OVERVIEW
YOUNG MEDITERRANEAN VOICES is primed to become the central flagship regional youth network connecting youth across Europe and the Neighbourhood South (Southern Mediterranean and Europe).
Building on more than five years investment in the field, as well as established networks, pioneering methodologies and independent research, the overall objective of Young Mediterranean Voices programme is to: Empower young people to enhance a culture of dialogue and to create a shared understanding with peers across the Mediterranean on how to address issues of common concern to their communities.
This programme will bring the experience of Arab youth-led debate to other parts of the Euro-Mediterranean region. One of the most pioneering aspects of this programme is to contribute to enhance the “Euro-Med dialogue” paradigm by bringing the experience of a pan-Arab programme to the North and consequently challenging the traditional cooperation dynamics that were dominated by programming towards the South.
This project is grounded on the positive experience of Young Arab Voices and benefits from the support of the EU. “The EU will support the second phase of the Young Arab Voices programme to deepen the dialogue between young leaders and civil society representatives".
Young Mediterranean Voices has 4 inter-related strategic objectives through which we will deliver the programme:
•train young people in debate and dialogue techniques, and equip them to participate more effectively in their communities and enhance their life opportunities;
•provide further leadership development opportunities to young people (Young Mediterranean Voices ambassadors), and equip them to engage with existing leaders and the media to influence public policy;
•equip young people with the skills to engage more successfully with social media;
•Provide opportunities for young people to engage together across the Euro-med region then build the networks for future collaboration and break down barriers and stereotypes that lead to a lack of intercultural dialogue.
The four strands build from country based training and capacity building to the regional level and onwards to a Euro-Med level. We will work with policy makers to gain access to education and other formal systems to deliver the programme. The programme will work with our ‘ambassadors’ to engage with traditional media and we will provide opportunities for them to engage in social media labs to practice content development to present positive narratives of young people and their contribution. Finally we will provide opportunities to connect north and south young people and partners to further the programmes objectives and create opportunities to enhance intercultural dialogue building mutual understanding and trust.
YOUNG MEDITERRANEAN VOICES INSTITUTION PARTNER
The major partner of Young Mediterranean Voices is the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research. We encourage Debate Clubs existing in various universities and higher education institutions under the previous Young Arab Voices, and university students’ clubs to apply.
TARGET GROUPS AND FINAL BENEFICIARIES
The beneficiaries and stakeholders of the programme are divided into the following principal categories
- Young people (“YMV community debaters”), in the participating programme countries, - principally aged 16 to 25 - from diverse backgrounds.
- Youth leaders (“YMV Ambassadors network”), who have gone through the first level of YAV Training and are primed to be involved in a next level of media and advocacy work,
- Young Mediterranean Trainers principally aged between 18 – 35 who have gone through the delivery of YMV trainings (national, regional and master levels)
- CSOs - Youth NGOs and Cultural Organisations; Educational Institutions – Schools and Universities (“YMV Debating Hubs”) working at the delivery level and benefiting directly from the programme’s capacity-building measures, exchange schemes and support.
- Decision-makers who can benefit from knowing the priorities and needs of their young constituency and hearing their direct and credible voices that would inform their planning and decisions.
- Media interested in having access to authentic voices that are not usually heard in mainstream media, as well as organisations working in the domain of digital media and digital debate facilitation.
- Public sector institutions, interested in promoting education and social development as well as open and pluralistic society.
HUB ROLES
Young Mediterranean Voices have implemented a ‘Hub’ structure to ensure a greater geographical reach, whilst also engaging hard to reach and marginalised communities. The ‘Hub’ plays an important role in the delivery of the programme by cascading trainings and competitions nationally, and are those directly involved with the young people.
Each ‘Hub’ will be required to:
•Deliver and Cascade training to 750 number of Young People
•Deliver and Cascade training to marginalised and hard to reach areas
•Deliver Inter-Hub/University Competitions
•Develop ‘Clubs’ with 15 active participants as per country targets
•Monitor and Evaluate ALL trainings in hub remit
•Issue monthly ‘Progress Reports’ to country Project Manager
Apply now and fill out the application form below and email it to:
YMV-Alg@britishcouncil.org by 08 April 2018 at the latest.