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Description
Young people today live with increasing social and economic inequalities and poverty and are exposed to environmental and social justice issues. Many of the climate and environmental challenges create a disproportionately higher burden on disadvantaged groups. Disadvantaged communities are also under-represented and do not participate in the decision-making process.
In Malta, there are young people who do engage in democratic processes to shape the future they want, but many are still left behind. Young people can feel alienated and this alienation further deepens with limited opportunities for active citizenship.
This project provides a platform for more inclusive democratic and civic youth engagement in decision-making by creating a structure to engage marginalised youth in intersectional cooperation for development of joint actions towards a socially just and ecologically fair future.
The project will create a Youth Hub that offers a recreational environment through which a youth worker can work with 16- to 25-year-olds to come up with initiatives that enhance their potential. The Youth Hub will also engage in various community activities.
A safe space will be created by the young people involved to ensure that all youths have an equal voice regardless of gender, race, religion, beliefs, sexual orientation, disability, social and economic backgrounds.
The specific objectives of the projects are: to build competencies of disadvantaged young people using project-based and experiential learning around environmental and social justice topics; to enable young people to create local, decentralised action collectively in their own neighbourhoods and be agents of positive change; and, to empower youth to take part in structured political discussions.
The main beneficiaries of this project will be young people from the disadvantaged and underrepresented areas of Marsa, Floriana and Hamrun.
Summary of project results
Youths from disadvantaged communities are under-represented in decision-making fora, do not tend to engage in democratic process and lack opportunities for active citizenship.
This project provided a platform for more inclusive democratic and civic youth engagement in decision-making. It created a Youth Hub that offered a recreational environment through which a youth worker interacted with 16-25 year olds to come up with initiative to enhance their potential. Through this Youth Hub a safe space was created for young people to create local, decentralised action collectively in their own neighbourhoods and be agents of positive change.
82 young people from disadvantaged areas participated in the Youth Hub. Over the course of the project 30 sessions were held covering a range of themes including migrants and working conditions, environmental justice, sustainability, gender, patriarchal societies, LGBTQI+ rights, food sovereignty and cultural diversity, mobility and sexual health. Each theme was introduced, debated and and explored through critical thinking. The participants'' recommendations were presented to relevant government representatives and local authorities.