How to empower youth to become engaged & make an impact on policy? http:// www.youthmetre.eu Professor Karl Donert, President EUROGEO
How to empower youth to become engaged & make an
impact on policy?
http://www.youthmetre.eu
Professor Karl Donert, President EUROGEO
Five Key Areas
• European Youth Strategy (EYS)• Review of EYS policy and literature• Power of information • How well are countries doing?• YouthMetre Project
Eurobarometer Surveys• Examined active engagement of youth
http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/flash/fl_408_en.pdf
Increasingly distanced from policy making and decisions
Political background• Calls to increase youth participation from
all sides – young people, politicians, policy, decision-makers, and youth representatives
• Address negative perception amongst many young people that their inputs do not have any effect on policies and decisions – decreasing engagement
Current situation• online participation – enables potential for
mass engagement across social / economic groups
• relatively small numbers of young people (only hundreds) involved
• more complex engagements have even smaller numbers
European Youth Strategy• EU Youth Strategy, agreed by EU
Ministers, sets out a framework for cooperation covering 2010-2018
• EU Member States have overall responsibility for their own youth policy (subsidiarity) i.e. not the EU
European Youth StrategyEYS has two main objectives:•Provide more and equal opportunities for young people in education and the job market•Encourage young people to actively participate in society
European Youth Strategy
• Education & training• Employment &
entrepreneurship• Health & well-being• Participation
• Voluntary activities• Social inclusion• Youth & the world• Creativity & culture
EYS indicates initiatives in eight areas:
Education & Training
• shapes place of young people in the world• EU policy lacks power of enforcement • resistance to country performance targets• youth activities are also non-formal• policy on recognition of youth work• innovative approaches, not widespread
Review of policy and research
Employment & Entrepreneurship
• smart, sustainable and inclusive economy• youth employability a key policy objective• policies should link to needs of youth• transition from education to the workplace • more entrepreneurship education• but, little evidence of what works
Review of policy and research
Health & Well Being• advantages of a healthy lifestyle • links to inclusion and employment• some policy aims to reduce risky behaviour• big differences between countries• promotion of physical activity• healthy education policy: drugs, sex, alcohol
Review of policy and research
Participation• policies encourage participation• increasingly low levels in youngsters’
socio-political involvement • impact of mass media and Internet• need to involve youth in creating policies• capacity building processes important
Review of policy and research
Voluntary Activities• voluntary activities a form of social action • based on free will, choice and motivation • citizenship construction• needs efficient volunteering infrastructures • disseminate information on opportunities • regular and systematic research important
Review of policy and research
Social Inclusion• young people most affected by exclusion• multidimensional issue• policies to fight exclusion and poverty• combat feelings of uncertainty and alienation• shift from state to civil society / individuals• competences for Democratic Culture (CoE)
Review of policy and research
Youth & the World• globalisation impacts on life chances of young
people – identity, citizenship, work • example: effects of migration flows • need to consult youth• require proper global education to construct
global identity• remove barriers to integration: radicalisation
Review of policy and research
Creativity & Culture• culture stimulates creativity and opportunity• close links with digital technologies• impact on education, training, employment • based on communication and cultural
consumption• fuelled by multilingualism and mobility• young people disadvantaged
Review of policy and research
How well are EU countries doing?
http://ec.europa.eu/youth/dashboard/index_en.htm
monitoring and accountability
How well are EU countries doing?
http://ec.europa.eu/youth/dashboard/index_en.htm
transparency and open data
How well are countries doing?
http://ec.europa.eu/youth/dashboard/index_en.htm
How well are countries doing?
uses commonly agreed Social Indicators for monitoring progress towards EU 2020
Objectives
http://ec.europa.eu/youth/dashboard/index_en.htm
How well are countries doing?
http://ec.europa.eu/youth/dashboard/index_en.htm
How well are countries doing?
http://ec.europa.eu/youth/dashboard/index_en.htm
How to empower youth to become engaged & make an
impact on policy?
http://www.youthmetre.eu
http://eryica.org/page/principles-online-youth-information
Youth and Information• era of big data, open data, monitoring • Information pre-requisite: decision-making• empowering young people to identify and
campaign for policies they need and want
http://eryica.org/page/principles-online-youth-information
Principles for Online Youth Information (ERYICA, 2009)
• based on the needs of young people• understandable for young people and
presented in an attractive way for them• prosumerism - young people consume and
produce content• encourage feedback opportunities• increase information literacy skills
http://eryica.org/page/principles-online-youth-information
Forward Looking Project• create a ‘forward-looking tool’ for youth
participation (what Europe do we want?)• based on Education; Training; Youth (ETY)• identifying, testing, developing, assessing
new innovative approaches in ETY• innovation in practices and policies for
Youth, by Youth
Forward Looking Project• In-depth evidence and knowledge - effective
methodologies / tools for systemic innovation
• Potential of long-term impact – mainstream advanced innovative policy approaches
• Stakeholders having impact on policy, Improvement / development of new policies
What are the EC Targets?
• enhancements to existing processes, or completely new and innovative ideas
• sophisticated engagement + large numbers of young people
• scale up from local and regional engagement to national and European
YouthMetre• proposes and field-tests an innovative
solution in the youth field – the Youthmetre• multiplier training (youth workers)• guidelines and practical examples for
policy makers (under OMC)• YM tested and disseminated • in at least …. 20 countries
YouthMetreIndications of:•perceived needs of European youth for key areas in the EU Youth Strategy (Study Groups)•capacity of European public bodies to put youth initiatives in place in line with the perceived needs of youth and with the consideration of the EU Youth Strategy
Study Groupshttp://youthmetre.eu/study-groups/
YouthMetreKey features:•a dashboard of European data on Youth•a database of good practice initiatives put in place by European public bodies, as perceived by young Europeans•a high profile launch event •training of multipliers
Example data dashboard
The YouthMetre
Map of relative success of youth policy
5 features1.YouthMetre Index2.Data dashboard 3.Good Practices4.Map of Indicators5.Youth preferences
The YouthMetre
Map of case studies from database of good practices
Data visualisation for country / region
The YouthMetre
Data dashboard of young people’s perceived needs
Map allowing analysis of Youth Policy indicators
Review available data • Obtain ‘reliable data measures’ of indicators for
the Youthmetre Index• 26 datasets on Youth found on the EU Open Data
portal, January 2016 http://tinyurl.com/zhxwa53• Eurostat data and surveys http://tinyurl.com/jlhkfxp • Eurobarometer e.g. http://tinyurl.com/o4rqemt • EU dashboard http://tinyurl.com/hz5f5fa
Summary of data issues• Need to get young people’s perspectives – i.e. the
relative importance data sets are to them• To present change – data must be regularly
collected • Best to have not too much data, but good data and
meta data (reliability)• Need training for users – about visualisation and
using data
http://knowto.org/ym/
http://arcg.is/1TAbmn7
YouthMetre Partners
Web: http://www.youthmetre.eu News http://tinyurl.com/YouthMetre1Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @youthmetre
Conclusions• Very challenging …. using education to
influence / change policy• Wide-reaching pilot … scaled up• How to reach target groups?
youngsters, local authorities, NGOs• Comments / questions ?
Karl [email protected]
@karldonert@eurogeography