Civic Debate Club

In the recent decades, there was a decline in the level of civic and political engagement of young people across Europe and all over the world. The education (both formal and non-formal) that young people received was critical. If youth workers enabled young people to raise ethical, social, civic, and political issues, allowed them to discuss controversial topics, encouraged them to express their own opinions and to listen to one another in order to explore a variety of different perspectives, youth tended to acquire higher levels of political interest, trust, and knowledge, which in turn boosted the likelihood of them voting in the future. It was also beneficial for their engagement if youth organizations themselves operated on democratic principles and provided opportunities for young people to contribute to formal decision-making, for example, through youth councils and youth representation in working groups. Through implementation of this project, our project consortium promoted quality youth work and suggested some new ways to enhance the quality of programs and initiatives aimed at young people.

Consortium of the Civic Debate Club project was working jointly to achieve the aim that was set in the project application. All the project results were finalized, moreover, said awareness has been increased among participants of the focus groups and multiplier events who also already gained new knowledge that is important for their participation in public life. We reduced barriers which hindered young citizens in active participation in local governance, EU democratic processes, dis-enfranchisement, and cause exclusion of youths with fewer opportunities and social obstacles. The project promoted young people’s active citizenship and social responsibility in their local communities with the Civic Debate Club initiative and specifically created instructions on how to create groups (committees) and how to choose topics that were most relevant to their community. The project fostered mutual understanding through inclusivity, constructive engagement, and networking, encouraged youth participation and advocacy via practical application of digital youth work strategies, raised awareness of active citizenship and civic responsibility within the youth work sector and to policy makers and funders nationally.

The project methodology unfolded in 6 distinct Activity groups (A), whose execution was coordinated by efforts, grouped under A1 "Project management and coordination". Each activity group aimed at a number of results to be achieved, linked to respective qualitative and quantitative indicators. The second activity was concentrated towards the "Curriculum on Civic Debate Clubs," led by UoP. Tasks envisaged under this workstream aimed to combine the individual approach, vision, creativity, and expertise of all partners through brainstorming sessions, research, and mutual work over the content development of the Curriculum. Its elaboration was essential, as it served as a reference point and a backbone of the simulation game content. At the same time, it constituted valuable training material for both youth workers and educators. Additionally, the online platform that was developed within this Activity (by TFN) enabled the massive promotion of all Project results and the collection of audience feedback as well as quantitative data on reach of the project. The third activity, "Research & interactive infographics on attitudes, perceptions and misconceptions of governance among young people" was executed under the coordination of TFN. Elaboration of PR2 included meetings with stakeholders and collective brainstorming, which were related to research and its presentation via interactive infographics and animated videos. Another key activity of the project was Activity 4 named "Training Youth Workers." UoP, which was experienced in conducting and facilitating training and elaborating innovative training methodologies, led this activity. The core of this activity revolved around the feedback on draft versions of materials developed within PR3 "Open-educational and promotional materials on the role of governance" (led by the ED) as it ensured constructive feedback from participants. The event was also an occasion to film some videos and thereby engage participants in the production process and provide them with additional knowledge in the project’s topics and first-hand experience with video making. All of the materials were finalised shortly after the training. Multiplier events were occasions to present project results to local public in partner countries, motivate them to use the CDC materials, and raise their awareness of benefits of debating competences and importance of active citizenship. Besides that, the final event of this kind of a conference that addressed an international audience. Simultaneously with the implementation of the aforementioned activities, a wide dissemination was undertaken to ensure on-time update of the project progress and promotion of project results.

Project Result 1 - Curriculum on Civic Debate Clubs The consortium, led by the PR leader, UoP, established and followed a robust process for successfully completing PR1 - Curriculum on Civic Debate Clubs. In effect, PR 1 aimed at: - define target groups for this project for clarity of use; - define the most important topics to be addressed for target groups and with the goals of the project; it includes information and educational materials, as well as refers to scientifically accurate information and sources; it details the knowledge, which needs to be acquired by young people on the topics of active citizenship and participation, but using an innovative approach of debate clubs; - include instructions on how to create groups (committees) and how to choose topics that are most relevant to their community. The structure and format of the proceedings will match their local governments before escalating to EU-wide or worldwide questions and debates. - define specifically for PR3: core topics; specific goals of the open-educational and promotional materials to be achieved; desired learning outcomes. Project Result 2 Elaboration of PR2 led by TFN included meetings with stakeholders and collective brainstorming, which were related to research and its presentation via interactive infographics and animated videos published on the website - Best practices Policy recommendations, Social engagement revie, Social engagement in politics, participation, citizenship, Interest in voting in EU, Civic vs political participation, Tips to measure quality of civic participation, Promoting democratic values. The videos includes the topics: Social engagement, Democracy, Democratic values, Interest in voting, Participation and active citizenship, Awareness of youth about political representatives. Project Result 3 - Open-educational and promotional materials on the role of governance Under the supervision of the European Dialogue, the project consortium produced a mix of materials: visually appealing and modern info-graphics, videos, podcast, and two interactive presentations - story maps. As for the videos, both animated “white board” animations and live-action videos were created. The latter category includes three longer videos: simulation of a classical debate, simulation of a TV debate, and Debating Safety Instructions guiding viewers through what should be kept in mind when debating in a constructive environment. One story map features relevant good practices from around the world and the second one is dedicated to other materials created within this PR. All of the open-educational and promotional materials have been distributed freely and are available on the project platform and through all social media accounts. As for quantitative data, 9 info-graphics, 1 podcast, 5 animated videos, 8 live-action videos, and 2 story-maps were produced. Intangible results of the multiplier events and training: - Young people improve their awareness of active citizenship, democracy, youth participation and advocacy; and got knowledge needed for participation in civic debate clubs on various topics. - Youth workers and representatives of youth organisations staff improved their knowledge in the field of delivering youth work in a format of civic debate clubs as innovative practice through the use of digital technology and media to actually engage young people from different communities and support their active citizenship and youth advocacy. They also explored various funding opportunities (mainly Erasmus+ and CERV programme) and were motivated to engage in international collaboration.