LEAP – imparare a partecipare: Achievements and (new) plans during a time of public health crisis
The LEAP project – co-financed with the support of the Erasmus+ Programme (Strategic Partnership | Youth) – promotes youth empowerment through the experimentation of Project-based learning (PBL) in non-formal education. It aims to stimulate skills development and encourage youth participation.
The current public health crisis and the measures to slow the spread of COVID-19 have had a significant impact on our project: Unfortunately, our three LEAP mobility projects scheduled for April and May 2020 have been postponed. Three groups of young people were supposed to travel from Austria to Germany, from Italy to Croatia and from Croatia to Italy. However, the partnership is already working on a new plan for carrying out the mobility projects at a later point. We are closely monitoring current development regarding the COVID-19 situation and the measures which are taken by the European Commission and the National Agencies. We remain hopeful that we will be able to carry out these projects soon, giving mobility participants a chance to deepen their understanding of participation and how they can make an impact in their communities.
Meanwhile, the partnership has remained busy working to deliver the project’s objectives and aims. Check out what we’ve been up to during the last six months…
Trainings for youth workers
The Covid-19 pandemic did not stop our partner organisations’ staff from organising trainings for youth workers. Following the successful trainings carried out by Sapere Audere and University of Vienna in Vienna (November 2019) and by Udruga mladih “Mladi u EU” in Šibenik (December 2019), three further trainings for youth workers were carried out in 2020:
- In March, the University of Hannover hosted an exchange on promoting participation and empowerment through youth projects.
- In April and May, CSC – Danilo Dolci organised two trainings for youth workers for two different groups: beginners and experienced. Both trainings were organised virtually due to the Covid-19 emergency.
The trainings gathered participants who are active or interested in youth work, enabling them to gain knowledge about the LEAP Project and the Project-Based Learning (PBL) methodology as well as participation and civic education through non-formal activities and interactive exercises
…What else?
The partnership took advantage of the past months to continue working on a pedagogical booklet on Project-Based Learning, the elaboration of a PBL Methodology for youth workers and education professionals as well as a guide on how to organise a mobility project. Furthermore, the partner organisations CSC – Danilo Dolci and Udruga “Mladi u EU” worked on preparing guidelines which will support the partners and the young participants of the upcoming LEAP mobility projects in drawing up a Charter on Participation from the perspective of young people.
Transnational Project Meeting in Šibenik
The Third Partnership Meeting, which would have been scheduled in June, could not take place in Šibenik as planned. Instead, the partnership continued working on the project’s outputs and discussed about future plans during a series of Partners’ Online Meetings.
Next steps
- The partnership will continue the elaboration of a Pedagogical Booklet, the PBL Methodology and the Charter on Youth Participation.
- We remain hopeful that the LEAP mobility projects will take place later this year. 45 young people from Austria, Croatia and Italy will have the opportunity to spend six days abroad to deepen their understanding of participation and develop their personal skills.
Our web channels
Don’t forget that you can find more information about the project, the PBL methodology and other project-related topics on our Facebook page or on our Blog.