YOUng people STANDing OUT through the promotion of local heritage in rural areas

In the EU, youth from rural areas experience scarcity of formal and informal education and training, lack of employment prospects, climate-driven pressures on land and other resources, and geographical isolation. This project has as the main objective the strengthening of young people’s key competences and sense of initiative, with a particular focus on those from rural areas and who are NEETs.

Start date: 01/03/2022      End date: 01/03/2024

Project Code: 2021-2-IE01-KA220-000051251

EU Grant: 256.385,00 EUR

Programme: Erasmus+

Key Action: KA 2

Action Type: Cooperation partnerships (Youth)

Project PARTNERS:

• Meath Partnerhship [IE] (Coordinator)
• NGO Nest Berlin e.V. [DE]
• TANDEM PLUS [FR]
• REZOS BRANDS ANONYMI EMPORIKI ETERIA IDON DIATROFIS [GR]
• The Polish Farm Advisory and Training Centre not for-profit Sp. z o. o. [PL]
• QUALITY CULTURE SRLS [IT]
• CSI CENTER FOR SOCIAL INNOVATION LTD [CY]

Project TOPICS:

• Digital skills and competences
• Youth employability
• Youth policy development

TARGET GROUPS:

• Young people (18-29 years old), especially NEETs living in rural areas
• Youth workers
• Local organisations, particularly cultural/heritage centres and NGOs
• Public authorities addressed by the Policy Recommendations on Youth initiative in rural areas.

Project OBJECTIVES:

• Activate processes of social inclusion, increasing employability and active participation of young people supporting the promotion and development of rural areas.
• Increase the capacity of youth associations in rural areas to trigger social change through participatory processes and active citizenship.
• Raise awareness of young NEETs issues and their potentiality to propose feasible solutions to improve their territories

ABSTRACT:
This project aims to address the above-mentioned problems, having as a main objective the strengthening of young people’s key competences and sense of initiative, with a particular focus on those from rural areas and who are NEETs. The first specific objective is to facilitate their entry in the labour market and the creation of new figures supporting the promotion and development of rural areas; to do so the project foresees to provide them with social media marketing skills making them become the protagonists of the promotion and enhancement of local heritage, such as culture, food, artefacts, built and natural environment. Youth empowerment will positively affect local rural communities, which will benefit from the “social ripple effect”. The second specific objective is to raise awareness of NEETs issues and their potential solutions through families, local communities, organisations, public institutions and SMEs.

Project OUTCOMES:

(1) E-learning platform

(2) Training for trainers toolkit on digital marketing skills for the promotion of rural heritage and active citizenship

(3) Lesson learned and policy recommendations