Europalaver

The exchange is offered to a still-to-define number of participants between 17 and 30 years old, speaking a minimul level of french or german, from different countries. Those participants will be from a wide range of backgrounds and with different social origins. The project will allow the meeting between students, high school students, and young people in professional and social integration, young working people.

The themes of this exchange will be around the vaste topic of the European citizenship and multilingualism : we would like to think about a new topic, maybe dealing with tolerance / refugies / discrimination. Those topics will be treated through many activities : information sessions and partipatory workshops about five European thematics, which will take place in the different European cultural institutions in Lyon and that will be animated by specialists of the European questions and languages. But also thanks to improvisation theatre workshops, that will allow the participants to go into this problematic in depth through a creative way.

The week will be ended by an evening event of improvisation and small participative debates between a large audience, the specialists of the week and the young participants.

Convinced that only a better knowledge of the issues and the cultural diversity of the European Union, can encourage the young people to involve themself and to become aware of the necessity of an active European citizenship, the Plateforme aims, through this project, to allow the meeting between youth of all backgrounds and origins. The goal of the exchange « Europalabres » is to offer the possibility to enjoy the cultural diversity of Europe in one complete week, and at the same time developing citizenship, artistic and linguistic skills.

The young attendee would be able to :
-improve their knowledge about the European Union, the way it works, its issues, its institutions and its future… ;
-discover or boost the feeling of citizenship, of European identity, become aware of the diversity of its countries and cultures ;
-obtain new linguistic skills, practising along the week French, but also English and German, specially verbally with other young people ;
-enjoy during one week the values of solidarity, tolerance and mutual respect thank to an intercultural experience, debates and investing themself in the teambuilding ;
-discover and consider news mobility opportunities

The idea of this project was born before the European elections in 2014, facing to the announced low rate of participation by the young people. Three other European exchanges have been organized by the Plateforme in 2014 (les Jeunes pensent l’Europe !), in 2015 (les Jeunes vivent l’Europe !), and in 2016 (Europalabres) responding to the information and implication needs of the youth.

On this purpose 2 solids partners already joined the Plateforme (Germany and Croatia), taking in charge the recruitment of the participants in their country. The Plateforme is taking care of the organization in Lyon, of the translation and the administrative part. All the partners are involved in the evaluation process before, during and after the project. They are also helping for all the preparation : definition of the thematics, content of the week, content of the main activities…
The attendee will be involved before and during the project, taking part to the construction of the programm.

The desired impact for the participants in the short run is a better knowledge of the European Union, its cultural diversity, and its languages for a better citizen engagement. We also wish to give a new impulsion to encourage future mobilities abroad for these young people. The desired impact in the short and long run for the partners is a development of new collaborations, new youth exchanges and eventually a « strategic partnership ».