Civic Engagement through Volunteering for Youth

Access to civic engagement opportunities remains sometimes unequal and isn’t always the same for all young people. This can lead to a lack of knowledge of existing opportunities, but also to a lack of motivation in the face of the barriers that can arise. However, civic engagement can be a real added value. The project’s general objective is to promote civic engagement towards young people with fewer opportunities, making it a lever for socio-professional integration.

Objectives

Identify civic engagement issues at the European level and compare information in four different countries from a double perspective: youth workers and young people.
Raise awareness among 40 young people with fewer opportunities on civic engagement issues, especially volunteering, by training them on interculturality and solidarity, in order to encourage them to engage in civic projects.
Engage 20 young people with fewer opportunities in a mobility program around civic engagement and solidarity.
Inform 100 youth workers and young people on civic engagement opportunities that exist at local and European level.
Make the project’s results visible to 35K people, mainly young people, youth workers and youth associations by promoting and disseminating its activities.

Project results

The Field Study (WP2)

This study looks at civic involvement among young people in France, Greece, Portugal, and Hungary. The aim of our research is to obtain a thorough understanding of youth civic engagement issues in these four countries. Specifically, we want to know

why young people are not aware of opportunities for civic engagement,
what obstacles stand in their way of participating in these initiatives,
and how organizations can better support them.

Our work integrated several components: desk research, reviewing relevant literature and national policy documents, online surveys for youth workers, country specific focus groups with young people.

Research Report is available in English and in Hungarian.