Partnership for a Sustainable Empowerment of Youth Activism

Background This project was designed and implemented by 4 civil society organizations from Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia: Youth Initiative for Human Rights (Croatia), Gong (Croatia), CK13 (Novi Sad) and Danes je nov dan (Slovenia). In preparing the application for this project, in discussions with student and youth organizations in Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia, it was determined that there are several key problems in the field of youth engagement in participation in decision-making processes that relate to them. The results of several researches conducted between 2015 and 2019 showed that the key problems affecting the insufficient interest of young people for more active involvement in society and public policies are: lack of political literacy and competence for formulating advocacy priorities and ways of influencing policies and active participation in society among young people in general; weak transfer of youth knowledge from generation to generation about advocacy and organizing due to the lack of a sustainable knowledge transfer mechanism and a platform that would enable this. By detecting these problems, project activities were created with the aim of reducing them among the youth population directly and indirectly covered by this project. Through the project, the active participation of young people was also encouraged who, due to economic obstacles, cannot do so to such an extent actively participate in various forms of activism and organizations. Also, the partner organizations responded to their internal needs: strengthening capacity for work with young people, developing new methodologies and tools for the work of people who work with young people as well as for the work of young people with young people, as well as tools that can serve internally as on-boarding guides . Objectives The goal of this project was to strengthen the role of young people in directly influencing the policies that apply to them, as well as to enable them to develop lifelong skills that will facilitate their responsible and active participation in society and motivate them to develop their own projects and initiatives. In addition, the goal of the project was the development of new methods of civil society organizations and youth organizations and for youth with the aim of improving the quality of work with young people and activists using methodological manuals and innovative digital solutions (virtual platforms and repositories with materials and video games that simulate political processes ). We tried to enable the sustainable transfer of knowledge to new generations in the field of advocacy, youth movements and their self-organization by means of an activist school for young people and accompanying innovative educational content online. Another important achieved goal of the project was the connection of civil society and the initiatives of youth, student and high school organizations, as well as greater intersectoral synergy with the goal of more active involvement of young people in the process of making public policies and participation in the community. In addition, the project created widely applicable innovative methods for raising the quality of work with young people. The project also wanted to enable young people from Hr. SLO, and SR to meet and get to know their peers, and through the acquired acquaintances and friendships to transform and raise the awareness of young people and create the assumptions of a different view of the social and political problems faced by young people throughout the region. Implementation Project management activities Intellectual results: IO1 - Practical guide for working with young activists: program and methodology, interactive digital edition in Croatian, Serbian and English IO2 - Manual "Public policies and how to deal with them", interactive digital edition in Croatian, Serbian and Slovenian languages IO3 - Virtual repository and communication platform for young activists - website pojam.org with news, youth articles, CSO address book, Moodle platform IO4 - Simulation of decision-making in politics: "Stop Your Government" - interactive video game with three scenarios in Croatian, Serbian and Slovenian languages LTT activities: The first regional summer activist school, IMAŠ POJMA! 2021 Years in Graberje Ivanićka for 23 participants from Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia Regional summer activist school - The moment is now! 2022. Years in Sremski Karlovci for 34 participants from Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia Workshop "Peace activism: yesterday, today and tomorrow" January 26 to 28, 2022 in Osijek for 11 participants from Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia Alternative politics seminar "Feminist training in establishing physical and psychological boundaries" from March 18 to 20, 2022 at the CK13 Youth Center in Novi Sad for 13 participants From 17.12.2021. until April 7, 2022. seven online workshops were held for 108 participants on the topics: "Student movement in Croatia in 2009: historical context and political practice"; "Intra-institutional LGBTIQ+ activism: Student organization"; "How do young people build broad social movements based on environmental and climate issues?"; "Implementation of projects for beginners"; "How we organized ourselves: an example of the March 8 night march"; "Tenant unions - Why and how to organize for better rental conditions"; "Politics in Digital Culture: Memes of Power". ME events were held: Presentation of the "Practical guide for working with young activists: program and methodology" and the manual "Public policies and how to deal with them" - 17.10.2022. Zagreb Presentation of the political decision-making simulation game "Stop Your Government" - 18.10.2022. Zagreb Presentation of the political decision-making simulation game "Stop Your Government" - November 4, 2022. Novi Sad Presentation of the political decision-making simulation game "Stop Your Government" - November 8, 2022. Ljubljana Presentation of the Practical guide for working with young people: program and methodology and the manual "Public policies and how to deal with them" - 13.10.2022. Novi Sad Conference on opportunities for youth activism through participation, innovation and advocacy - IMAŠ POJMA! - 8.11.2022. Zagreb Achievements Intellectual results: IO1 - Practical guide for working with young activists: program and methodology, interactive digital edition in Croatian, Serbian and English IO2 - Manual "Public policies and how to deal with them", interactive digital edition in Croatian, Serbian and Slovenian languages IO3 - Virtual repository and communication platform for young activists - website pojam.org with news, youth articles, address book of CSOs, Moodle platform - (42 posts on pojam.org, 70 organizations in the address book, educational program materials on the Moodle platform, activist group) IO4 - Simulation of decision-making in politics: "Stop Your Government" - interactive video game with three scenarios in Croatian, Serbian and Slovenian languages An external evaluation of the project was made LTT activities: The first regional summer activist school, IMAŠ POJMA! 2021 Years in Graberje Ivanićka for 23 participants from Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia Regional summer activist school - The moment is now! 2022. Years in Sremski Karlovci for 34 participants from Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia In cooperation with young activists, student organizations, political scientists and experts in relevant areas of public policy, two seven-day programs were developed that included a combination of theoretical lectures, workshops and discussions, and resulted in the networking of young people and their initiatives and organizations in Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia. The summer school programs contained several thematic areas, and the entire theoretical part of the lectures became available virtually after their completion. Through the summer school program, competencies were developed for 54 young people and representatives of youth organizations who, through the program, developed the skills of advocacy, political literacy, organization, writing and project management. Accompanying materials were created from the summer schools and are publicly available in digital form. From the summer schools came activist groups of young people and the activist engagement of individuals who continued their activities in a virtual form. The school programs will remain as a permanent result and efforts will be made to ensure that they continue to be implemented after the end of the project. Workshop "Peace activism: yesterday, today and tomorrow" January 26 to 28, 2022 in Osijek for 11 participants from Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia Alternative politics seminar "Feminist training in establishing physical and psychological boundaries" from March 18 to 20, 2022 at the CK13 Youth Center in Novi Sad for 13 participants From 17.12.2021. until April 7, 2022. seven online workshops were held for 108 participants on the topics: "Student movement in Croatia in 2009: historical context and political practice"; "Intra-institutional LGBTIQ+ activism: Student organization"; "How do young people build broad social movements based on environmental and climate issues?"; "Implementation of projects for beginners"; "How we organized ourselves: an example of the March 8 night march"; "Tenant unions - Why and how to organize for better rental conditions"; "Politics in Digital Culture: Memes of Power". Presentations, session outlines, materials created by participants in working groups (video works, research, artistic interventions...), podcast, new regional initiatives, evaluations, articles and reports created by participants in LTT activities Conducted 6 ME events for 198 participants; presentations of IOs 20 participants on Danes is a new day for the multiplier - Presentation of the IO4 video game Stop your government 33 participants at the CK13 multiplier - Presentation of the IO4 video game Stop your government 30 participants at the CK13 multiplier - Presentation of IO1 and IO2 guides and manuals 29 participants at the YIHR multiplier - Presentation of IO1 and IO2 guides and manuals 28 participants at Gong's multiplier - Presentation of the IO4 video game Stop your government 58 participants at the YIHR multiplier - Conference for young people