Official report summer school reggio calabria 2013

“ACTIVE CITIZENSHIP AND YOUTH PARTECIPATION IN THE MEDITERRANEAN REGION”

Reggio Calabria, 31th

July-4th

August 2013 - Seminar Report

“ACTIVE CITIZENSHIP AND YOUTH PARTECIPATION

IN THE MEDITERRANEAN REGION”

Reggio Calabria, 31th July-4th August 2013

Seminar Report

INTRODUCTION

As the President of Youthmed I was glad to accept the great opportunity of organizing the summer

school at Reggio Calabria that hosted 100 students from 16 different countries and 30 Universities.

Youthmed (born as UNIMED-Students) was established in

2010 with the aim of enriching the cooperation among the

Mediterranean countries with the energy and aspiration of

the young generations. We believe that young people

should propose projects, contents and a new language of

dialogue and cooperation. Our vision is that young people

and students should not only be the beneficiaries and the

target group of the projects but primarily, the main

promoters.

The Arab revolts of 2011 marked a turning point for our debate for two reasons. Primarily we

developed the conviction that young participation and leadership could be the main engine and key

of political and societal change; secondly, we realized that in order to consolidate the transition

process and the political renewal, it was absolutely necessary to establish strong interaction and

network among these young leaders. For these reasons we decided to provide young people with

new opportunities of meetings, discussion and dialogue such as our Seminar in Reggio Calabria.

In this regard, our first opportunity was at Aydin University in Istanbul, where we run the first

Forum of Unimed-students, that involved more than sixty students from the Mediterranean region,

and was focused on Mobility of students.

In the opening session I stressed a concept in which our group strongly believe: we proposed to the

students to perceive our association as an open network always keen on new ideas and new

enthusiastic entrants, with the contribution of all the participants and activists keen on the

cooperation among Mediterranean countries. The most ambitious aspect of our association is that of



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enriching our platform with the contributions, ideas and proposals of the participants, especially

those that arise during the Forums and the workshops.

More in depth, we had the opportunity to respond and consider together three main questions we

posed at the beginning of the seminar. Primarily, “What do the words “Active citizenship”

concretely mean for our everyday life? Moreover, we asked a question which is suggested by the

title and it is about the word “Mediterranean”. “Does a Mediterranean region with its own

culture and identity really exist? Does it make sense to speak about a “New Mediterranean

Generation”? The third issue we ask the participants to think about concerned the very crucial

point of our seminar: “What should be the essence and the final objective of young cooperation

for the Mediterranean region?”

With the aim of considering together and answering these three questions, we decided to structure

the seminar in three steps:

Conferences. with the aim of increasing awareness of the participants about the shared history and

identity of the region as a basis for dialogue and cooperation; Workshops in order to debate and

discuss the questions we mentioned above, to share best practices and to know how to pursue active

citizenship, with a special thank to the participation of some of the leaders and activists from the

several associations involved. Free time to have the possibility to know each other, to have fun

together, and to make this summer school a unique experience at human level.

The importance of these reflections and the answers that each group and each participant provided

will be understood in the next few months and during the next steps of our association. Our mission

is to create a network that includes all the countries in the Mediterranean region and that boosts the

dream of a new Mediterranean generation that will forget the words hate and fear. ''Medit Happen''

is the motto of our summer school and our commitment for the future, to put into concrete actions

the aspirations of a 100 delegates from all the Mediterranean.

Loredana Rubeis

Youthmed President



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YOUTHMED

Youthmed acts within the UNIMED network with the aim of creating a Mediterranean Young

Generation, removing ideological barriers and obstacles towards the Mediterranean cooperation.

The organization aims to involve students and young activists in Mediterranean region, with a

global perspective on the role of mobility, cultural exchanges and projects design based on the need

and value of mutual understanding through dialogue and innovative models of communication.

Main objectives pursued by Youthmed:

- To promote knowledge, understanding, intercultural and interreligious dialogue;

- To strengthen research, collaboration and meeting between students and researchers of the

Universities of the Mediterranean area, through a continuous exchange of knowledge and

skills;

- To organize mobility programs for young people and joint projects between activists in the

Mediterranean region;

- To foster the involvement of civil societies, supporting the wider participation of

Universities to the society as a whole, aimed at the integration of different cultures and

education to the values of peace, civil and human rights.

SEMINAR

The project was intended to promote training and cooperation among young people who will be

active in the Mediterranean Region, such as managers, teachers, students, giving them the

opportunity to share best practices, new projects and to start joint programs to form and consolidate

the network between universities and social environment.

The seminar has been intended to develop long-term projects, partnerships and a network of

students and activists keen on a sense of active citizenship and on active participation as a basis for

social cooperation.

Through this seminar Youthmed provided participants with the necessary tools and knowledge to

strengthen the identity of Mediterranean people and to promote active citizenship and mobility

programs in the Mediterranean Region.

LOGISTICS

The Student Associations ATENEA MED, EURECA, GENEA, MAS CLUB, MUSA of

“Mediterranea” University of Reggio Calabria and the Student Representative of the University for



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Foreigners “Dante Alighieri” have contributed to the organization of the event.

Duration: 5 days

Working Languages: English and French

PLENARY CONFERENCES

Three conferences have been held during the mornings. The first was dedicated to the history and

identity of the Mediterranean region; the second addressed the cultural heritage; the third and final

dealt with the current political situation in the Arab countries and Turkey. The objective of the

conferences was twofold. Primarily it was to provide the participants with the basic knowledge of

the political, economic and social situation of the Mediterranean area; secondly, to increase the

awareness of the participants about the shared history and identity of the region as a basis for

dialogue and cooperation.



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WORKSHOPS:

W1: ACTIVE CITIZENSHIP AND PROTECTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS: WHAT TOOLS?

Everyone, everywhere is subjected to human rights, but not everyone everywhere respects them.

When human rights are not well known by people, abuses such as discrimination, intolerance,

injustice and oppression can arise.

What are Human Rights? How can we protect Human Rights through young participation?

Knowledge, comprehension and activism have been the keywords of the workshop n.1

“Active Citizenship and protection of human rights: what tools?” held on 1,2 and 3 August 2013 in

the frame of the Seminar “Active citizenship and participation of young people in the

Mediterranean region”.

The workshop has been attended by 25 participants from several different Mediterranean countries

and 3 speakers from 3 different NGOs: Valeria Gambino (Association ''Un Ponte Per''), Marco Di

Donato (online newspaper ''Osservatorio Iraq'') and Simone Lalongo (''Association Kuddia

Attalora'').

The specific objectives of the workshop:

to improve and share knowledge of Human Rights, specifically the United Nations

Universal Declaration of Human Rights;

to meet leading figures in the field, triggering a debate from their own experience, drawing

on ‘”best practices” to become stakeholders within different socio-cultural backgrounds;

to share knowledge and experience about specific topics such as: Freedom to Move, Don’t

Discriminate and Freedom of Expression. To improve critical discussions about the state of

Human Rights in specific contests;

To think of the definition of active citizenship and write a common “Youth in Action”

European Project.

We adopted an informal and spontaneous approach where students and activists were the main

focus of the activities. The workshop was developed to draw on the experiences of the participants

and create an interactive dialogue to share knowledge, ideas and experiences. The methodological

framework was participatory and interactive and the speakers introduced different examples of

taking action.

The three days of the workshop were designed to run consecutively. Three steps to improve the

awareness to become active citizens.



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The minutes of the workshop as follows:

Day one – Improving knowledge: 1) Content focus and concentration on Human Rights

respect and abuse; 2) Presentation of Associations projects; 3) Interactive activities

(Icebreaker, discussion about the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights,

draw a Human Right, make Human Rights spots).

Day two – Improving comprehension : 1) Specific focus and concentration on selected

Human Rights: 2) Presentation of Association projects; 3) Interactive activities (speed

dating on specific topics, showing video and discussion on Human Rights state).

Day three – Youth in Action: 1) Recap of the workshop aims; 2) Briefing on European

project management; 3) Interactive activities ( to be active citizenship through a common

project, focusing the attention on General objective, Specific objective, Specific activities

and Target); 4) Workshop final evaluation.

Results.

By an open final discussion the participants outlined their impressions and evaluations about the

workshop as follows:

The workshop specific objectives have been reached;

The participants increased their awareness on how to become active citizens;

The participants expressed the wish to cooperate in the future;



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W2: NETWORKING AND MOBILITY: WHAT OBSTACLES AND WHAT

OPPORTUNITIES?

The workshop – concerning “networking and mobility” – had, as its major objective, to improve the

participants’ knowledge and awareness about possibilities and tools available in order to have an

active role (both as individuals and as activists in associations) in the area of the institutional

programs for international exchanges, as well as in mobility issues in general.

After having discussed and compared the main obstacles that, in each country, affect young

people’s ability to travel and gain personal and professional development, the workshop presented

the main institutional programs for international exchanges. Those programs were explained to the

participants to the workshop, who demonstrated that many opportunities still remain unknown to a

large part of the young citizens of the Mediterranean countries. In this frame, the creation of a

Youthmed network – on an equal basis - is seen as an effective way to help young people

throughout the Mediterranean countries to get their projects considered by European and

international institutions.

These objectives were accomplished during three days of workshop, set as follows:

Day 1 – After a brief introduction to the forum, where we recapped our previous and first steps (i.e.

the Istanbul Forum), and the objectives of summer school, the first day of work focused on the

obstacles that, in every country, have made and still make it difficult for students, young people and

researchers across the Mediterranean Sea to join mobility programs. Those issues were divided in

three categories: academic problems, bureaucratic problems and lack of funds. Participants were

sub-divided in three groups, each of which discussed and confronted on one of the three issues.

Following, two main interventions about mobility’s obstacles (30 minutes each):

Patricia Zaylah, Student Mobility Coordinator of the University of Kaslik - Lebanon;

Luciano Tribisonda, Cultural Association ENEA.

Day 2 – Day 2 focused on the main European Educational and Training Programs that involve

participants from non-communitarian countries, mainly on the “Europe 2020” frame and the new

program “Erasmus for All”. The working day was divided in two parts. In the first half there were

three interventions from experts in European programs (30 minutes each):

Grazia De Tuzza, Student Mobility Coordinator of the University of Messina;

Roberto Giuliani, Prospettiva Europea



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Federica Terramoccia, University “La Sapienza” – Roma

Followed a debate (45 minutes) on the issues previously discussed moderated by Michela Insenga.

Day 3 – The third day focused on developing concrete proposals about international mobility,

“Erasmus for All” and the training of students in mobility, placement and employability.

Participants were divided in two groups: using the concepts learned in the previous days, they had

to develop concrete projects to be presented to the calls for proposals of the European Commission.

Through a non-formal approach, it was possible to learn the basic concepts and mechanisms

necessary to create a winning project. In this way, we wanted students and participants to have the

chance to present to us concrete proposals and make their voices been heard by the Youthmed

coordinators.



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W3: SOCIAL PARTICIPATION AND NEW TECHNOLOGIES: WHAT PERSPECTIVES?

"Ideas come to life when they are shared . This is the reason why the web is such a powerful

platform for creativity and innovation, and for so many aspects where using web could be a good

way of action : for democracy , giving people a voice and the ability to self-organize , freedom ,

giving more people the opportunity to be creative and egalitarian , allowing knowledge to be free."

In all Western democracies we are witnessing a process of deep redefinition of the practices of

political and civic participation, and digital media are changing the ways in which citizens are

informed and got in contact with institutions, political parties and movements. This seems to offer

them new opportunities to make their voices been heard. At the same time, the development of new

technologies in the field of social media has resulted in a reallocation of the emphasis from

representation - cornerstone of representative democracy - participation , which is specific centrality

of direct democracy.

The specific objectives of the workshop were:

- To explore the themes of participatory democracy as a tool, never as a final end, through the use

of new technologies and new social media

.

- To provide basic knowledge of the use of the new media and the development of new methods of

communication, in order to help individuals, associations and movements to structure mass

communication campaigns to convey their messages, provide information from the bottom up,

communicate new practices, cooperate together towards the achievement of their objectives, such as

participation, democracy, freedom of information.

During the workshop, each participant has been given the opportunity to understand how to manage

an unplanned and spontaneous cooperation that characterizes the development of Internet, in order

to take advantage of the rules and practices that, in some environments and under certain

conditions, stimulate the success of social applications. The ways in which collaboration occurs

spontaneously have been analyzed, with a specific attention to the conditions that lead a social

application to its success or its failure. Finally a set of standards has been developed, with tools and

useful variables to replicate best practices, at the design stage of new social communication

campaigns.



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At the end of the workshop a communication campaign was launch to apply the concepts learned in

the field into practice and to check the validity of rules, tools, techniques and previously defined

variables.

At the same time , the workshop provided participants with the ability to:

- define the essential steps to define a communication campaign;

- define , for each step crucial decisions , the potential pay-off strategies ;

- define the rules that reign the pay-off and then the different set of strategy options;

- draw for each set of strategy options a pay-off that is more rewarding for a collaborative

decision with respect to a non- collaborative (?).

Speakers and specific contents:

Day One: Social media and online collaboration tools for social change .

Cristina Vaquer – Activist, journalist and Member of 15M movement

How to plan and develop: content, new media and trans-media narratives , strategies and campaigns

. Guerrilla Communication, fakes and trolling for the success of hacking the mass media and

communications for the collective imagination.

Day Two: From Tunisia to Taksim. Notes to emerge unscathed from the blackout.

Hector Huerga - Writer and activist - 15M movement



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An overview of the socio - political social networks in recent social movements. The use of new

communication technologies during the Arab Spring and the movement of Gezi Park. Strategies ,

campaigns, new tools and the impact on governments and citizens.

Day Three: What kind of data ?

Ludovica Rogers - Occupy Movement

We are living and sharing online more and more about our personal lives. However , in doing so,

we provide our data, both to corporations and to governments. Raising the awareness of participants

on issues related to online privacy and security, and how we can protect our data. Introduction of

some general concepts, followed by a facilitated open discussion among all participants.



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LET’S MEDITERRANEAN!!!!!

Official report summer school reggio calabria 2013

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