The Power Of Youth

Project Aim and Objectives

This project aims to support young people to channel their energy, creativity and aspirations and become political leaders and activists by building young people’s skills, knowledge and confidence while helping them more effectively express their voices, build relationships with political leaders, and breaking down socio-cultural and institutional barriers of youth participation and decision making in democratic political processes. In order to achieve this, the project is designed following an action plan for implementation that is based on three specific objectives that will help us to conclude the desired impact and results.

Specifically, this project intends to:

Build youth capacities and give them an opportunity to organize, voice their opinions and play a meaningful role in political participation and decision making, so young people can demonstrate their willingness and ability to foster positive, lasting change in their community. Also, they can become more likely to demand and defend democracy, and gain a greater sense of belonging.
To empower at least 30 young people directly in a training program by equipping them with proper skills and knowledge through non-formal learning methods and tools about youth participation and decision making in democratic political processes and how they can get engaged in their community.
To engage the training participants directly in the community where all their skills and knowledge learned regarding youth participation and decision making in democratic political processes will be transferred to their community members through awareness and information activities.

Project Phases

Training Implementation – This phase consists of the implementation of a 5 days training that will bring together 30 young people. The training aims to empower youngsters and will equip them with adequate skills and knowledge regarding concepts of youth participation, decision making, pluralistic democracy as well as understanding the negative stereotypes such as youth are lazy, apathetic and incompetent, inflexible, irresponsible, hate speech, discrimination, exclusion, etc. Through this training, participants will take an important role as promotors of the rights of young people to participate in politics, political leadership and decision making in their community. This will be achieved using non-formal method tools of learning that will make it possible for participants to get equipped with relevant knowledge about concepts and adequate skills about how to promote youth participation and decision making in democratic political processes in their community and especially with vulnerable community groups.

Follow-Up – In this phase, the trained participants will get engaged in their community with the aim to promote youth participation and decision making in democratic political processes and share their personal experiences as well as to ensure wide dissemination of the project results among young people. Participants will have space and the support to take action and carry out their own activities among young people in their community, such as in schools, universities, youth organizations, youth clubs and forums, etc.

This will be achieved mainly through online campaigning in the frame-time of at least three months as well as the implementation of at least three workshops in the field with the target groups. Participants will have also the chance to carry out their own activities that they may come up with and prepare during the training in the second phase.

Training Days

Day 1

We started today the 5-day training in the framework of the project “The Power of Youth” a pilot activity project supported by the European Youth Foundation of the Council of Europe and being implemented by the Youth Activities Center on a local level in the city of Durrës. On the first day of the training programme, participants had the space and the opportunity to: Get to know each-other and introduce themselves in groups through interactive exercises. Get to know to the Council of Europe and the European Youth Foundation as supporters of this project. Get to know the project topic, objectives and their role in community.

Day 2

The 2️nd day of the 5-day training programme for young people in the framework of the project “The Power of Youth” a pilot activity project supported by the European Youth Foundation of the Council of Europe and being implemented by the Youth Activities Center on a local level in the city of Durrës. The training program today was very productive and interactive for the participants where specifically the participants worked in groups on topics such as: What does youth participation in democratic processes mean to them Pluralistic democracy and leadership Understanding the current situation in community by sharing experiences and perspectives Youth as effective leaders for a democratic governance

Day 3

The 3️rd day of the 5-day training programme for young people in the framework of the project “The Power of Youth” a pilot activity project supported by the European Youth Foundation of the Council of Europe and being implemented by the Youth Activities Center on a local level in the city of Durres. The training program for this day was very productive and interactive where specifically the participants got informed about: Institutional and socio-cultural barrier Understanding the negative effects of stereotypes in the community Methods to break down the barriers and to fight the negative stereotypes Who is causing the setting of barriers

Day 4

The 4️-th day of the 5-day training programme for young people in the framework of the project "The Power of Youth" a pilot activity project supported by the European Youth Foundation of the Council of Europe and being implemented by the Youth Activities Center on a local level in the city of Durres. The training program for this day was very productive and interactive where specifically the participants: Learned about their role in the community and how can they change the situation Learned how to promote the right of youth to participate and to make decisions in democratic political processes Prepared the online campaign

Day 5

The 5️-th and the last day of the 5-day training programme for young people in the framework of the project "The Power of Youth" a pilot activity project supported by the European Youth Foundation of the Council of Europe and being implemented by the Youth Activities Center on a local level in the city of Durrës. The training program for this day was very productive and interactive where specifically the participants: Planned follow-up activities in community Gave feedback on the training Participated in the certificate ceremony

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Workshops

Workshop - Democracy in the 21st century and leadership

In this workshop the participants were informed about youth participation in democratic processes through different ways. Through non-formal education methods they managed to work in teams aiming to compare democracy then and now as well as point out the components that make it easier nowadays for youngsters to engage in a democratic system and be leaders of the future.

Workshop - Youth law

During this workshop the participants were informed about the existence of a law focused on youth engagement in community and their safety as a responsibility of many institutions. Through interactive exercises they shared ideas and worked with each other in teams aiming to find ways of how to address their problems to institutions.

Workshop - Youth participation in decision-making

During this workshop the participants learned about different ways young people can engage in community through taking initiatives and having an impact on other youngsters to do the same. Through interactive exercises they managed to work with each other and analyse topics we face daily aiming to understand the impact of being a good leader in the community.

Workshop - Leadership

During this workshop the participants were informed about the concept of leadership and the stereotypes of this topic due to misinterpretation. Through interactive exercises they managed to work with each other aiming to understand the impact of being a good leader in the community.