Europe@Home: European Civic Education through the mobile

This year has been disrupted by COVID-19 pandemic which has affected many areas of people’s lives and moved many professional and civic activities to the online sphere. Building on the Europe@School programme, the 18-months project “Europe@Home: European Civic Education through the mobile” aims to examine and further develop the practices of digital education that have been put in place in the wake of the pandemic, with a particular focus on European Civic Education.

Through desk research, innovative online and offline activities, JEF Europe will therefore take its twenty-years-old Europe@Schol programme to a new level by going digital and cooperating with different youth organisations to seek the good practices of digital education that have been practised in recent years and their successful usages during the Covid-19 pandemic.

In addition, JEF Europe will develop the digital competences and skills of its members and educators, as well as representatives of other organisations to work with digitally adapted tools and to become familiar with new digital elements as a new educational pedagogical support in the future.

The project consortium will be coordinated by JEF Germany and JEF Europe, with EYM Bulgaria, JEF France, JEF Malta and OBESSU as project partners.

Aims and goals

The aims of the project are thus: 

• Examine the opportunities for the implementation of European Civic Education through online educational platforms and study the approaches that different youth organisations have taken to online education during the pandemic and similar challenges in the past.
• Adapt a set of existing European Civic Education tools for online use in the different activities of the project and after its closure.

• Implement online European Civic Education activities at the local level in coordination with activities at the European level and collect lessons learnt.
• Offer space for learning and networking between different youth organisations from the local to European level.
• Create a Europe@Home manual – Europe through your mobile screen – gathering pedagogical methods and practical tools to implement online European civic education activities.

Main Activities 

Activity 1: Transnational project meetings (from September 2020 to December 2021)

Three Transnational Project Meetings (TPMs) will be organised throughout the project. They will aim at setting up the bases and the evaluation for the whole implementation of the project and will establish the links between the partners organisations and their roles. The TMPs will be organised in Germany, Malta and Brussels (or online if necessary).

Activity 2: Research study (from October 2020 to January 2021). 

Partners and experts will carry out research and evaluation of the usage of digital tools by youth organisations in educational activities online. It will give a great input to the partners but also in general youth organisations and educational institutions on how to approach the future civic education online.

Activity 3: Europe@School manual (from February to August 2021)

Manual on European Civic Education Online will be created and will serve as a useful resource by gathering pedagogical methods and approaches for youth workers and youth organisations to teach European Civic Education online. Beside covering the most updated information about Europe and current developments, it will also give practical tools on how youth organisations and in general education providers should approach European Civic Education online.

Activity 4: Seminar – E@H: Opportunities and challenges – Strasbourg, June 2021

This 3-day seminar will gather 20 participants from the partner organisations in Strasbourg, France and discuss the opportunities and challenges when implementing educational activities online and more specifically European Civic Education Online. The programme will be a combination of presentations, sessions, visits but also the direct practice of some of the tools that have been prepared in the Europe@Home manual.

Activity 5: Trainings for multipliers Europe@Home – Berlin, July 2021

This 5-days training for multipliers will be organised in Berlin, Germany, and will gather 19 youth workers/peer educators members of the partner organisations that will directly practice the tools that have been prepared by the experts on European Civic Education online.

Activity 6: Multipliers events – November 2021

The 1-day multiplier events will be organised in Germany, Bulgaria and Malta, and will be a combination of a space where the manual will be presented but also a discussion with stakeholders on the importance of European Civic Education both online and offline. They will gather 30 participants that will directly (physically) participate in the discussions and an open webinar will run in parallel to allow people to join in the multiplier event online.

Activity 7: Multipliers event – Brussels, December 2021

The multiplier event will aim to promote the manual and research study towards partners of the hosting organisations and will consisted in 2 activities: Round table discussion in the European Parliament which will open up the discussion about the need and importance of European Civic Education in European Youth work both online and offline and a workshops with partner organisations for the presentation of the manual and discussion about possible follow up actions.

 

More information on the activities and outcomes of the project on Europe@School website. (currently under work)