"Eutopia" Diversity in a Changing Europe - Creative lab for Rethinking Diversity in Youth Work

• Have you ever wondered what diversity actually means?
• Do you work with people who question if diversity has gone too far?
• Living in times when Europe and the world is undergoing major developments, do you ever wonder how to help young people make sense of it all?
• Do you think it is time to reconsider the way we (you) work with young people nowadays?
• Are you curious about the principles and practices of slow youth work in a world that is changing rapidly?
• Would you like to go on an eight months creative journey with a dynamic community of learners?

“EUtopia? – Diversity in a Changing Europe” is a creative, analytical and critical learning experiment which brings new life to old concepts. It is for the very experienced among us, who sometimes feel tired of thinking, and the very fresh ones, who sometimes feel lost and don't know where to even begin. If you are ready to dive deep in the meaning of diversity and use what you find to reshape the practices of youth work – then this 7th international edition of EUtopia? is for you! The learning process will last eight months. It will result in improved practices for supporting young people in changing Europe, and it will produce tools that will be shared in an online library for youth workers. It will be comprised of four elements:

• 1st part: Home Lab for Introduction – online learning process consisting of 30 hours of individual guided work from March to May (participants are required to dedicate a minimum of 3 hours a week for online learning throughout the spring)
• 2nd part: Lab for Critical Analysis – challenging and exploring concepts in Latvia, from 6th to 12th of May 2020
• 3rd part: Piloting Lab for Creativity and Experimentation – testing it all through local activities implemented by participants in their local communities
• 4th part: Designing Lab – creating new tools and approaches in Albania, from 6th to 11th of October 2020

The call is open to all professionals working with young people, particularly in non-formal learning settings. The selected participants are requested to take part in all parts of the Lab.

Additional information: https://ej.uz/EUtopia_video 

Aim:

The aim of the lab is to provide youth field professionals with an opportunity 1) to explore the complex and diverse realities of young people in a changing Europe, 2) to prepare to better respond to those realities by applying values-based perspective of diversity, and 3) to reshape existing youth work practices.

The objectives of the lab are:

• to create a community of learners ready to engage in a challenging, self-reflective, long term, dynamic learning process;
• to explore the relevant socio-political and cultural contexts in which young people grow up today, and critically evaluate the current youth work responses to them;
• to understand reasoning and motivation behind young people’s views and attitudes, discover how opinions are formed and encourage critical thinking;
• to challenge/ radicalize the concept of diversity, exploring it from a values-based, rather than from a normative policy perspective;
• to develop the most relevant skillsets for reconsidering and reshaping youth work practices in accordance with current challenges and slow youth work principles;
• to develop intercultural and political competences, as identified by the ETS Competence Model for Youth Workers, and to pilot them through activist projects;
• to discover opportunities to incorporate values-based approach to diversity within Erasmus+ activities and to support international cooperation among participants.