EU offers great opportunities for young people around Europe through multiple programmes and initiatives such as: Erasmus+ projects, European Solidarity Corps Opportunities, DiscoverEU and more! Still, many young people report low levels of knowledge of the EU and its functions, they feel that they do not receive enough information about it and do not know how citizens can participate in the various programmes. On the other hand, even though young people generally support the EU, there are increasing levels of Euro-scepticism within society in general. For this reason, during the 6th cycle of the EU “Youth Dialogue – Youth in Europe: What’s next?” which took place in 2017/2018 with young people from all over Europe, 11 European Youth Goals were developed, to identify the main challenges that affect young people’s lives and contribute to realising their vision.
VISYON project was designed in this particular framework, with the specific goal to Engage, Connect and Empower young people across Europe by equipping them with a stronger sense of belonging to the European society, thus turning them into active citizens with highly important skills for the 21st century, such as media literacy and digital content creation. VISYON (Values, Ideas and Stories from Youth ON stage) is a European Youth Together project that aims to:
- ● Raise awareness among young Europeans about current EU youth policies and directly involve them in the political dialogue and decision-making process
- ● Foster active youth engagement and transnational solidarity
- ● Provide participants with transferable skills and attitudes on critical thinking and analytical capacity, as well as interpersonal competences such as communication, cooperation, democratic dialogue, conflict resolution
- ● Provide youngsters with a forum to discuss their needs and challenges and to contribute to the implementation of the 11 European Youth Goals.
By strengthening youth participation in Europe’s democratic life, the project addresses the EU need of building a better, greener, digital, and inclusive future through the direct involvement of young people and youth organisations. The project is based on an innovative approach, which will enable young people to share their opinions and recommendations for EU Youth Policies through short-movies creation. The project unites several NGOs from all over Europe, in particular:
- ● Entrepreneurship and Social Economy Group (EKO) from Greece – Project coordinator
- ● Fondatsia Za Predpriemachestvo, Kultura I Obrazovanie (FECE) from Bulgaria
- ● Centro Italiano Per L’apprendimento Permanente (CIAPE) from Italy
- ● VisMedNet Association from Malta
- ● yEUth from the Netherlands
- ● Asociatia Monomyths from Romania
- ● Youthfully Yours from Slovakia
- ● Amigos De Europa Leonardo Da Vinci (AELV) from Spain.
During the 24 months (March 2023 – February 2025) duration of the project, young people will take part in several engaging activities, such as:
- ● Local workshops in all the partner countries, to deepen their knowledge on the 11 European Youth Goals, Digital Storytelling methods, and principles of Media Literacy
- ● Creation of the European Youth Diary, by conducting interviews and collecting personal stories, opinions and advice of young Europeans regarding EU youth-oriented programs
- ● Scriptwriting workshops
- ● International Youth Mobility in Greece, where participants from all partner countries will meet to finalize their scrips with the support of professional movie making agency (Tanino Films from Italy)
- ● Short movies shootings.
Finally, VISYON foresees an impact analysis and maximisation phase, during which a Toolkit will be developed to provide youth organisations with effective methods and approaches to foster youth’s active involvement in society and equip them with valuable personal skills. The final project event will take place in Rome, Italy, where VISYON results will be presented. It will provide a space for direct dialogue between young people and decision-makers, as well as an opportunity to discuss the project results, along with youth policies.
During the project implementation, partners together with the local young people will create:
- ● The European Youth Diary – a compilation of stories, views, and recommendations of 264 young European citizens reflecting the current state of European policies’ efficiency to achieve the defined European Youth Goals
- ● Countries scripts for short movies, which will present the fictional stories, based on results collected through the creation of European Youth Diary
- ● Series of 11 short movies – one for each European Youth Goal – with the support of a professional production agency.
For further information about VISYON please visit:
VISYON website: https://visyonproject.eu/
VISYION Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/visyon_project/
