The project

The Sustainability for Diversity Inclusion within Youth (S-DIY) project wants to promote mutual inclusion between ‘vulnerable’ and ‘non vulnerable’ youth groups by having them work together towards a common goal, such as the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the EU.

This objective is achieved by tackling two main tasks:

• foster the debate on mutual inclusion among different social groups of young people;
• strengthen their knowledge on the EU’s and global action towards environmental sustainability.

Sustainability DIY pursues several priorities of the E+ programme.  By training youth on the topic of SDGs and environmental sustainability, the project will strengthen their sense of initiative in the wider social field.

Young participants will be empowered through the submission of their debate’s results among international organizations. The submission of their innovative and change-triggering ideas on sustainability and inclusion   will result in a strengthened sense of ownership of global and the EU’s affairs. By providing youth workers and educators with a e-platform on best practices on how to promote mutual inclusion among different groups of young people, Sustainability DIY will contribute to the quality and innovation in Youth Work and its recognition at EU and global level, even if on a smaller scale at the present stage. The project will also support the inclusion in the labor market of the participants as it will give them the occasion to reinforce their soft skills such as cultural mediation, public speaking, critical thinking competencies, working in groups and debate. The document resulting from the young people’s debate will be submitted to some EU and UN decision makers through ad-hoc consultation channels to make more visible to the target groups the opportunities for people’s participation in democratic life, social and civic engagement.

The topic of sustainability and the focus on the SDGs will contribute to the raising of awareness on and understanding the EU context, notably as regards the common EU values, environment the principles of unity and diversity, as well as their social, cultural and historical heritage.

Activities

S-DIY Project is structured in three steps and activities:

• Platform for dialogue on environmental sustainability goals

The e-platform will be a collection of best practices on the EU and its external action on sustainability, UN/EU environmental policies, and the Agenda2030 + SDGs. It will also create an opportunity for the participants to share their thoughts and gather feedback from others.

The platform’s goals are raising awareness on EU sustainability policies;

• UN Agenda 2030, role of youth in fighting unsustainable practices both at micro and macro level;
• Young people being exposed to the concept of sustainability and brainstorm on how to implement the Agenda
• Young people increasing their fluency in foreign languages
• Young people being trained in sustainable practices
• Young people being invited to reflect on the contribution they can possibly give in racing a more equal and sustainable future.

The e-platform aim is to inspire young people towards EU and global citizenship and towards diversity inclusion and trigger a positive rebound on the European and international youth sense of EU citizenship, with a particular focus on the SDGs. The e-platform contributes to increase the number of young people from every background and their educators informed on EU’s role towards global sustainability and the SDGs, in addition to developing their soft skills and increasing the awareness of their importance as European esprit ambassadors.

• Public debates

Based on the contents of the e-platforms, the partners will organize public debates in their countries in the second year of the project in order to provide training opportunities for young people. The partners will give workshops to young people also involving their youth educators by using the contents of the E-platform about SDGs and EU active citizenship. The aim of these debates is so that the young people involved in the project can apply what they have learned on the platform and partake in experiential learning. Moderators will ensure the smooth running of each session.

The debates will result in:

• increased awareness of SDGs and European active citizenship for young people and youth workers;
• improved skills in public speaking, creative and critical thinking, presentation and other soft skills for young people;
• strengthened skills of youth educators in organizing activities for disadvantaged groups
• more inclusive and tolerant approach towards diversity;
• increased interaction between youth educators from different backgrounds;
• increased visibility on the importance of sustainable approaches in youth work.

• Final Conference

The final conference will allow the partners to reach this objective because experts in the field will be invited to speak and explain how to contribute to the SDGs and how to promote active citizenship.