Info Pack

for Applicants

European Citizenship
in Youth Work
2011-2012

Co-ordinated and monitored by the SALTO-YOUTH Training and Co-operation Resource Centre in co-operation with the Partnership between the Council of Europe and the European Commission Organised by the network of National Agencies of the Youth in Action Programme and the Partnership between the Council of Europe and the European Commission Financed by the Youth in Action Programme of the European Commission with support from the Partnership between the Council of Europe and the European Commission
http://www.european-citizenship.org

Table of contents
Why European Citizenship? Participants Aim and objectives Main themes Educational approach Programme What to bring? Entry points for reading and discovering more ... Perspectives Perspectives Perspectives Perspectives Perspectives and programmes of the European Union and programmes of the Council of Europe of youth researchers of practitioners of the civil society

European citizenship:
an intercultural training course
Why European citizenship?! There are many ways to look at and think about European Citizenship. Would you like to explore some of them? Then you have chosen the right course to exchange and further develop your ideas together with your fellow participants, trainers and resource persons! This training course was developed to encourage the development of a critical, democratic and creative European Citizenship as an active social, political and cultural role to construct a shared Europe and in doing so, to support the implementation and quality of the Youth in Action Programme of the European Union. The promotion of European Citizenship has been a long-standing priority of the Council of Europe and European Union alike. Violations of human rights and the increasing change of patterns of political participation all over Europe are only two of many developments that have brought the two big European institutions together to work on European Citizenship. This co-operation between the Council of Europe's Directorate of Youth and Sports on the one hand and the European Union's European Commission on the other hand happens in the framework of a partnership with the following aims: to make young people and multipliers aware of human rights and the common values European citizens share and to provide them with the skills and tools to enhance their activities in this context, to train, at transnational level, youth workers and youth leaders as well as other multipliers in the youth field, and to sustain and widen networks of youth workers and youth leaders; to promote the understanding of and respect for cultural diversity and intercultural co-operation. The Youth in Action programme of the European Commission has made European Citizenship a key priority by aiming to "promote young peoples active citizenship in general and their European citizenship in particular."

Participants
Committed youth workers, youth leaders and other multipliers from programme and nonprogramme countries from extended Europe isnt it a unique opportunity to share experiences and visions of the future of Europe?

Aim and objectives

The European Union and the Council of Europe support and organise a great variety of different educational activities, publications and websites on European Citizenship through instruments like the Youth in Action programme or the European Youth Foundation. Some activities are run by the institutions or their partnership directly, but the majority is implemented in co-operation with partners such as non-governmental organisations. All of these activities are developed and put into practice with the vision for participants to develop a sense of time, space and place in contemporary Europe, the skills and motivation required to be active agents for democratic change while participating in the building of Europe and to provide the knowledge to make informed and future-minded choices within this context. Among the entire variety of courses, workshops, training days and courses all over Europe, this course has a particular role to play as the central training course on European Citizenship by the network of national agencies of the Youth in Action programme. It puts into practice Priority 1 European Citizenship of this Programme by aiming to support the professional development of youth workers and youth leaders by extending their critical understanding of European Citizenship, by exploring and experiencing the potential of the notion of European Citizenship, and by enabling them to recognise and integrate European Citizenship in their youth work. The training course has five objectives to realise this aim, namely to:
critically explore the meaning relevance and implications European citizenship in

youth work in all its dimensions;

promote and facilitate the active use of programmes and structures in support of

youth work on European Citizenship, including the Youth in Action programme;

experience and explore the potential of European Citizenship for active democratic

change in society;
associate the participants with the current discourse on European Citizenship (its

concepts, formal meanings and expressions);

exemplify the connection between European Citizenship, Human Rights, Democracy

and Intercultural Learning and the underlying values.

Main themes
What is European Citizenship? How can it be used in youth work? What is the political relevance of the concept? Europe and European identity: What does it mean to be European? How European are young people today? Where does Europe come from? How does European citizenship relate to other transnational identities, such as global citizenship? European Citizenship in Action: What does it mean to be an active citizen at local, national or international level? Are young people active citizens? How can youth work encourage active citizenship of young people? Dilemmas around European Citizenship: Why and how should someone be a critical European citizen? What about the world? How can European citizenship become reality under different social, political and economical circumstances? European Citizenship and Democracy, Youth Participation, Human Rights and Intercultural Learning: What are the connections between these themes, practices and concepts and European citizenship?

And most importantly: How to be youth in Action: How can European Citizenship be approached in youth work? How can the Youth in Action Programme and other European programmes support youth work on European Citizenship?

Educational approach
Our training will address European Citizenship in youth work and all connected issues by means of non-formal learning, based on your experience, your motivation, your needs and your own learning objectives. Non-formal education and learning is different from formal education or spontaneous informal learning. It means for instance, that you are at the training course because you wanted to yourself, and not because anyone told you that you have to be there. It also means that you are responsible for your own learning, while the team and the group support you. And it certainly means that your feedback is valid and important and will be used to improve future training courses. And, let's not forget that non-formal learning also means facing a challenge, experiencing and learning to cope with quite a bit of stress, but also lots of fun!

Programme
You can see how the programme flow translates into a structure for the training course. If necessary and adequate, this structure might be adapted by the team of your course dependent on your learning needs.

Arrival Day Monday

Day 1 Tuesday

Day 2 Wednesday

Day 3 Thursday

Day 4 Friday

Day 5 Saturday

Morning Session

Introduction to the ECTC

European Citizenship

Complexity and ambiguity of the European Citizenship

Dilemmas around European Citizenship

European Citizenship in our youth work Follow up

Afternoon Session

Europe and European identity

Free Time Local Reality

European Citizenship and Youth Work

How to Youth Action?

be in

Youth Pass Evaluation

Welcome evening

European evening

Open evening

NGO Agora

Dinner out

Farewell party

What to bring
There are a number of things we would like you to bring along for the training programme as well as the informal moments of our week. They are all equally important and we would like to ask you to not only read through the list but to also bring the stuff along:

a)

some examples of your youth work and materials (posters, leaflets, photos,

magazines, podcasts, videos, CDs...) for a small and humble exhibition during the NGO Agora. This Agora should express and visualise how your work is/can be connected to European citizenship. Please focus on good practice (actions, projects), obstacles or unresolved problems, and future plans or offers for co-operation of your organisation in relation to the key aspects of European Citizenship, such as participation or citizenship actions.

b)

a typical taste of your town/region and the story associated with it. We will share the

stories and taste the food/drink during the common European evening on our first full training day. Please dont bring too much and note that it is not possible to cook or heat food at the training centre!

c) d)

your artistic skills! Can you play the guitar, sing, dance? Have you got any hidden some cool pieces of music and games from your country or region or anywhere else.

talents? Impress us! Imagine 25 people from all over Europe, a stereo, a room, the need to dance, and a long night ahead... You see?

e) endless amounts of good mood and motivation for work and leisure! f) any dictionaries you might require; g) an alarm clock and the loading cable of your mobile; h) any insurance you might consider good to have (health insurance for

a foreign country

for instance or a luggage loss insurance or third liability or or). Unfortunately we cannot provide any of these.

i) shampoo, gel, toothpaste, swimming suit, etc. (but you dont need to bring towels)

Thank you! Very much indeed :)

Again: should you have any questions, suggestions, problems or proposals - please do not hesitate to contact us at any time (simply use the email address from which you have received this infopack!). We will respond as quickly as we can!

European citizenship:

entry points for reading and discovering more...

Our own web-portal for all things European Citizenship http://www.european-citizenship.org Perspectives of the European Union General presentation of the policy concerning the citizenship of the European Union, established by the Treaty of Maastricht in 1992, can be found here: http://europa.eu/scadplus/leg/en/s18000.htm Youth Investing and Empowering new EU strategy for youth policy 2010-2018 was adopted in 2009. Summary: http://ec.europa.eu/youth/news/doc/new_strategy/eu_youth_strategy.pdf The White Paper on Youth, followed by common objectives for several policy areas, is an important document for the future of young people and their citizenship in the European Union. It was published in 2001 and can be downloaded at: http://ec.europa.eu/youth/youth-policies/doc26_en.htm http://europa.eu/scadplus/leg/en/s19003.htm In 2006 the Commission adopted a communication on youth participation and information in view of promoting young people's active citizenship. It is available at: http://register.consilium.europa.eu/pdf/en/06/st14/st14471.en06.pdf The Commission has established a website to debate the future of the European Union as part of their Plan D Democracy, Dialogue and Debate at: http://europa.eu/debateeurope/index_en.htm And the European Youth Portal including information on active citizenship: http://europa.eu/youth/index.cfm?l_id=en Programmes of the European Union The European Union runs a programme to bring Europe closer to its citizens called Europe for Citizens. More information about the programme is available at: http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/citizenship/index_en.htm The Youth in Action Programme addresses young people specifically. One of its thematic priorities is European Citizenship. More here: http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/static/en/youth/index_en.htm http://ec.europa.eu/youth/yia/index_en.html Perspectives of the Council of Europe The Council of Europe has gathered extensive experience through its programme on Education for Democratic Citizenship. More information is available at: http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/education/edc/ The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities in Europe (CLRAE) has adopted a resolution on the role of young people as citizens as well as a European Charter on the Participation of Young People in Local and Regional Life, introduced here: http://www.youth-partnership.net/youth-partnership/ekcyp/BGKNGE/Participation Making democratic institutions work is a project of the Council of Europe that has developed proposals on reforming democracies throughout Europe. Read more at:

http://www.coe.int/t/e/Integrated_Projects/democracy/ European Citizenship through diversity, human rights and participation that was the claim of the Council of Europe's campaign All different all equal. Find out more at: http://alldifferent-allequal.info/ Programmes of the Council of Europe The Council of Europe's Directorate of Youth and Sport offers youth NGOs the possibility to hold residential educational activities at their European Youth Centres in Strasbourg and Budapest. The European Youth Foundation (EYF) is a fund established in 1972 by the Council of Europe to provide financial support for European youth activities. Discover possibilities at: http://www.coe.int/youth/ Perspectives of youth researchers One good place to start exploring the findings of (youth) researchers is the European Knowledge Centre, a virtual platform gathering plenty of research documents on European Citizenship. To receive the latest documents and most recent research, use the search engine to look for documents on citizenship and European Citizenship: http://www.youth-partnership.net/youth-partnership/ekcyp/index Perspectives of practitioners A good place to start reading about European Citizenship in youth work practice is the Partnership's T-Kit Under construction European Citizenship that brings together historical contexts, political discourses and theoretical models with European youth work. You can download the T-Kit from: http://www.training-youth.net/INTEGRATION/TY/Publications/tkits/tkit7/index.html Perspectives of civil society There are many non-governmental organisations that have contributed to the discussions on European Citizenship through their work and their discourses, their thinking and their practice. Our selection is limited and not more than an entry-point please explore further! Search engines will overwhelm you when entering European Citizenship... Enjoy! Speak out! on European Citizenship http://www.citizen.org.uk/speakout/about.html Networking European Citizenship Education NECE www.bpb.de/nece European Citizens' Initiative http://www.citizens-initiative.eu/ European Youth Forum http://www.youthforum.org/ European Citizen Action Service ECAS http://www.ecas.org/ Active Citizenship Network http://www.activecitizenship.net/ Civil Society Network http://csn.uni-muenster.de/civil-society-network/english/index.htm World Alliance for Citizen Participation http://www.civicus.org/ Civil Society and the Making of European Citizenship

http://www.cinefogo.org/ Involve The Participation Organisation http://www.involve.org.uk/