How to empower youth to become engaged & make an impact on policy?

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: j.mahlerova@youthpress.org

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 Donerteurogeomail@yahoo.co.uk

@karldonert@eurogeography