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Description
Young people from rural areas are facing multiple problems and difficulties, which local and national authorities are not prepared to solve. Public policies are deficient when it comes to the development of young people from the rural areas and the youth sector in rural areas is almost invisible. At the local level, the local community and the authorities fail to respond in real time to the needs of the young people. Often, dialogue between these parties is lacking, and setting priorities for young people in the village is done without even a discussion with them.
The European Youth Village program aims to create this context of dialogue between community members and institutional actors of the village and to encourage the initiative from young people to other actors involved in the process, thus contributing to creating new opportunities for young people, but also influencing the public policies at local and national level.
European Youth VIllage is coordinated at national level in a co-management system by ADA and Go Free Association, with the involvement of youth organizations and the informal youth groups from the European youth villages network. Along with us, in the network, are the organizations that coordinate at local level the program in the villages that have received the title of European youth village. The program has a huge development potential, but the impact is limited due to insufficient resources and reduced organizational capacity of the two organizations coordinating the program.
Through this project, we aim to strengthen the capacity of the European Youth Village program to become a reference program for the development of the rural youth sector and to contribute strategically to systemic changes that support young people and the entire rural youth ecosystem in Romania.
Summary of project results
Through the European Youth Village project - a reference program for the development of the rural youth sector - the promoter proposed to strengthen the capacity of the European Youth Village (EYV) program, the organization''s program, to become a reference program for the development of the youth sector from the rural environment and to strategically contribute to systemic changes that will support young people and the entire youth ecosystem from the rural environment in Romania through sector coalitions, influencing and monitoring public policies and diversifying opportunities, resources and support tools for organizations and young people in the conditions in which, according to him, young people from the rural environment face multiple problems and difficulties, which the local and national authorities are not prepared to solve. Public policies are lacking when it comes to the development of young people from rural areas, in rural areas, and the rural youth sector is almost invisible.
Through this project, the Promoter mainly proposed: (1) to increase the degree of representation of the rural youth sector and (2) to diversify support measures, advocacy actions, resources, tools, development opportunities, and involvement in community life for a minimum of 400 young people and representatives of non-governmental organizations that work with young people from rural areas. As an organizational development objective, the Promoter sought to increase the organizational capacity of the Governess of the European Youth Village program.
To achieve these objectives, the promoter produced a complex report within Activity 3 that includes an impact analysis, an analysis of the organizational capacity of the Governess, structured interviews with young people and decision-makers, and evaluation tools. Starting from this analysis, within A4 the strategy of the EYV program and the organizations that form the governance of the program was developed and piloted by organizing 12 internal work and planning meetings to reach a common understanding of the long-term vision of of the program, to motivate the team members to get involved in the decision-making process regarding the future of the program. Within A5, a Report on the development, representation, and cohesion needs of rural youth groups and organizations was developed (it can be found attached to report no. 2); Within A6, the development and consolidation of the RITM Network was pursued and this sense the internal documents of the network were created, 18 online working meetings were held, public decisions regarding scholarships and the transportation of commuter students were monitored, a series of network events were organized through the involvement of over 100 members, an analysis was carried out with 6 strategic advocacy priorities of the network: https://europeanyouthvillage.eu/reteaua-ritm/, a new campaign to promote the call for registrations within the network being completed with 50 of new members. Together with the members of the network, the Youth Day of MR was organized between 29-30/09/2023, an umbrella event held to give visibility to the rural youth sector. Within A7, the status of the Rural NGO Platform was finalized, support was offered to informal groups from the rural environment in the community, and they were involved in advocacy actions at the national and European levels. Within A8, the Rural Summit was organized in August 2022. The Summit was the largest youth event in Romania dedicated to rural youth and brought together 160 rural youth, youth workers, and public authorities. local, county, and central; Through this event, learning and participation opportunities were developed for over 110 young people from rural areas from 19 counties, who became more active and better prepared to produce a change in their communities (http://europeanyouthvillage.eu/summitul-tinerilor- from-the-rural-environment-2022-we-upgrade-to-participation). During the event, a public policy proposal at the European level was developed (starting from the strategic directions of the White Paper of Young People in the Rural Environment) and a public Manifesto was facilitated by the young participants. Within A9, an advocacy plan was created for the period of the project, a Guide for the implementation of the White Paper of Young People in the Rural Environment a guide on "How to develop a youth strategy" and the draft of a regulation for the functioning of a Forum of youth in rural areas, to complete the package of resources for decision-makers. The guides, together with the White Book of Rural Youth, were sent by e-mail to rural mayors. Within A10, 10 online trainings (of 2 days) were organized with the participation of about 260 young people. The topic included - advocacy, digital tools, graphic facilitation, strategic planning, etc. Within the A11 - advocacy caravan, the promoter participated and organized 16 local events, 6 regional and 1 national event. During the events, the White Charter of the Youth of MR and the priorities of the youth were presented and the way in which these priorities will be transformed into concrete measures was debated. Activity 12 consisted of internal actions for monitoring and evaluating the progress of the project.
The project marked a milestone for the development of the European Youth Village program and the capacity of the organizations that form the Governance of the program to strategically contribute to the development of the youth ecosystem in Romania. It facilitated the transformation of the European Youth Village program into a benchmark program for the youth sector in rural areas by developing a strategic plan that considers the needs of young people and informal groups in rural settings, as well as the advocacy targets set at the Governance level; it strengthened the RITM Network and mobilized young people within the network to raise awareness about their challenges; it established the NGO Rural Platform, the first federation of organizations by and for rural youth; and it enhanced the quality of work with rural youth by developing specific skills among more than 260 young people and youth workers through 10 online training sessions. In 2022, we organized the Rural Youth Summit, the largest event in Romania dedicated to rural youth, and in 2023, we organized 24 events to highlight the priorities of rural youth from the White Charter of Rural Youth and over 50 other advocacy actions at local, county, national, and European levels; we were involved in the developing of the National Youth Strategy, we organized the first European Rural Youth Summit together with ANPCDEFP (a follow-up activity after the 2022 Summit), and developed a series of support documents to assist public authorities in implementing strategic directions from the Charter. In total, the project involved over 1310 participants, mostly young people from rural areas, as well as over 120 decision-makers, who recognized the importance of developing the rural youth ecosystem. The project and its donors enjoyed very high visibility, with over 350K people interacting online with the published materials.