Toolkit EMPOWERING RURAL YOUTH WORKERS FOR GLOBAL ISSUES

EMPOWERING RURAL YOUTH WORKERS FOR GLOBAL ISSUES

The Toolkitl EMPOWERING RURAL YOUTH WORKERS FOR GLOBAL ISSUES was created after the activity of the Erasmus+ project “OUR FUTURE STARTS TODAY”. The project was dedicated to informing and strengthening knowledge of youth workers about the interaction of global issues, their impact on youth, and especially on youth involvement in active social life in remote rural regions.The project activity took place in June 2022, where 34 youth workers, youth leaders and activists from partner organizations in Cyprus, Latvia, Poland and Norway participated.

During the project, Sustainable Development Goals, Youth Goals, their interaction and impact on youth were analyzed, as the achievement of these goals is directly in the hands of the youth and shapes our common future. The involvement of youth in achieving these goals, active participation in solving global challenges is vitally important already today. The involvement and inclusion of young people is extremely important already today, and youth workers need both an in-depth understanding of the SDGs and Youth Goals, as well as methods to more effectively involve young people in achieving these goals, with a special emphasis on young people from rural areas and remote rural regions.

in rural regions, young people have limited opportunities to actively participate in the life of society and cooperate together with decision-makers in solving global issues. Young people in rural regions often suffer from both economically unfavorable conditions and social environment, and are also limited in discovering their creative potential due to insufficient resources and awareness, as well as often due to the lack of active youth centers.

On the other hand, youth workers in rural regions often find that they lack knowledge and information about modern methods of inclusion and involvement of young people, as a result of which they are unable to interest young people and activate their participation in public life. Very often, youth workers, especially in rural regions, admit that they are not informed about non-formal education, its principles and methods.

At the end of the project activity, the partners and participants of the project shared the results of the project in their countries, emphasizing the interaction between the Sustainable Development Goals and the Youth Goals.

For youth workers, especially from remote rural regions of the Partner Countries, the issue of practical methods and easy-to-read materials about the SDGs, youth goals and related youth engagement methods became relevant.

Therefore, after the end of the project activity and guided by the discussions with the youth workers who both participated in the activity and implemented the project results dissemination events or attended them, the Partner organizations decided to develop a manual for the youth workers, which could make it easier for them to understand the principles and methods of non-formal education, would also become a reviewable resource with information about the SDGs and Youth Goals with practical examples of youth involvement in the field of Youth Goals implementation.

Duirng the winter 2022 and the spring of 2023, representatives of partner organizations from Latvia, Cyprus, Poland and Norway gathered information about the SDGs and youth goals, materials, non-formal education methods and practical examples of application, which could promote the awareness of youth workers in rural regions.

It has become a manual EMPOWERING RURAL YOUTH WORKERS FOR GLOBAL ISSUES, with the help of which, we hope, youth workers from rural regions will be able not only to familiarize themselves with information about the SDGs and Youth Goals, but also to get a practical idea of ​​how and what activities they can implement in its youth centers with its own resources to promote the inclusion of young people, their active participation in public life and solving global challenges.

The manual in English is available here: EMPOWERING RURAL YOUTH WORKERS FOR GLOBAL ISSUES

Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union, European Commission or Latvian National Agency (Agency for International Programs for Youth) neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.