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Empowering Young People of African Origin for Political Participation in Europe

Activity
Program Area

Support for Policy Reform

Funded by the European Commission, Directorate General Education and Culture through Erasmus+, Key Action 3: Support for Policy Reform

Time frame of the project: September 2015 – June 2016

In the first two stages of the current European Commission’s ‘Structured Dialogue for Youth Empowerment and Political Participation’ with  the theme ‘Empowerment of Young People’ , it was stressed out that participation should be enabled for all young people, that their involvement should be appreciated and that particularly disadvantaged young people should be empowered for participation. 

In this project we aim to place a particular focus on empowerment and participation of young people of African backgrounds. This focus evolves from the finding that youth with African backgrounds so far have unequal chances for participation in societies of EU countries. Besides opportunities for participation in fields such as education, the labor market, entrepreneurship, culture and the media, this is particularly true for the political field. 

The project aims to consider the specific needs and potentials of youth with African backgrounds for enabling their equal participation chances, creating the structures that allow and appreciate their participation and empower them to take advantage of their opportunities for participation in European societies, and in particular in Germany and the UK

The main intentions of the project activities are to: 

  • Concretize the outcomes of the previous stages of the ongoing Structured Dialogue for the needs and potentials of youth with African background, 
  • Formulate recommendations on this basis for national and EU policy makers,
  • Plan a concrete action for empowering African youth in Germany and the UK for political participation through a follow-up project. 

The project activities include expert interviews and an online survey. The core part of the project are three transnational meetings among British and German youth with African backgrounds, as well as policy makers. 

The three transnational meetings in Berlin and London aim to:

  • Strengthen the participating young people in their awareness of potentials and opportunities of political participation,
  • Foster the participants’ awareness of the ongoing Structured Dialogue and reflect with them on the documents and resolutions so far developed in that frame,
  • Identify the specific needs and potentials of young people with African backgrounds for political participation and enrich the ongoing Structured Dialogue with resulting recommendations,
  • Empower the participants in their ability to communicate and discuss issues of relevance for them with policy makers,
  • Provide opportunities for the exchange of experience in political participation among African youth,
  • Provide opportunities for participants to network among each other and possibly finding ways of joint political participation,
  • Plan an action based on the developed recommendations which will be realized through a follow-up project.

Coordinator:

Farafina Institute e.V.

Contact: claudia.koehler@farafina-institute.org

Partner:

AKOMA Bildung & Kultur (German partner)

Contact: m.camara@akoma-bildung-und-kultur.de

Website: http://www.akoma-bildung-und-kultur.de/

African & Caribbean Diversity (UK partner)

Contact: brenda@acdiversity.org

Website: http://www.acdiversity.org/