Overview
ACTIVE EUROPEAN YOUNG CITIZENS' WEEK project focus on the creation and implementation of a CONNECT European NETWORK with several national, local and regional activities culminating in a European activity, a EUROPEAN YOUNG CITIZENS' WEEK in May 2001. The project will address the promotion of european citizenship through civic and democratic education.
Firstly, the project intends to focus on the promotion of active European citizenship while building on national and/or regional citizenship involving schools, initial and in-service training institutions, universities and European associations active in the field of school education.
Secondly, the project also wants to partly link up with the second action line of the CONNECT budget line by contributing to the dissemination of outcomes achieved in the field of European citizenship within the framework of EU community programmes. The use of NICT will play an essential part in the project. They will be the means of communication among partners and source of information as well. Besides videoconferencing is contemplated as one of the important actions. Internet and web pages will also be one major means of disseminating the outcomes of the project.
Thirdly, the project also focusses on elements of the third action line as it intends to give particular focus to the role of parents and local authotities in enhancing citizenship and thus, fighting violence, racism, xenophobia and anti-Semitism and promoting the integration of all disadvantged groups which is a basic element of citizenship.
Finally, the project also considers the possibility to create leisure educational activities such as role games with participants in three different countries. These activities will create opportunities for youngsters and pupils to develop active citizenship either at local, regional, national or European level.
- To organise a European Young Citizens' Week around 9 May 2001 to enhance reflection and action on active European citizenship across several transnational projects of different EU programmes.
- To organise and set up, at national and regional level, in each of the countries involved, events which give a particular focus on active European citizenship.
- To organise within all schools, universities, teacher education institutions, associations, local, regional and European bodies or associations, several events which highlight active European citizenship.
- To develop with a core group of partners, referred to later as the scientific committee, a manual on how to implement European co-operation focussing on active European citizenship with particular attention to enhance co-operation with partners linked to different EU co-operation programmes.
- To organise in each of the partner countries a national seminar focussing on the achievements of transnational co-operation projects focussing on active European citizenship.
- To disseminate outcomes of projects at local, regional, national and European level through very concrete action towards the press and other media.
- To publish the outcomes of the national seminars and/or other events in a written form and put all this information on the website.
- To put on the website the descritpion of the active citizenship projects set up or run by all the partners.
- To organise at European level a competition related to active European citizenship enhancing every possible form of creativity of youngsters and pupils.
- To involve artists and craftsmen in the different initiatives to be launched in general and in the European competition in particular.
- To promote concrete competencies, skills and attitudes with all those involved.
- To promote NICT skills in particular using the internet.
The target groups of the present project are very diverse:
- Initial teacher trainers and in-service teacher trainers; it is indeed hoped that the project will lead to concrete outcomes which can enable initial and in-service teacher educators to integrate into teacher education elements and activities in the field of active citizenship and can make them more aware of the potential of the different EU programmes to enhance active European citizenship.
- Schools with pupils, teachers, heads and other educational staff; it is hoped that through the CONNECT project, examples of good practice in the field of active European citizenship can be disseminated throughout the schools involved but also towards many other schools specially using the NICT means available through SCHOOLNET EUNET.
- Parents: it is hoped that through the CONNECT project many parents and parents' associations will be made aware of the great potential there is in all the different European co-operation projects to enhance, on the one hand, active citizenship but also, on the other hand, autonomous learning and lifelong learning as all future citizens have to be lifelong learners.
- Senior education advisors, inspectors, local, regional and national educational authorities; local and regional authorities. The project also hopes to make clear to those groups that there is an important added value to European co-operation projects in terms of active European citizenship and that those transnational projects enable pupils and youngsters to acquire knowledge, competencies, skills and attitudes which are an important part of all education and training.
- Members of the European Parliament, members of the Commission, members of European and international organisations; it is indeed also the intention of the organisers to make Members of the European Parliament and members of the Commission and members of European and international organisations fully aware of the important work which has taken and is taking place within the framework of the several EU programmes for education, training, youth and culture and NICT and research.
- The public at large and the local community: it is indeed the intention of the project to give a large visibility to all the EU initiatives of pupils and youngsters in the field of active (European) citizenship, to make the public at large aware of the importance the European Commission, the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament attach to such initiatives.