UNITY OF DIVERSITY IS A
CULTURAL HERITAGE
ERASMUS+ YOUTH PARTICIPATION
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By implementing the project we managed to encourage our participants to freely express their views, contribute to and influence social decision-making on matters that affect them, and be active within the democratic and civic life of their communities.
The objectives of the "Unity in Diversity Is a Cultural Heritage" project are:
1
To ensure equal access to everyday decision-making for all young people from different backgrounds. We will also strive to improve the knowledge and willingness of the participants about community building and active citizenship. Our goal is to create an inclusive project aimed at youngsters of all types of communities and ethnicities living in the country and to empower them to take control of the matters that concern them.
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To provide youth-friendly, relevant, and comprehensive information, activities, and events that are tailor-made for young people with fewer opportunities, in order to enable youth participation and engagement. To introduce and increase education about Europe and the EU in a non-formal way.
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To ensure equal access to quality impartial and youth-friendly information about how the EU works, how to engage in it, and what opportunities it offers.
To ensure that young people have access to non-formal education to provide them with solid knowledge on political systems, democracy, inclusion, equity, and human rights, which is also attained through non-formal educational practices.
The project contained over 10 regular monthly meetings and 3 grand events, all aimed at the cultural diversity of the town in Sliven.
1
European Parliament Simulation
The first grand event of the project was dedicated to a two days (with apreparation) European Parliament Simulation. The event was led by Miroslava Madzharova- a youth worker and policy development advocate, that facilitated the event in a easy accessible and productive manner. The simulation was on the topic of “For and Agains Ukraine in NATO” and the participants were split into 7 different parliament groups, each of which voted considering their political beliefs and values. There were also few participants that played as journalists- documenting the experience regarding the party’s media which they represent
The simulation made the participants easily understand what are the different political groups in the EU parliament, what are their beliefs and how they represent them.
2
Hackathon
The second Grand Event of the project was a two days long hackathon, which took no sleep for the participants, in order for them to fully develop their social ideas on how they can reduce the discrimination and increase the tolerance in Sliven. All of the developed ideas you can find here:
There was a main prize for the winning team of the hackathon which was: attending an Youth exchange in Georgia
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Graphite of Unity.
The third event of the project was the painting and opening of the Graphite of Unity. This is the first of its kind graphite on the topic of tolerance and acceptance in the town. The art is painted by a professional graphite painter and with the support of our participants.
After the painting of the graphite the participants expressed willingness to make a special opening, where they were the hosts. Decision-makers from the town were invited as well as a musical operator. The participants created activities on diversity and acceptance and they presented it to the audience
Project Sumary
What we have achieved?
During the project we sucessfully managed to:
-To introduce and increase education about Europe and the EU in a non-formal way;
-To ensure equal access to quality impartial and youth-friendly information about how the EU works, how to engage in it, and what opportunities it offers;
-Our participants to learn about EU parliament and how does it work through an European stimulation event that we conducted. The stimulation of the EU parliament aimed to increase the knowledge and the understanding of our participants on how the EU structure works and increase their knowledge on the matter of Nato, Ukraine, the war, fake news and youth engagedment;
-The third main event of the project was the hackathon on the topic of youth participation and engagement. It finished with a pitch time, where the participants did a pitch in front of a jury;
-Graffiti Painting- The Symbol of Unity and diversity. Art has always had the power to unite people and to give them meaning, that is why we painted the graffiti which represents the need for unity, less discrimination, and more inclusion in our contemporary society;
-More youngsters to feel empowered and to be familiar with the phases of youth participation so they can continue actively participating, and taking part in various social causes long after the end of the project;
-We managed to strengthen the outreach of information to marginalized young people, to ensure they are aware of the opportunities, and experiences available to them, as well as an increased willingness of our participants to participate in other projects funded by the Erasmus+ program and increasing their motivation for taking part in future non-formal educational activities.
-To strengthen Academy for Active Youth, as a youth organization and its role in inclusion, youth participation, and non- formal education
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