Building social bridges and sense of community of all youth through the co-creation of leisure activities.
Context
In the face of recent social changes caused by the ongoing conflicts and the current global political context, the importance of social inclusion among youth has now become vital. The ongoing conflicts at a global level are changing the social fabric of communities across Europe, and have forced people from the affected countries to leave their home and seek their own place in society and in a new environmental, where cultural and linguistic differences can initially represent an obstacle to the sense of community. At the same time, the COVID-19 pandemic, its successive crises, as well as the current energy crisis, are forcing more and more individuals and families to live in vulnerable conditions. Teenagers and young adults are among the most affected groups, as they are under supported for regional and national programs and face difficulties to connect with their communities.
In such a context, community representatives, as well as support and organization staff, if guided and empowered, play a vital role in enhancing the sense of belonging among youth and in facilitating networking and collaboration for them and with them.
The offer of sustainable and engaging leisure activities offered by the representatives and support staff from local communities can empower youth to participate more, as well as to build social bridges through a co-creative process, where youth become the agents to build a sense of community.
Objectives
- To collect and share the stories of teenagers and young adults living in vulnerable conditions relating to their inclusion process within the local communities, and identify the shared experiences;
- to emphasize the strengths and resources regarding to diversity and inclusion of community representatives, organisations, and support centres, and guide them to provide sense of community among youth;
- to build social bridges between youth with migration background and youth without migration background through common interests and shared goals;
- to empower youth to make valuable connections with people having potential to change communities;
- to facilitate a co-creative process to identify meaningful and inclusive leisure activities appropriate to the needs and requirements of the youth as well as sustainable for the communities.
Activities
- Literature review to identify key themes in building social relationships among youth people, and participatory research action methods such as digital storytelling or Photovoice, and needs-analysis completed by support and organization staff to share their experiences on community participation, conveyed in an evaluation analysis;
- two types of workshops – Defining your group and One Voice – aimed at building connections within their groups between youth and organization staff;
- co-creative workshops to identify, plan and implement activities.
Resources
- A Literature Review Report
- Interactive map of contextualized narratives related to the personal challenges lived by youth within the local communities
- A collection of case studies from each partner country
- Report and advisory plan generated by the Youth Advisory Board (YAB)
- Guidelines of the inclusive co-creative process for target groups involved
- Booklet containing all the good practices of the target groups during the process of planning and implementation of the activities
Impact
- Involved teenagers and young adults living in vulnerable conditions relating to their inclusion process within their local communities, and identified shared experiences;
- improved the understanding of community representatives, organisations, and support centres on the strengths and resources regarding diversity and inclusion of youth, and engaged with them in providing sense of community;
- encouraged social bridges between youth with migration background and their peers without migrant background through common interests and shared goals;
- facilitated a co-creative process in finding inclusive leisure activities, based on the needs and requirements of the youth as well as sustainable for the communities.
Partners
- UC LIMBURG (Belgium, coordinator)
- LAUREA-AMMATTIKORKEAKOULU OY (Finland)
- CESIE (Italy)
