The Hub of Young Citizens: Enhancing Youth Active Participation

Looking for educational institutions, public authorities ONLY! Preferably with previous KA2 Project experience!

Young people across the world, specifically in the European Union and India are encouraged and have the right to take part as active citizens in creating the communities they belong to, locally and in society at large. However young people are often referred and seen as “citizens in the making”, “future leaders” and are never fully integrated and actively engaged in solving socially relevant problems contributing in creating the society at large. Putting youth at a distance from decision making relevant to a community fosters youth to become disengaged and/or disinterest in being active citizens. Additionally, young people with fewer opportunities, specifically from migrant and refugee backgrounds and/or rural areas often experience further barriers that prevent their participation and contribution in solving community relevant issues and creating a youth-friendly community.

Currently, mainstream academic education across Europe and Asia, specifically India, lack practical training and focus on creating actively engaged and entrepreneurial mindset among youth aged 13-19. Teachers of rural educational institutions often lack expertise, motivation, and commitment to foster youth participation and/or to facilitate their idea execution to solve a socially relevant issue. The Public Authorities governing the public schools often fail at creating nurturing support systems for educational institutions to create programs as part of the curriculum creating youth as problem solvers encouraging active participation.

The project aims at connecting public authorities governing rural educational institutions across Europe and India to establish “The Hub of Young Citizens”.

The Hub would serve as a physical and a virtual place aimed at actively engaging youth to become community problem solvers. The Hub builds capacities of youth, specifically focusing on practical training to identify a problem, to create a realistic, sustainable solution and to facilitate impactful execution.

Creating a nurturing environment offering possibilities for youth, specifically with fewer opportunities, to impactfully participate can build a strong sense of ownership and belonging of a community and foster active participation. Communities, society at large can greatly benefit from the rich diversity and creativity of today's youth.