Democratic Innovations in Youth Work

Background Why did we apply? „While youth participation in formal (electoral) politics has been in decline for several years now, young people are also increasingly skeptical of politicians, of conventional forms of participation such as elections and see themselves badly represented in representative democracy“ (ECPR, 2019). At the same time, numerous engaged academics, activists, representatives of CSOs together with public administration in different parts of Europe work collaboratively on implementing participatory and deliberative processes and innovative tools, which make public governance more democratic, legitimate, inclusive and responsive to people’s demands. Democratic innovations (DIs) such as Citizens Assemblies, Consensus Conferences and Participatory Budgeting facilitate collective decision-making and public deliberation of citizens, being an enrichment of representative democracy. These DIs “have been specifically designed to increase and deepen citizen participation in the political decision-making process” (Graham Smith’s, 2009). Thanks to DIs the link between citizens and their representatives can be reinforced and they can be also used to overcome the fading of young people‘s interest and trust in current democratic institutions and decision-making processes. They „could reinvigorate young people’s engagement with politics in the long term. By socializing young people in the give-and-take of democratic politics, these DIs are expected to encourage the development of political attitudes and civic skills among youngsters and to support them to become more engaged democratic citizens.“ (ECPR, 2019). Needs adressed: The role of youth workers and teachers in shaping young people’s attitudes and developing their democratic skills is invaluable. However, most of the methods and available materials for civic and democratic education are focused on the functioning of representative institutions (e.g. simulations how parliaments work) and the role played by citizens in representative democracies, mainly limited to participation in electoral mechanisms. While the knowledge about DIs is mostly in the academic field, there are almost no didactic materials addressed to young people on this subject available (tailored for and attractive to youth and their way of acquiring information and skills). If we want to respond to the decline of trust and participation among young people in a proper way, new didactic methods and materials need to be coherent with their interests and show the whole spectrum of possible ways of being engaged in politics also outside of electoral mechanisms and the model of representative democracy. That is why we saw a big need to elaborate such didactic help for youth workers and teachers. Moreover, „Inclusion of youth in political life via the usual channels is only promising for those young people who are already politically socialised and come from socio-economically prosperous backgrounds. It is more difficult to involve youngsters from socially disadvantaged backgrounds, those who are often seen as young rebels against traditional systems and norms.“ (ECPR, 09.2019). For this reason, the project targeted youth workers and teachers working with the use of non-formal education methods and including also young people with fewer opportunities e.g. from rural areas, young migrants, etc. Target groups and their needs: - In their everyday work youth workers and teachers are facing the decline of young people's interest in established democratic institutions and radicalisation within social and “fake” news bubbles. In face of these challenges they experience the limits of their capacities to counter these developments. The introduction of DIs in their work will contribute to satisfy their need for ideas and practices to re-engage and -integrate young people. - Youth: to see that their demand to be more heard and readiness to participate beyond conventional electoral mechanisms and traditional representative bodies is respected, encouraged and supported. Objectives The project DIYW aimed at developing, testing and disseminating didactic materials and methods to empower youth workers and teachers to introduce the subject of DIs in their work with youth, and thereby increase young people’s capacity to participate in democratic life and make them become more active, aware and critical democratic agents, especially in their own social environment, towards their involvement in decision-making processes, the use of digital tools, mechanisms of direct democracy and the risks of instrumentalization and manipulation by populist radical movements. Since the challenges and needs are transnational the answer needed a transnational partnership that allowed to learn about DIs in a profound way, taking into consideration the importance of various local contexts, and to design and develop tools and methods which can be replicated Europewide. With the project, we wanted to achieve the following objectives: - To reinvigorate young people’s engagement in democratic life on the local and European level by promoting the topic of Democratic Innovations (DIs) with the use of non-formal education methods in youth work and in schools. - To respond to young people’s needs to be involved more often in decision-making processes and their interest in extra-representative forms of participation. - To encourage the development of political attitudes and civic skills among youngsters and to support them to become more engaged and critical citizens towards the existent decision-making processes, the use of digital tools, direct democracy and the risks of instrumentalization by populist radical movements. - To support the European Commission’s efforts in responding to “ripe for a New Push for European Democracy“ and tackle the issue of democratic disenchantment and democratic erosion. - To produce innovative methodology using audiovisual materials that support youth workers and teachers in the non-formal and formal education sectors to introduce the subject of DI to young people. The developed methods empower young people to become more active and aware democratic agents - young adults with democratic skills and active citizens thinking more critically about their role in the democratic system, the use of (participatory) digital tools and digitalisation in general (e.g. privacy and security issues). - To support youth workers and teachers in acquiring knowledge about DIs, developing new skills in democratic/civic education and enriching their portfolios in youth work. - To include young people (especially from disadvantaged background and with fewer opportunities) in the creative process and make them co-producers of the educational materials through their participation in prototyping and testing the developed outputs, ensuring their engagement on eye-level together with youth workers and experts on DIs and the needsoriented and taylored production the outputs. Implementation 1. 4 Transnational Partner Meetings: o The 1st (Kick Off) Transnational Partner Meeting (20-26.01.2021) - online o 2nd (Interim) Transnational Project Meeting in Warsaw (27.-29.04.2022) o 3rd (Interim) Transnational Project Meeting in Barcelona (08.10.10.2022) o 4th and final Transnational Project Meeting in Berlin (28.06.-01.07.2023) 2. Production of the Intellectual outputs: o IO1: “Videos for democracy" o IO2: “Didactic Guide for Youth Workers and Teachers – Democratic Innovations in non-formal education”. o IO3: Train the Democracy Trainer 3. 2 Learning Teaching and Training Activities o 1st staff training meeting in Warsaw cancelled o 2nd staff training meeting Barcelona (1.-03.10.2021) o 3rd staff training meeting in Berlin (24.-26.02.2023) 4. 3 Multiplier events o Conference “Democratic innovations in Youth Work” in Berlin (E1) (29.06.2023) o Conference “Democratic innovations in Youth Work” in Warsaw (E2) o Conferences “Democratic innovations in Youth Work” in Barcelona and Toledo (E3) Achievements During the project lifetime, we produced three intellectual outputs (IO1): o IO1: 9 educational short-documentaries/videos showcasing inspiring democratic innovations (e.g citizens assemblies, participatory budgeting,Self-organised youth groups and digital tools) and stories of people who participated in their creation and implementation at the local level (2 videos in Germany, 1 in Austria, 3 in Catalonia and 3 in Poland). These didactic videos are interconnected with IO2. (https://www.democracyandyouth.eu/activities/en/) o IO2: A set of 9 activities to be held with youth practising each democratic innovation. Each activity is linked to one video (IO1). Activities are intended for groups of young people in schools and youth groups. Every activity is meant to be implemented by a teacher or youth worker and contains detailed step by step descriptions. Activities are of different lengths (from 45 minutes to a few hours). Some of them introduce a given democratic innovation to young people or contain elements of joint decision-making. (https://www.democracyandyouth.eu/activities/en/) o IO3: "Train the Democracy trainer" - Methodological training course to provide youth workers and school teachers with the necessary skills and knowledge, to empower and support them on how to use the didactic guide (IO2) and videos (IO1) to introduce the topic of DIs in their work, with the use of non-formal education methods. Tangible results: An online toolkit and PDF publication for youth workers and teachers. Titel: "Democracy beyond Voting – Introduction Democratic Innovations to Youth" : https://www.democracyandyouth.eu This multimedia interactive online platform includes the 9 activities (IO2), 9 educational videos (IO1) and knowledge on what are democratic innovations. The following 3 kinds of democratic innovations that we adress in the videos: o Participatory budgeting o Citizens’ assemblies o Self-organised youth groups & digital participation tools The toolkit is available in 5 languages: DE, PL, EN, CAT and SP. Audio-visual documentation of the project activities: photos, short videos, blogposts on the Transnational Project Meetings, of the Learning Teaching Training Activities, of the testing sessions with youth and youth workers/teachers, of the final conferences. Other results: Young people who participated in the testing of the didactic guide, got to know about alternative ways of decision-making and developed their critical thinking towards democratic decision-making processes, the use of digital „democratic“ tools, direct democracy and the risks of instrumentalization by populist radical movements. Youth workers and school teachers got empowered and enriched their knowledge on DIs, got trained to introduce the subject of DIs with the use of audio-visual materials and non-formal education methods. As DIs are often known only within the reach of their small local communities or among academics working on the topic, the project also raised the visibility and recognition of DIs as processes to increase citizens participation and involvement in the democratic life. The project raised national and transnational visibility of the democratic innovations featured in the videos. Each organization involved in the implementation of the project developed greatly their capacities in coordinating local and transnational activities, involving many diverse participants, partners and audiences. Our strategic partnership also enabled us to develop our collaborative networks and skills in running big-scale, cross-sectoral and interdisciplinary initiatives. The produced outputs are applied by the partners themselves in their work with young people and allow them to develop their portfolio of services and activities. Results of the dissemination: Through the whole process, the project will directly reach about 80 young people (research phase/production IO1/testing IO2) and about 45 youth workers (testing IO3). The 3 final conferences (Multiplier Events: 1 per partner country) reached 340 youth workers, teachers, public and private youth institutions and youth organisations.