SEARCH FOR PARTNERS

SEARCH FOR PARTNERS

Dear Partner, Lombardia Region filed and won a project - YET, Youth Enterprise Tourism, through a call from Youth in Action.
Partner with the Region of Lombardy were LaFucina and Betania, two social italian cooperatives.
What was YET?
Here you can find a brief description – from the descriptions form presented by Lombardia Region.
1. YET
a. Tourism is, for Europe, an industry that creates about 10% of global turnover. Tourism is a sector that, by its nature, can affect a variety of professions and can, if properly oriented, create new job opportunities and be an important factor for sustainable territorial development, primarily for the host community.
The project presented here, means to promote in the young people living in Lombardy a reflection on their territory as well as share ideas and projects with their peers from other European nations and create opportunities to make attractive and therefore enjoyable their territory to other young people.
Last but not least, we hope that the project will promote in young participants a desire to invest their professional lives in the protection and promotion of their territory.
b. The project will develop a National Youth Meeting with people active in youth work and youth organisations and those responsible for youth policy about “Youth and social-ecological - sustainable tourism ”:
c. Laboratories, debates and active participation of youth about a relevant topic for European Union: sustainable tourism. The project will create a non-formal education path on environmental issues with 60 students of 3 areas of Lombardy.
d. The activities involve the use of active methodologies for the realization of this participatory planning workshop for young people on issues of sustainable tourism for the collection and definition of guidelines created by young people themselves.
e. The project will develop on-line communications conducted by young people who serve as editors, promoters of the processes of participation and sharing of information through the use of new technologies and social networks (google map, you tube, face book, web 2.2 ... etc)
f. The project will enhance cross-sectoral dialogue and cooperation between formal and non-formal education areas trough the creation of a working group of operators which will define the methodologies and share best practices among formal and non formal education agencies involved.
g. At the end of the laboratories the young people will meet the policy-makers or experts in the youth policy field and prepare guidelines that can be considered for further work about social-ecological - sustainable tourism at a European level.

General objective of the operation

The project meets the objectives of the Youth in Action and the priorities of 2011
1) inclusive development (encouraging projects to increase young people's awareness of personal responsibility against poverty and marginalization, promoting the integration of groups with fewer opportunities);
2) youth unemployment and promoting the active involvement of unemployed young people to society
3) sensitization and mobilization of young people on global challenges (sustainable development, climate change, migration, Millennium Development goals)
4) creativity and youth empowerment
5) development of entrepreneurship of young people celebrating their originality and creativity

Specific objectives and expected results

Encourage the values of responsible living in young people and develop an active European citizenship
Give training and expertise opportunities for young people at European level. (The project will also involve young people at risk of marginalization and exclusion.)
- Creation of guidelines and suggestions made by young people on issues of responsible, sustainable and ethical tourism.
Draft of a European brand of "quality tourism", to be approved at European level, to promote sustainability standards and to strengthen the European identity in young people.
The project will be very important to promote Expo 2015 and to prepare young people for the opportunities Expo 2015 will bring in Italy an especially in Lombardy.

Operation’s activities and expected results

Involvement of three regions of Lombardy develop of socio-environmental -tourism in Lombardy: promote history, food, wine, identity and tradition among young people and those active in youth work and youth organisations and those responsible for youth policy. Prevision of Expo 2015.
Implementation of the Activities for young:

workshops with young people (17-25 years old) for four months (30-40 hours) between October 2011 and June 2012. The activities involve the use of active methodologies for the realization of this participatory planning workshop for young people on issues of sustainable tourism. As an example, drama, photography, role playing, communication techniques, problem solving techniques. The workshops will be developed by an animator / educator who will bring through non-formal and active method a new knowledge of positive and negative approaches to the environment and territory.
The workshops will be developed mainly in areas with fewer possibilities.
The activities will improve the personal growth of young people. The activities will experiment new on-line communication. Young people will be editors, promoters of the processes of participation and sharing of information through the use of new technologies and social networks (google map, you tube, face book, web 2.2 ... etc)

Specifically, this action will achieve the following results:

• Involvement and information for all students interested in Italy and potentially around the world;
• Registration of the fan page on Facebook, upload photos, videos and other content units from users on the Facebook page;
• Upload a video channel on YouTube;
• Set up and upload content on other channels activated

Final event: National Youth Meeting about “Youth and social - ecological - sustainable tourism.

As you can see at www.youthideas.eu, - I apologize because it is not yet translated into English - the response of the young people was excellent. We had many more participants than we had expected, we had experienced a good methodology and young people have produced many interesting ideas to animate a territory.

WHAT WE WANT TO DO NOW????
NEXT STEPS

In cooperation with the Lombardy Region, we will present two new projects and we are therefore looking for partners who want to work with us to implement these projects.

THE NEXT TWO CALLS

a. Action 4.3 - Training and Networking of those active in youth work and youth organizations about “Youth and social-ecological - sustainable tourism”
a. The project will develop a action 4.3 Training and Networking of those active in youth work and youth organizations about “Youth - enterprise and ecological - sustainable tourism”.
b. This sub-Action supports the training of those active in youth work and youth organisations in this field, in particular project leaders, youth advisers and supervisors in these projects. It also supports the exchange of experiences, expertise and good practice between those active in youth work and youth organisations, as well as activities which may lead to the establishment of long-lasting, high quality projects, partnerships and networks.
c. Why a Training Cours? An educational learning programme on Youth - enterprise and ecological - sustainable tourism”, aims to improve participants’ competences, knowledge, skills and attitudes. Training courses lead to higher quality practice in youth work in general and/or, specifically, Youth in Action projects.
d. During the training course the partners will choose if they want to participate to Action 1.3 - Youth Democracy Projects – with a Focus on the “Youth, enterprise and social-ecological - sustainable tourism”.
b. Action 4.4 - http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/youth/funding/2012/call_action_4_4_en.php
a. With this action we aim to work and share best practices on community development - including tourism purposes.
b. We think that the central action of the project should be searching and sharing a common methodology

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR?

We are looking for partners – NGO or local and regional public authorities - working with young people or in the development of local communities to be partner with us and with the Lombardy Region for both call.
We believe that there is the possibility to create a good and shared model for development and that this can bring wellness and tourism to local communities and create jobs for young people.
If you are interested, we ask you to urgently contact us to work together for these two calls, that should be submitted by September and October 2012.
Thank you for your cooperation.

Fabrizio Pozzoli presidente@betaniaonline.org
Elisa Rota elisarota@lafucina.org