Type of activity: All the organized activities followed the scheme envisaged by the project through the shared road map. This report contains the activities deemed of greatest interest for the results obtained and for the achievement of the expected objectives.
Country: Italy
Partner: TDM 2000 International, project applicant
Description: Local activities in Italy were designed by project applicant TDM 2000 International. Most of them are organized in collaboration with the other Italian partner, Associazione TDM 2000, and are connected each other.
After the creation of the Local Working Group and after the official opening and presentation of the project to the community, activities started with a set of interviews to politicians and decision makers. During the election campaign for the mayor in the municipality of Cagliari, capital of Sardegna, TDM 2000 International hosted an initiative aimed at increasing the participation of youngsters in the election, in order to improve the levels of active participation and citizenship in their local community. The most important aspect of the whole initiative is that many youngsters were involved by our association, increasing their expertise when it comes to approaching representatives of public institutions in a face to face discussion, in dealing with public bodies and, overall, increasing their capacity and interest in involving themselves in the political life of their communities.
A roundtable has hosted in Cagliari straight after the official presentation of the project. During this activity the themes scheduled were discussed, starting with an explanation of the priorities that the applicant organization, TDM 2000 International, felt as the most concrete and felt by the younger population. All of the input were discussed thoroughly by the attendees, until they could agree on a common plan for action that could be adopted over the course of the project. Plan and next discussion were focused on future strategies to involve youths in the local activities and how to increase their participation.
A Conference plus a Q&A Session on theme of the project has been organized in the public library MEM, Mediateca del Mediterraneo. During the event, that was aimed at discussing themes such as active participation, EU Youth Dialogue and youth policies, members from local working group explained in depth the usefulness of the tool of EU Youth Dialogue, and its importance in the development of policies for youths in the EU.
During the conference, several guests involved in the field of EU policy making and experts on the Youth field, have been hosted The overture of the event was hosted by Pasquale Mascia, representative of the municipality of Cagliari and responsible of the whole MEM structure. Over the course of the activity, several professionals and youth workers had the chance to share their experience and impressions, such as Antonio Mura, representative of the regional desk of Europe Direct. The conference lasted for 2 hours, and the youngster taking part into it had the chance to gather inputs and information on tools that they can use to be “heard” at the higher levels of the European institutions, take an active role in the development of new policies for youths and in the democratic processes in EU. The event ended with a brief Q&A, where each one of the guests answered the questions still lingering in the public, further clearing up possible misunderstandings.
Other activities organized at local level:
- Participation at the debate organized to promote european elections among sardinian students, at the University of Cagliari, Faculty of Polical Sciences;
- Bike ride to promote participation to european elections under the campaign “thistimeivote”, involving the municipalities of Cagliari and Quartu Sant’Elena, with the partnership of regional info desk Europe Direct;
- Involvement of local team in local partner’s activity called “migrant tour”, hosted in Cagliari;
- Debate among youngesters in Borore, a small village in sardinia rural area, by involving local migrants.
Aim: Aim and objectives of the activities are different as follow:
- To get in contact with the topic of the EU Youth Dialogue;
- To have a clear knowledge about the project, its activities and its long term benefits;
- To create a video containing the most important information about the politicians running for mayor in the municipality of Cagliari, in a formula that could be well received by the youth population of the city;
- To bridge the gap between youths and the political world with its representatives;
- To create a common paper that would represent the future priorities for the involvement of youths in policy making, including young migrants and youth with fewer opportunities;
- Increased knowledge of the youngsters involved about the projects financed by EU, especially those linked to the use of the EU Youth Dialogue tool;
- To create the draft of the recommendations regarding youth policies that can be shared on different levels;
- To discuss and underline personal and different experiences of integration;
- To develop strategies for better integration.
Main results: The development of a video containing a summary of all the information needed by the public in order to proceed to a well-informed election of its mayor and representatives in the municipality’s council. Increased capability of the volunteers and youths involved in dealing with public bodies and other public entities with its representatives. Youth and youth workers met and discussed the priorities felt when dealing with topics such as inclusion of migrants and their integration, active participation and citizenship, youth policy making and relationships with public institutions at local, national and European level.
Target group: Youth workers and representative of NGOs deeply involved in the youth field, decision makers and policy makers, politicians and journalists, Youngsters as the final target of the video developed, youth with fewer opportunities, young migrants, stakeholders.