Participation and Democracy in Europe” aims at giving the opportunity to youngsters from six different EU countries to explore, analyze, learn, share information and raise up their voice on topics such as democratic citizenship, active participation, and European citizenship. Through Non Formal Education activities and workshops, they will follow a path that will lead them to compare their views a
nd give clear and specific ideas on their understanding, needs, rights and duties connected with the topics of the project, learning from each others’ experience and putting it into practice. The main final product of the Youth and Democracy project will be a serie of videos and a short movie promoting the idea of democracy and active participation of young people, directly coming from the discussions developed during the workshops they attended, and representing a concrete output of the activities. It will be the youth itself to identify the topics of interest, brainstorm, and then design, write the plot, direct, film and produce all the video materials. The videos and especially the short movie will be translated and subtitled to be later on spread in all the participating countries, and in the internet through websites, online media and social networks, representing a useful tool for future work on the topic, encouraging the participation in the 2014 European Elections, and giving a powerful visibility to the European Year of Citizens and the Youth in Action Programme. The project will involve 300 youngsters, contributing to the growth of young active citizens, supporting the development of important and useful skills such as intercultural awareness, self confidence, entrepreneurship, teamwork, proactivism, participatory approach, and critical thinking.