Youthful Europe

In the process of increased European cooperation and unification, young people have got ever more acquainted with the continent’s rich cultural diversity, multiple value systems and new ways of democratic participation beyond the traditional mechanisms and national borders. The influence of “Europe” is not present only through mobility therein, but reaches young people’s local environments in various ways. This can be both, eye-opening and exciting, but also challenging and confusing for them. Youth work and non-formal education can provide a platform to facilitate the process, so that the European dimension would, at best, enrich young people’s lives and bring them new perspectives and opportunities. This training course tackles the concept of Europe through three of its constitutive elements: identity, citizenship and participation. The participants will have an opportunity to critically reflect on different personal and societal meanings of Europe, what are their implications and what kinds of methods to use to address the European dimension in the lives of young people in an interesting and supportive manner. The activity is based on a series of training courses on the topic held in different countries of Europe since 2004. The training course builds on the previous experiences, however the approach and the programme of activities have been adapted to correspond to the contemporary themes, needs and approaches. Aim of the training course: -to develop competences of practitioners active in the youth field to address European dimension in young people‘s daily life. Objectives of the training course: -to critically reflect on approaches towards Europe through identity, citizenship and participation; -to provide participants with concrete tools and methodological support in order to associate youth activities with European dimension; -to make participants acquainted with the new European programme Erasmus + in the field of youth Target group: The training course is open for youth work practitioners from the Erasmus + Programme Countries and the countries of the Western Balkan region, who: -are currently involved in youth work (directly working with young people) -have the interest in the topic of the training and motivation to use the gained competences in their work with young people -are at least 18 years of age -can communicate in English The Programme of activities is available in the end of this call.