Call for Young Service Designers

Join the YSD community! 

Become a Young Service Designer

Are you willing to network with other young people, exchange opinions, best practices, obtain information on your community and opportunities in your city, contribute to the work of the city to design services for young people, and meet and debate with city’s decision makers and politicians? You are welcome to apply to join the Young Service Designers (YSD) network!

The project in brief:

YSD is an European Youth Together funded project coordinated by Consorzio Comunità Brianza in Italy and it involves partners from Finland, Germany, Greece, Poland and Slovakia. In each country, one partner youth organization liaises with one Municipality, which is the local site for experimentation of YSD actvities.  

YSD project aims to support young people (16-21 y.o.) through a civic education and engagement approach fostering their competences and offering them the opportunity to experience a real participation in local decision-making to rethink their cities and public spaces.

It will do so through a heterogeneous set of activities, including the delivery of a Capacity Building Programme for Youth Activation targeting 20 young people (the Young Service Designers) in each country, focused on service design, especially on the generation of services in the post-Covid society.

After attending the Capacity Building Programme, the Young Service Designers will activate the Youth Public Innovation Labs, starting from September 2022, and they will put in practice and prototype the “service(s)” designed in the previous phase. The cities and the project’s Youth Workers will support young participants during the entire project’s lifespan.

Who?

You can apply if you:

• You are between 16-21 years old
• Resident in partnering areas, namely Lombardy Region Italy, Berlin Germany, Athens Greece, Bratislava Slovakia, Lublin Poland and Helsinki Finland.  
• Have a good level of English (Asset)
• Willingness to work in intercultural environments;
• Being part of any youth organisation, political organisation or volunteers in various social-related issues (Asset);
• Be available for full participation in all phases of the YSD project, especially:
• Attendance to the Capacity Building Programme, foreseen for the period May – June 2022
• Active participation in the Youth Public Innovation Labs, consisting of round tables with local authorities to co-design public services for the regeneration of neglected or under-used public spaces in the city involved in the project;
• Willingness to test and pilot the co-design services with the support of the Municipality and the local community.

• complete the application form and submit it by 22 April 2022.

Candidates will be selected on the basis of the quality of their application form and with an eye to ensuring balance in terms of gender.

Why?

Benefits:

• to experience a real participation in local decision-making to rethink their cities and public spaces.
• to learn how to deal with your city and advocate for your ideas;
• to become a changemaker able to identify solutions and co-design services, with the support and the collaboration of other young people and the local public administrations
• to network with other young service designers from your city and from the EU partnering countries – Germany, Greece, Finland, Poland and Slovakia either online, or offline,
• to network with other young people in Europe. During a hackathon event 5 young participants will be selected after the training and they will take part of a first peer-to-peer learning event in Lublin (Poland) in September 2022
• To exchange experiences with other young people in Europe. Other 5 young participants will be selected and will take part of a second peer-to-peer learning event in Finland in November 2022.
• to obtain the LEVER UP Certification of transversal competences gained during the project. This will recognize your skills and can increase your employability.

In addition, all the Young service designers will have the opportunity to participate in various communication activities related to the programme: interview, video, contest.

​What?

• The YSDs programme 2022 will be delivered during the European Year of Youth.

Main structure of the programme:

• Design thinking: a brief theoretical overview of design thinking and its application for policies and services.
• Conducting Design Research: introduction to design research methods and principles, a brief overview of ethnographic, user, and market research techniques and their application.
•  Interviewing and Observing: guided practice in conducting interviews and making observations.
•  Mapping Ideas to Needs – guided practice
•  Modeling, Experimentation and Rapid Prototyping: guided practices to put into practice ideas and solutions

• Bringing local administration closer to young people

The YSD programme will help you to build bridges between your city and region and the EU, will give you inspiration on how to foster democracy, and will allow you to find ways of involving other young people in democratic discussion and in local life.

• Building resilient communities 

Under this topic, the YSD programme will give you a deeper insight on how to contribute to improve services for young people in the city and it will inspire and be inspired by the projects of other YSDs in Europe regarding youth inclusion, practical tips for climate advocacy and civic engagement.

When?

• The 2022 YSD training will last until June, with activities scheduled throughout the month of May and June.

Then you will become a candidate to participate to the European selected event in Poland.

• From September to December 2022 the trained Young service designers will participate to the start of Public Innovation Lab to experience a real participation in local decision-making to rethink their cities and public spaces.

Then you will become a candidate to participate to the European selected event in Finland.

• From December 22 the new service will be tested and launched and you will be engaged to experience the new idea together with your team!

• Additional activities/events might be added throughout the year.

Where?

The events will take place online and offline, in partnering areas (Italy, Germany, Greece, Slovakia, Poland, Finland)

​How?

Please find below the application form. Stay tuned and don’t forget to follow the project’s Facebook and Instagram pages.

Pre-selected candidates will be interviewed via conference call.

Information about the results of the application procedure will be given to all candidates no later than 1 May 2022.

In case of withdrawal of one or more selected candidates, those ranked immediately lower will take their place. Also, in this case, admitted candidates will receive e-mail communication.

​How much?

Allowances are not granted for participation in online or offline events and activities.

​Young students selected for the events in Europe will be reimbursed for travel ​and subsistence costs.