initiatives we undertake, or by getting involved in policy and advocacy action. We might focus on different issues, such as waste management or land preservation.

The collective agency of adolescents and youths is recognized as one of the most significant resources for achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, including combating climate change and its impacts. Although many of us are already taking leadership roles, we will also be the next generation of decision-makers and global leaders. Far from being passive victims, young people from all over the world are unanimously demanding that governments and other stakeholders, including industry, citizens and civil society, take action to address the climate emergency.

References

A European Green Deal. (2019, October 12). European Commission – European Commission. Retrieved on 11 April 2022, from https://ec.europa.eu/info/strategy/priorities-2019-2024/european-green-deal_en

Beyond 2030: Youth Taking Charge of the Environment | Youth Flash Newsletter. (sd). UNITED NATIONS Division for Social Policy and Development Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Retrieved April 11, 2022, from https://www.un.org/development/desa/youth-flash/feature/2018/06/beyond-2030-youth-taking-charge-of-the-environment/

Murray, J., Tshabangu, B., & Erlank, N. (2010). Enhancing Participatory Governance and Fostering Active Citizenship: An Overview of Local and International Best Practices. Politikon, 37(1), 45–66. https://doi.org/10.1080/02589346.2010.492149

School EducationGateway. 2016. Education for active citizenship: raising the citizens of tomorrow. [online] Available at: <https://www.schooleducationgateway.eu/en/pub/latest/practices/education-for-active-citizensh.htm> [Accessed 5 April 2022].

Seyedali Ahrari, Jamilah Othman, Salleh Hassan, Bahaman Abu Samah and Jeffrey Lawrence D`Silva, 2014. Active Citizenship by Active Learning. Journal of Applied Sciences, 14: 2450-2459.

Shutaleva, A., Martyushev, N., Nikonova, Z., Savchenko, I., Abramova, S., Lubimova, V., & Novgorodtseva, A. (2021). Environmental Behavior of Youth and Sustainable Development. Sustainability, 14 (1), 250. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14010250

Abstract: The present article discusses the origins of citizenship and the evolution of the concept as well as the main challenges currently faced in the field of youth’s active participation in an attempt of situating readers on the topic and raise awareness of the challenges that need to be overcome.

Keywords: LifeComp, Civic Participation, Citizenship.

What is civic participation?

Traditionally, the concept of citizenship has always been linked to the State. Classical authors defined this concept as the way in which the individual is legally related to the State. Based on this definition, most people in the world are citizens of one State or another and belonging to a particular state entails certain rights and obligations determined by the legislation of each country.

Notwithstanding, the concept has evolved with society’s evolution and currently, citizenship is linked to political and social forms of participation as it is related to the feeling of belonging of individuals to a community usually defined by shared elements such as language, customs, religion, or history.

Author T. H. Marshall establishes three fundamental elements of citizenship:

Civil Element: This focuses on the rights necessary for the individual to be free (personal freedom, freedom of speech, right to property). Citizenship is linked to law, and a relationship characterized by the existence of obligations and rights between the State and the individual is established.

Political element: This refers to the citizen’s right to participate in political life. We can speak of the beginning of political citizenship in classical Greece, where authors such as Aristotle speak of man as a “political animal”, through this political development is how the citizen achieves individual happiness. However, nowadays we can say that this political citizenship was born with the full universal suffrage, given in the first decades of the 20th century.

Social Element: This element is based on belonging to society, to a community, this social character of citizenship is born with the belonging of the individual to local communities, functional and labor associations, such as guilds.

The combination of the aforementioned three elements makes citizens members of a community where they belong to. Their sense of belonging to such community and intentions to contribute to improve it will determine the extent to which they will be considered active citizens.

Real citizenship participation takes place when the members belonging to a particular group, through their actions, achieve to influence the nature of decisions, implement them and evaluate them with the main purpose of promoting a change that improves society. We consider young people are active participants in their community when they become integrated into political decision-making processes on issues that directly affect them or affect the community in which they live. Participation implies a task of clarification and a joint awareness of the problems that affect them and leads to a broad discussion for decision-making and for the construction of solutions for a better society.

Currently, one of the main challenges faced at European level includes climate change, a topic on which youth’s civic participation could have a great repercussion and thus, it is essential to find how to empower them to participate in ecologic-wise decisions and adopt behaviors that support green policies.

What are LifeComp competences and why are they important for the development of active citizenship?

LifeComp competencies belong to a European reference framework for personal, social, and learning development to achieve shared understanding. They serve to develop curricula and other learning activities and can be used as reference competences for the establishment of the ideal values to enhance youth’s active citizen participation. LifeComp competences include:

1. Self-regulation
2. Flexibility
3. Well-being
4. Empathy
5. Communication
6. Collaboration
7. Mental growth
8. Critical thinking
9. Learning management

Challenges faced

The importance of active citizenship education lies in the understanding of the democratic principles and values of contemporary societies, as well as the understanding of the need and duty of individuals to participate in the cohesion and maintenance of communities at both micro and macro levels, ranging from participation in a small association or local community, to the European community or even a global community.

However, civic education encounters several barriers that impede or hinder its achievement. There are external factors or conditioning factors that influence people’s ability to adopt a participatory and social role in the community. These barriers include formal and informal environments, the workplace, the education received and community environments, between others. In addition, factors such as social exclusion, disengagement or disaffection and disenchantment on the part of young people poses a real challenge for education and awareness-raising on active citizenship and social and political participation.

Youth’s disaffection or disenchantment with regards to active participation, may be due to their perception that representative institutions are not within their reach, or that traditional forms of participation have become obsolete. Another possible reason is that with the rise of the individualistic mentality the citizen does not have time to devote to the community. The aforementioned reasons create the necessity of relying on Hart’s participation ladder, a metaphorical “ladder,” with each ascending rung representing increasing levels of child agency, control, or power which has been very useful for helping different professional groups and institutions to rethink how they work with young people in an attempt of achieving that youngest generations get engaged with society and contribute to improve it. The ladder’s levels ascend from nonparticipation (no agency at the bottom) to degrees of participation (increasing levels of agency at the top):

• Child-Initiated, Shared Decisions with Adults
• Child-Initiated and Directed
• Adult-Initiated, Shared Decisions with Children
• Consulted and Informed
• Assigned but Informed
• Tokenism
• Decoration
• Manipulation

European initiatives to empower youth’s active citizenship

Some European projects aimed at empowering youth’s active citizenship include:

YOUrope for Youth, which runs from 2013-2017 and focuses on the expansion of debates aimed at young people. The project reached more than 60,000 young people across Europe, and since the establishment of these debates young people contributed twelve concrete ideas for the future of the European Union.

In addition to this, the EU has several strategies and tools at its disposal to promote the participation of young people in society. Among these tools are the Erasmus+ programme and the European Solidarity Corps.

Other initiatives include LESVOS’ PEACEBUILDERS, in partnership with the LATRA innovation lab. This programme focuses on building peace and reducing xenophobia in local communities. This initiative is carried out with the participation of refugee children, unaccompanied minors, and young people from local communities, thus involving youth and encouraging participation for a social construction based on inclusion, non-discrimination, and peace.

Another of the projects that we found in relation to the civic participation of young people can be the “Take the money and do something for young people“. This initiative aims to include young people in the design of participatory budgets and to support them in the realization of their community projects. They also seek to establish lines of dialogue between young people in local communities and local community decision-makers to ensure understanding and communication of the situation of young people and their demands.

In short, we find certain past and present experiences in the European context in relation to the promotion of youth participation in public affairs, as a fundamental aspect for the achievement of democratic, inclusive, and equal societies, but this does not mean that it is enough, given that initiatives must continue to be developed to guarantee the fulfillment of this objective.

References:

Sociology Group (2017). What is Citizenship and T.H. Marshall’s Theory – Analysis. https://www.sociologygroup.com/what-is-citizenship-marshall-theory/

EGÜZ &amp; KAFADAR (2020). Active citizenship from the perspective of pre-service social studies teachers (page 569) https://www.researchgate.net/publication/339831278_Active_Citizenship_from_the_Perspective_of_Pre-Service_Social_Studies_Teachers

Michel, A. (2015). Learning for an Active Citizenship and Working Life: Main Challenges and Ongoing Innovations. European Journal of Education, 50(4), 379–382. https://doi.org/10.1111/ejed.12154

EUROPE OFFICE WAGGGS. (1998). Position paper on active Citizenship of young people. https://duz92c7qaoni3.cloudfront.net/documents/18.PositionPaper_Active_citizenship-E.pdf

Roger Hart (1992): Children’s participation: from tokenism to citizenship. Essay for UNICEF (Innocenti Essay N° 4)

Kersh, N., Toiviainen, H., Pitkänen, P., & Zarifis, G. K. (2021). Young Adults and Active Citizenship: Towards Social Inclusion through Adult Education (Lifelong Learning Book Series, 26) (1st ed. 2021 ed.). Springer.

European Union (2020) YOUrope for Youth. https://europa.eu/youth/nnfe_en

Civic Europe (2022) Moving Youth Forward through Civic Participation https://civic-europe.eu/storys/moving-youth-forward-through-civic-participation/