The ‘Young Service Designers’ (YSD) project has been co-funded by European Youth Together (EYT) Sub – programme of ERASMUS+ Programme – under Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency – EACEA (GA n°624732). The project started on 15th May 2021 and will run for 24 months under a consortium of 6 partnering organizations.
YSD project’s main objectives are the followings:
- Boost hyperlocal structures for tackling local specific challenges, putting the youth at the centre of the renewal of their cities.
- Engage – connect – empower young people to play a more active role in their local community.
- Engage young people as co-designers and doers of pilot actions for tailoring public services.
- Strengthen authentic democratic activities in 6 cities.
- Include disadvantaged groups.
- Build a sustainable and green Europe.
The YSD project will address these objectives by targeting young people (16-20 y.o.), youth workers, cities & local administration. The approach is meant to involve young people to propose sustainable and innovative solutions for their cities, with the support of the local administrations and youth workers.
Youth workers will experiment new methods and acquire knowledge and skills to attract the interest of young people in active citizenship and to stimulate their desire in proposing solutions for tackling local challenges.
Youngsters will acquire new capabilities with YSD, providing them with the necessary tools to become active citizens and to participate in local decision-making.
Stakeholders such as public authorities, schools and universities, enterprises and local organizations will be involved in the activities and informed about the new methodologies experimented.
The project follows the approach and the methods of service design applied to the public sector.
The main result of the project will be the YSD Toolkit created at the end of the activities, through which stakeholders working with the youth in the EU can improve the quality of their services to young people and to carry out new projects and activities to promote active citizenship among young people and raise interest in policies.
More specifically,
Young Service Designers’ (YSD) scope is to boost hyperlocal structures for tackling local specific challenges, putting the youth at the center of the renewal of their cities.
YSD aims to support young people (16-21 years old) 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 towards healthier streets, revitalised buildings and more resilient neighbourhoods.
YSD takes inspiration by the UPSHIFT programme created by UNICEF: an experimental learning for social innovation to help young people unemployed and NEETs.
As tangible results, the project will have:
- 18 youth workers in 6 EU Countries (IT, EL, SK, DE, FI, PL) trained to mentor young people
- 120 young people (20 per country) acquiring skills as YSD in a 40 hours training
- 6 Youth Public Innovation Labs at local level
- 6 Pilot Services co-designed by young participants (at least 1 per country)
- Involvement of civil servants from the cities supporting YSD
- Creation of an E-learning Collaborative Platform
- Elaboration on a Toolkit for “Young Service Designers and Cities as partners and allies”
Through the envisaged activities, the project aims to fulfil the following outcomes:
- To enhance democratic processes. Representative democracy is strengthened when young people become active in their communities. Young people’s right to participate is closely linked to freedom of expression and the right to information.
- To improve decision-making. Participation leads to more accurate, relevant decisions, which are better informed and more likely to be implemented and owned by those concerned.
- To let young people, participate in the decision-making process. Young people are experts on their own challenges and circumstances, and on ways to reach others their age.
- To improve services in the post-COVID era. Consulting with young people enables services to be improved and adapted to meet changing needs.
- Boost hyperlocal structures coordinated by young people to support communities in a more inclusive landscape.
