While We Wait

Background The project was applied for during the pandemic. Young people aged between 18 -25yrs were experiencing great loss and feeling very forgotten. During this period there were many young people reaching out for advice, support, and often just to sound their fears, confusion, and frustrations about feeling very much forgotten by the world. A particular number of young people had reached out to the Talk about youth project to look for support, particularly in terms of education, and employment but more importantly their mental health and progression in this transitional period in their lives where their world had stopped. Many of the young people were from social economic disadvantage backgrounds. A key concern for these young people was the injustice they experienced throughout the pandemic. They often had no place to work or study online due to their housing situations, they lost their part-time jobs and were left with no financial support. The young people wanted to capture a period in history from their lived life experiences. They wanted to look at the effect the pandemic had on them and their European friends. The project aimed to facilitate young people from different communities within Europe to express, their different perspectives, experiences, and challenges living through a monumental time in history. Young people wanted to tell their stories and captured the stories of others. Objectives The overall aim was to give young people a platform to come together to voice their thoughts, feelings, and opinions on this historical moment in their lives. The project was developed from start to finish by young people for young people. The project's aim was to ensure that young people felt empowered to take back control of their lives. The project was implemented to offer a positive element on a European level to capture a unique story from the eyes of young people. The aim was to look at the positives, the challenges, the learning, and the similarities being faced on a day-to-day basis and how young people can become active citizens and be proactive in response to the most unprecedented moment in their young lives. The aim was to build resilience in a community of people that had faced huge challenges. The project wanted to build self-belief and developed young leaders to guide and implement an intercultural experience in a period where every young person was experiencing a global pandemic and losing connection with the world around them. Our objective was to create a platform where young people can reconnect with each other and share their own experiences of the virus pandemic and the challenges which they are facing. We believe, because of this, young people will have increased empathy for the struggles of others, be able to learn from each other's experiences, and be willing to help each other overcome common challenges. Another objective, which is a by-product of this process, is to increase connectivity among young people and try to minimize the feeling of isolation or loneliness which young people may be suffering with. Implementation The project was facilitated both online and face-to-face. The young people held monthly online meetings. The young people divided themselves into sub-working groups to work on different project ideas. There were three working groups, research, social media, and filmmaking. Following the face-to-face planning meeting in Spain the young people developed new online working groups to plan and work together for the two Youth Exchanges that would take place in Ireland and Portugal. The focus had slightly changed, the keep objective now was telling the story of young people and celebrating their resilience. There were 4 mobilities held duration of the project: 1. Planning meeting (Beyond the screen) – Spain 2. Youth Exchange – Ireland 3. Youth Exchange – Portugal 4. Evaluation and conclusion – Ireland The young people developed all program activities, and developed a timetable, which they ensured was shared equally between all partners. The project, although faced many challenges throughout the duration, due to the change in holding face-to-face meetings, was highly successful and was fully implemented, orchestrated, and led by young people. The biggest challenge was the pandemic and never foreseeing the longevity or the mental health impact of isolating people very a long period of time. Achievements The concrete outputs: The concrete outputs included, 1. A research piece on single-use plastic, was distributed throughout all the partner’s social media. 2. A short film was produced and shared, capturing the journey and voices of young people throughout the moment of certainty in their lives. 3. There were 7 podcasts produced and shared on social media – icloud 4. Street Art – two murals were painted on the walls of Arcos and Dublin representing the challenges and celebration of young people. This was designed, created, and produced by young people for all to see. 5. The young people took to the streets in Portugal, where they held numerous events and exhibitions to showcase and talk with the local community. 6. The group held talks with local people on Sherkin Island, where their stories and project were shared among the islanders. The group where invited to an annual event on the island to join both visitors and islanders to talk about their activism. 7. The Young people produced a song, which was performed to local communities. The most concrete result was the determination of the young people, all young people remained involved in the process, implementing and remaining connected, and engaged in the project from start to finish. Although not all young people travelled and could attend all the face-to-face mobilities, all remained online and educated, informing newcomers to the project. Remained connected throughout the duration, which prove to be a lot longer than anticipated. Given the age of the participants and how life is transient for young people at this stage in their journey, everyone remained connected in some way to the end.