Academia da Mudança

Over the past two decades, youth civic participation has been the subject of research and policy reform worldwide. Internationally, the World Bank has identified active citizenship as one of the most essential activities for a healthy transition to adulthood for today's youth and the next generation. Thus, numerous efforts have been made to encourage young people to actively participate in society and the community, contributing to their self-esteem, a greater sense of ethics, greater pride in the community, and developing soft skills essential for today's (competitive) labour market. Thus, this project aimed to increase the civic participation of young people in their communities through the methodologies of the Academy of Change. The Academy of Change was based on the concept of Community Workshops but with a deeper level of content, aiming at the empowerment and development of socio-behavioural and technical/functional skills.

Project goals: - Combat low educational levels; - Reduce the rise in unemployment; - Increase available opportunities; - To foster the development (and investment in the development) of key competencies essential for the personal, academic and professional success of young people; - Foster the active participation of young people in their community - Increase motivation, creativity and autonomy.

The activities implemented were the following: 1 - TM 1 - Introduction of the project partners; - Establish trust among the partners so that there is safety and openness to talk; - Presentation of the project, its objectives and activities; 2 - Training Course Academy of Change This activity had as its primary objective to train the technicians of the partner organizations in the methodologies of the Academy of Change and to the civic engagement of the youth in the community. 3 - TM 2 This activity had as its primary objective the monitoring of the project, focusing on the results obtained in the Training Course and the activities already under development - implementation and capacity building of young volunteers, from the partnership countries, in volunteer work and the Academy of Change. 4 - Blended Mobility After participating in the implementation of the Academy of Change and training for volunteer work, some young volunteers from the three partnership countries had the opportunity to reflect on their new skills and main challenges. 4- TM 3 This activity marked the end of the project, and its main goal was to evaluate the project, focusing on the results and their quality obtained in the developed activities.

The results of the project were Intangible - Increased civic participation among young people; - Development of skills and soft-skills considered essential for social inclusion, particularly for people with fewer opportunities; - Training of the organizations' technicians so that they can provide improved and innovative responses to the needs and problems in their community. Tangible - Project booklet; - Audiovisual resources.