All too often today, participation in European democratic life is reduced to elections, while completely underestimating the creative potential young people have for the communities they live in. In order to reverse this trend, the activities undertaken by the project European Hackathon: shaping youth ideas (EUROTHON) aim at providing tools and knowledge to render young people the ‘ambassadors’ of active European citizenship, they become both active protagonists of sustainable change and responsible members of their local communities.
The two project outputs (the EUROTHON Platform and the Ambassadors’ Toolkit), are intended to offer an open space for young users interested both in learning about social and environmental issues – available as free of charge – and implementing them in their own territories.
The platform includes 6 online modules (How to Become a Change-maker; United in Diversity; Save the Planet; Social Entrepreneurship is the way; Be an European Ambassador), and brings together maps, analyses and videos on the issues addressed. The Toolkit for Ambassadors and Influencers (which is currently being finalised) lists a number of practical pointers on how to pursue active citizenship, providing concrete tools on issues such as event management, social media, and finding European opportunities.
To directly test the validity of these tools, a 5-day training called “European Hackathon” took place in Nicosia (Cyprus), with 24 youngsters from all over Europe (Romania, Cyprus, Turkey, Belgium, Greece, Spain and of course Italy). The event included networking moments and debates with the aim of strengthening young people’s civic engagement and participation in democratic processes.
The three young people sent by PRISM to participate in the event (Emilia Salerno, Biagio Falcone and Francesco Vitrano), participated in the training days with great enthusiasm, learning about multicultural perspectives on topics such as the environment or social progression. Between October 3rd to 7th, the young people got involved and got to develop critical thinking, enriched by the exchange of European ideas and multicultural points of view. The topics covered included decision-making processes, analysis of EU citizens’ rights, environmental protection and social entrepreneurship.
An experience the 3 youngsters consider ‘very meaningful both from a personal and social point of view, [given that] everything we learnt during these training days can be put to use in our daily lives as European citizens’.
Want to know more about the EUROTHON project?
https://eurothon4youth.eu/
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This document reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.