On December 11-19, INEDNET Staff member Anna co-facilitated the “Together for Dialogue” youth exchange, which took place in Kaunas, Lithuania.
The main objectives of the project were to empower young people to engage in civic activities within their communities and raise awareness about inclusive dialogue in the public sphere.
The youth exchange was part of an Erasmus+ “Together for Dialogue” long-term project aiming to enhance civic participation and dialogue between young individuals and decision-makers. Project organizers were ECYC “European Confederation of Youth Clubs” and FEIO “Fundacja Europejski Instytut Outsourcingu”, and the hosting partner in Kaunas was the local youth NGO “Aktyvistai”.
Active youngsters aged 17-25 coming from 6 different countries spent a week together in the festive (pre-Christmas) atmosphere of Kaunas City Old Town to create, compete, develop and have fun while exploring the topics around civic participation in non-formal education settings.
The program was composed of diverse educational activities while being flexible enough to adjust and accommodate participants’ interests and expectations. Role-play simulations, solving brain teasers and brainstorming ideas in groups were some of the interactive methods used to travel through the concepts of civic participation and dialogue (such as the Ladder of youth participation) and to foster the development of relevant competencies among the participants.
Besides the sessions, the program included a study visit to a local Youth Center and to Kaunas Municipality, where the participants had the chance to learn more about Youth councils and the supporting structures for youth engagement in community decision-making.
The participants also had a chance to complete a gamified self-assessment that helps evaluate youths' level of civic competences (based on the Framework of Civic Competences). Following this, the group actively engaged in creating reels for Instagram and TikTok as a tool to raise awareness and promote civic participation among young people in the digital domain.
What’s more, the evenings were full of positive surprises, such as attending a basketball match by the country’s top basketball club Žalgiris, and an impressive musical concert by Martynas Levickis, one of the most prominent accordion soloists worldwide.
Towards the end of the project, the group organized a big flash mob in Kaunas Market Square as a creative demonstration of civic participation among youth.
With a bonus knowledge of the Experiential Learning Cycle, the participating youngsters feel equipped and enthusiastic to implement follow-ups after the project spreading the knowledge among other youngsters in their local communities.
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