RURAL STAGES FOR YOUTH VOICES

RURAL STAGES FOR YOUTH VOICES
Culture as a Tool for Youth Work in Rural Areas
Rural Stages for Youth Voices is a European Training Course exploring how cultural events
and temporary cultural spaces can create opportunities for youth participation, creative
expression and active involvement in rural and peripheral areas. Young people living in rural
areas can have fewer opportunities to participate in cultural and social life, access creative
spaces and take an active role in their communities. At the same time, youth workers and
local organisations need practical approaches to engage young people, support their ideas
and create spaces where they can contribute, collaborate and shape cultural initiatives
together.
The project explores how culture can become a space for youth work, participation,
volunteering and community building, connecting young people with local communities,
organisations and the wider rural territory.
THE IDEA
Echollective will bring Entroterraneo Festival, an independent cultural and music festival
developed in rural Liguria, as a real-life case study. Rather than presenting a model to
replicate, the Training Course will use Entroterraneo as a starting point to explore how
cultural initiatives can create opportunities for young people, strengthen local communities
and become meaningful tools for youth work.
Together with experiences from other European organisations, participants will analyse
different approaches to:
- rural cultural youth work
- youth participation and empowerment
- volunteering and active involvement
- co-design and youth-led initiatives
- community building
- inclusion and cultural diversity
- local stakeholders and young organisations
The goal is to develop practical methods and approaches that participants can adapt to their
own organisations and territories, while exploring how culture can connect young people,
local communities and rural areas.
PARTNERS
We are looking for European organisations working with young people that organise cultural
events or activities in rural areas, or are interested in developing them in the future. We are
particularly interested in partners who can contribute their own experiences, practices and
perspectives to the project. The concept is intentionally open: the final methodology and
programme will be co-designed with the partner organisations