“Open Campus” is a project designed by YEU, in cooperation with its member organisations and partners from different countries: Jongeren voor Uitwisseling en Begrip (the Netherlands), Toplum Gönüllüleri Vakfı (Turkey), CIM Horyzonty (Poland), Realization (Croatia), The National Youth of Slovenia, The International Roma Youth Network, The Federation of Young European Greens and The Future Firm Foundation. The project was implemented from January 2013 to July 2014 and involved young people from different parts of Europe with different social, economic and cultural backgrounds, therefore boosting their European citizenship and fostering mutual understanding between them.
The aims of the project were to: 1) raise awareness on social inclusion among young people and promote advocacy on social rights by using new media tools, 2) develop the competences of those wishing to work on social inclusion and marginalisation, 3) increase the participation of young people in advocacy on social rights for equal opportunities and inclusion.
Open Campus gave the opportunity to young people to be active participants in the process of improving their society’s everyday problems concerning marginalisation, social rights, young migrants, disabled youth, Roma communities and unemployed youth. Each partner organisation developed local youth initiatives based on its society’s needs, in order to promote social cohesion, equality, solidarity and tolerance among young people. As a result, those involved were encouraged to take on responsibilities, design creative activities, cooperate with each other and express their opinions and ideas with the help of experienced trainers. The project resulted in the creation of a manual called “How to use new media and social networking in youth work for advocacy purposes?”, which was created during several training courses that took place in Zadar (Croatia), Warsaw (Poland) and Strasbourg (France). The manual is divided into several chapters including: what is advocacy, social media, planning of campaign, producing content, networking, offline activities, results and evaluation of the campaign. It also includes several annexes on: internet governance, storytelling, liquid democracy and clicktivism. In addition to the manual, a policy paper was developed to address the problem of social exclusion of marginalised groups.
Overall, Open Campus provided guidelines, new ideas and approaches to the field of non-formal education and youth work thereby contributing to the quality of future youth activities and increasing the capacity of youth organisations on networking and developing virtual learning communities. For more information regarding the content and outcomes of the activities carried out, take a look at the following link (under the ‘media archive’ tab): http://opencampus.yeu-international.org.
The primary goals of the project are to:
provide knowledge and skills for young people on advocacy and policy making;
increase the involvement of non-organized youth and youth from different backgrounds by using new media and social networking;
provide a space for young people to express themselves and reflect their ideas, opinions, experiences particularly on social inclusion and social rights;
Following that, the project aims at:
developing a new learning platform model which facilitates the exchange of best practices, public debates, information sharing and learning;
supporting the development of local and international networks and increasing the cooperation and dialogue between organizations and public authorities;
contributing to the quality of local youth initiatives with respect to European perspective of youth work;
improving the quality of support systems for youth activities and the capabilities of civil society organizations in the youth field;
In addition, the specific objectives of Open Campus are first to provide innovative and creative tools for young people in order to support their non-formal learning, second to develop a manual on “how to use new media and social networking in youth work for advocacy purposes”, third to promote content development on inclusion by using audiovisual and multimedia tools among youth organizations and last but not least to develop digital skills of young people and provide good examples of the usage of new media for different objectives in youth work.
It is very important to mention that experiences in the field of work and real life will be linked to each other effectively through an online platform with the aim to foster cooperation in the field of youth work.
Moreover, the manual will constitute a useful resource for youth organizations which will provide guidelines, new ideas and approaches to the field of non-formal education and youth work and will further enhance the quality of future youth activities.
The target group of this project involves, first of all, the excluded/marginalized youth with fewer opportunities, young volunteers and non-organized youth.
But also, engages the youth and civil organizations interested in the matter.
Results of OPEN CAMPUS
bring innovative approaches and new practices on non-formal learning and social media by taking opportunities of internet and multimedia contribute to quality development in youth work with guidelines and networking reach marginalized and excluded youth, non-organized youth and increase the participation of youth with fewer opportunities an online platform which will be a learning and networking space for NGOs and young people in order to exchange knowledge and best practices a manual on how to use new media and social networking in youth work for advocacy purposes so that will increase the quality of local and international actions
an OPEN network will be established gathering together all interested stakeholders, especially youth and civil organizations interested in advocacy activities on marginalization and inclusion matters
