The first report for Sustainable Equality (2019-2024) established in 2018 warns that Europe’s failure to combat the economic, political and social crises “will lead to a democratic collapse, either because populist and authoritarian extremist forces will gain decisive power across Europe, or because these economic, social or environmental crises will have reached a destabilising stage for society. […] there is a need to generate and strengthen the critical vote both at the level of the EU Member States and at the European level.“
At the same time, Eurobarometer surveys indicate that the interest of 15-24 year olds in European elections remains significantly lower than that of their elders.
The highest abstention rate in the 2014 European elections was recorded among young people, although most of them consider EU membership as positive (over 70% according to the latest Eurobarometer survey).
In this context, Pros4Democracy aims to train and empower young people and youth leaders to :
- acquire the critical skills needed to inform themselves about what is happening around them, through better media literacy
- become aware of European values of democracy, social solidarity and sustainable equality
- use their talents and skills in a social media campaign to educate their peers and communities about critical voting and the importance of participation in the democratic process, and
- become active European citizens, ready to promote European values in their future professional lives.
Activities*
- Four two-day working meetings in Italy (February and July 2022), Malta (May 2022) and France (October 2022)
- Two five-day training courses on European values, active citizenship and media literacy in Malta (May 2022) and Italy (Palermo, July 2022), for four adult participants including one team leader
- An event to be organised in France for twenty national participants (February 2023)
Profiles requested
- mix of young active citizens and youth leaders, social workers, educational project leaders
- interested in critical thinking, European politics and social media…
- English level B1 (possibility of linguistic support)
Partners
- VisMedNet (Malte, coordinateur)
- Valida (Italy)
- Le Laba (France)
- Associazione Culturale Eduvita ETS (Italy)
- Graphistes de l’Ombre (France)
- Uniamoci Onlus (Italy)
- Journalists for human rights (Republic of Northern Macedonia)
*indicative dates subject to change
Project n°2021-2-MT01-KA220-YOU-000047897 funded by the European Union’s Erasmus program