The Project: Living Solidarity Alliance

The general aim is to increase the ability to work more effectively, with a focus on solidarity, with young people, and to find new inspiration on how solidarity can be more present in our society.

Referring to the recent developments on the youth policy level in Europe and the challenging situation of young people in Europe (Covid19, unemployment, rising of populism, climate crisis), the partners of the project want to contribute as NGOs to the development of a strategic and systematic support structure to empower young people to participate in activities with a solidarity focus.

The Guidebook

The Guidebook “Living Solidarity Alliance In Practice” sets out methods for inclusion, participation and community building.

“How can solidarity become more present in our activities? What can we do to develop a sense of solidarity in our communities through youth work? This manual practically implements the methods and approaches that we have developed or adapted while searching for a deeper understanding of these questions. We have collected expert knowledge of already existing methodologies and created new ways (often in cooperation with other local organisations) to share the methods bringing more solidarity into our everyday activities. Some of the essential values in life are human bonds and continuously learning about ourselves and the world around us. Through various methods, including shorter and longer interactive experiences, we encourage reflection on universal values and the role of different aspects of solidarity in our life.”

The 3 dimensions of solidarity – inclusion, participation and community building – may serve as orientation points for you and your organisation to find the methods that best respond to your needs at the moment.

The methods are presented similarly with some key points: the connection with solidarity; the aim and target group; step by step how it works and how the methodological work needs to be applied; materials and tools required; experience of participants or possible options.

_______________

Living Solidarity Alliance Website
Facebook page
Contact: living.solidarity.alliance@gmail.com

Partners of the project:
Associazione di promozione sociale Joint
PANGEYA Ultima
Arte Ego
CABUWAZI
Tandem

Read also

Project Results: How non-formal learning supports education policy – Time 4 Tea

Project Results: BEYOND VISIBLE

L'articolo Guidebook: Living Solidarity Alliance In Practice proviene da Youth Networks.

Such questions may find an answer, or multiple answers, looking at running European projects: what is the idea of solidarity behind them, how they have been created, what is their impact on society, how they “measure” solidarity.

Solidarity in European Projects

Hereby three articles that analyze solidarity projects and their impact on society:

1. Jekatyerina Dunajeva – “Trans-border Solidarity: Romani Movement towards a Stronger Europe“; Jekatyerina Dunajeva is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Pázmány Péter Catholic University’s Department of Political Science. In addition, Katya is also a Researcher and Program Manager at Central European University’s Center for Teaching and Learning (Erasmus+ project).
2. Gilles Buffet -“Solidarity within the European Solidarity Corps“; Gilles Buffet is the European projects coordinator at CRIJ Grand Est (Regional Youth Information Center of Grand Est), implementing European voluntary projects since 2007.
3. Peter Mitchell – “A Bridge to Inclusion: Empowering Marginalised Target Groups Through Solidarity Projects“; Dr. Peter Mitchell is a cultural historian, experienced non-formal education trainer, and co-founder and Executive Director of Lernlabor.

Europe Talks Solidarity

The Resource Center of SALTO carried out a serie of events focusing on solidarity, with the aim of gathering expertise on solidarity, creating a space for discussion and highlighting different angles and perspectives. 

The work goes under the title “Europe Talks Solidarity“.

There are several publications and materials as a result of such events, open to download. For example, the comprehensive report on Europe talks solidarity.

One of the main priorities of the Resource Centre is to contribute to a common narrative on the concept Solidarity within the Solidarity Corps Programme and beyond. They aim to stimulate thinking about solidarity, its relevance in Europe and in international youth work and hope to motivate actors to engage and act in solidarity in, with and through their projects.

Read also

Erasmus Plus Programme Guide 2022 Just Published

European Solidarity Corps: Get Inspiration For Your European Project!

L'articolo The Meaning of Solidarity in European Projects proviene da Youth Networks.

The partners of the project are:

• Citizens in Action
• Xarxa CooperaSec
• STRANAIDEA
• Kaleido’Scop
• Nexes
• Confcooperative Piemonte Nord
• Unis-Cité

The Project

The overall objective of the project is to visualize the social impact of entrepreneurship initiatives in SSE, especially those ones promoted by young people.

According to that, SSEds wants to:

• reinforce methodologies to accompany young people in entrepreneurship in SSE, especially those with fewer opportunities;
• strengthen the competences and visions in SSE so that young people can undertake initiatives in their communities;
• elaborate new tools for SSE, fruit of a collective creation;
• create instruments for the evaluation of the social impact of SSE initiatives.

Over its duration, from January 2020 to December 2021, the partners of SSEds have elaborated 2 intellectual outputs:

• a “Toolbox on values, sustainability and social impact of the ESS“
• a “Training Module to approach young people to the ESS“, with focus on the social impact of the ESS

Toolbox on Values, Sustainability and Social Impact of the ESS

The “Toolbox on values, sustainability and social impact of the Social and Solidarity Economy” intends to provide SSE actors, who guide and educate (mostly) in sustainable and value-based SSE activities, a user-friendly system of classified SSE tools/methods. These tools/methods should be useful, at different stages and with different purposes and target groups, to guide young people towards their entrepreneurship in SSE.

Part of the Toolbox, the Imp’Act tool guides the user through building their own social impact assessment of an SSE project or initiative. It grounds on the values and principles of SSE, but it is applicable to all kinds of social projects and initiatives, also outside the SSE field.

Training Module to Approach Young People to the ESS

This training module provides concrete educational approaches to focus on social impact, for young people who are in the process of creating an SSE project. Overall, it aims at maximizing the potential for social transformation of future SSE initiatives.

“On a train to social impact” grounds on the principles of non-formal education and is a resource for facilitators that support young people in their educational path towards Social Solidarity Economy.

Outputs’ Objectives

Such outputs have been created for the benefit of young people and the actors of social and solidarity economy who want to deepen their knowledge over the topic and to train themselves on the social impact.

Read also

TOSCA – Online Training for Youth Organisations of European Solidarity Corps

L'articolo Toolbox on Values, Sustainability and Social Impact of Social-Solidarity Economy proviene da Youth Networks.

To endorse and enhance the great success of European Solidarity Corps, back in 2018 the European Commission launched a proposal for the 2021-2027 budget period to be discussed among the EU member states. It was a stand-alone programme for Phase 3 of the European Solidarity Corps.

The proposal included:

• Increase the budget for the European Solidarity Corps to €1.26 billion to allow at least 350,000 young people to participate;
• Make the volunteering activities in support of humanitarian aid operations (EU Aid Volunteers scheme) part of the Solidarity Corps.

The evaluating process continued on November 2018, when the Council approved a further discussion of the matter, starting the negotiations with the European Parliament, which effectively began in October 2019.

Now the Council and the European Parliament have just reached a political agreement on the European Solidarity Corps programme for 2021-2027. They agreed a budget of €1.009 billion, covering at least 270k young people engaged in societal and humanitarian challenges as volunteers or by setting up their own solidarity projects.

This means that beyond 2020, the ESC will continue to be a meaningful opportunity for youth, allowing to develop new precious skills and promote the European values of freedom, equality, democracy and human rights. The programme supports the following actions:

• Volunteering in solidarity activities, addressing societal challenges (people aged 18-30), plus
• Humanitarian aid related solidarity actions (people aged 18-35).

The provisional agreement provides also that the implementation of the activities should address unforeseen circumstances such as pandemics, environmental crisis and conflicts. The international organisations, public or private, have access to the programme as long as they received the ESC quality label. The activities are open to the member states, plus third countries when applicable.
Finally, the voluntary solidarity activities may take place in the country other than the country of residence or in-country, especially for young people with fewer opportunities. Concerning the humanitarian aid actions, they may take place in third armed conflict-free countries.

There is still a next and final step: the European Solidarity Corps 2021-2017 programme needs the approval of the Multiannual Framework by the European Parliament and EU member states to turn into force. This is the later stage of the decisional process.

Read also
What’s new in the 2020 annual work programme of Erasmus+?

L'articolo European Solidarity Corps 2021-2027: Political Agreement Reached proviene da Youth Networks.

The conference takes place online on Facebook Live. The date is Wednesday 9th December 2020 at 3 pm (UTC+01 time) and lasts till 5 pm.

The initiative Introduction Day of “Step into solidarity” is part of the broader KA2-strategic partnership project “Living Solidarity Alliance”. The aim of the project is creating learning opportunities for youthworkers. Moreover it follows the purpose of designing together the intellectual outcomes in the form of researches, along with videos, podcast-series and guidebooks. The conference focuses especially on how to implement the Solidarity focus in the local Youthwork.

The schedule of the conference is:

1. Introduction:

• Getting to know each other
• Short Preview over the project and its main objective
• how to get involved

2. Map of Expertise:

• Presenting different dimensions of solidarity: youth policy, disability, refugees, rural areas
• share the different directions of possible solidarity actions
• meet in small groups the best practices and listing the areas of interest, finding common dimensions

3. Space for Developing Partnerships

• present and discuss different possibilities for NGOs/experts/individuals to contribute and join the project

4. Final discussion and Conclusions & next steps

Several organisations have already confirmed their participation. Among them Associazione Joint, that is hosting online the Annual General Meeting of the informal network right before the online conference.

To register go to the online form and for any question contact living.solidarity.alliance@gmail.com.

Read also
Annual General Meeting of the Informal Network – Associazione Joint

L'articolo Introduction Day of “Step Into Solidarity” – Online Conference proviene da Youth Networks.