Hello Urban colleagues,

The European Commission launched two new calls for proposals: http://ec.europa.eu/youth/calls-for-proposals/calls-for-proposals_en.htm

-      Call for proposals for Action 4.6 - 'Youth Support Systems - Partnerships'

-      Call for proposals for Action 4.4 - 'Projects encouraging innovation and quality'

They can be used for ‘innovative projects’ or ‘partnerships’ – so your creativity is the limit to apply for this funding!

Tony

Below are some of the thoughts I had when I initially contemplated the topic of the seminar.

Inclusion? Conversations about young people often focus on promoting inclusion, participation and empowering choice. However, it is important to ask ourselves: inclusion in what and on what terms? With what consequence for other (sub-culture) identities? 

Inclusion can sometimes be another way of saying ‘promoting social uniformity’, in this sense it’s about strengthening dominant values and power structures. In fact, some young people openly express the desire to deconstruct existing systems of social relations (see the current Occupy movement). This could be essential before progress toward a more just and equitable society can be made - the demise of slavery provides a case in point.

In today’s world, self-determination and choice is largely regulated by market economics. The many choices we have often fall within a narrow bandwidth of extrinsic values which promote power, status, money... An example of this (which, in my opinion, reflects the experience of many youth sub-cultures) is the experience of North American Indians who were granted ownership of their own land to enable self-determination. On receiving owenership they were aggressively lobbied by casino conglomerates to ‘sell-out’ to big capital. This led to in-fighting disagreement and conflict within indian tribes. This mirrors the expectations of some young people, that all the choices currently on offer ultimately require you to sell-out.

When we talk about empowering self-determination and choice amongst young people (or other groups) there are a number of things we need to consider?  For example, what about collective and communal rights and responsibilities?  

We would benefit from having a broader vision which considers society as a whole. A broader vision will ensure that we locate the issue of urban youth within wider social narratives. It will help the group to maintain a holistic approach when looking at challenges and opportunities, seeing young people not as isolated homogenous groups living only in the present, but as diverse social beings acting within and influenced by their wider societies.  Without a broader vision there is the risk that:

·         We narrowly focus on young people ignoring the wider social frame and young people’s multiple identities.

·         We achieve outcomes for young people now whilst undermining broader goals, such as justice, peace, equity, trust, understanding and sustainable development.

A jokey example of the risks of narrowly focusing on youth is narrated in ‘Logans Run’ a novel which pictures a society where youth is all powerful, and people beyond the age of 35 are eliminated. There are, also, many examples in the real world, including: inter-generational tensions emerging from the tendency to hire and fast- track young employees at the expense of older staff - whilst initially empowering for young people this can create a negative feedback loop which is damaging for society as a whole. Another example would be the black-hole in international development funding for people who have recently left the official youth age group. Also, by focusing on youth we often imply that young people are the same, that they are a minority and that collectively they are oppressed / oppressors, involved / excluded - ignoring the myriad of other factors involved such as socio-economic status, ethnicity, access.

Urban Solutions Seminar video on Vimeo

...the music is 'Born On the 3rd Of July' from the album Live So Far - available here : http://music.stevelawson.net/album/live-so-far :)

--
Magdalena Maria Zaborowska
 

http://prezi.com/qmhctmrkrovs/a-norm-critical-approach-to-discrimination-and-conflict/

I've put together a twitter list of all the people at the event who've been using the hashtag - if you were here but you're not on the list, please either send a tweet to me ( @solobasssteve ) or just comment on this post here with your twitter user name and I'll add you to the list. 

• At IRC-Galleria’s Jepari community
• On Mondays from 4 pm till 6 pm
• Officers working at the juvenile crime squad of the Oulu police department use the chat service to advise, guide and support the youth in issues relating to police activity
• A youth worker hosts the chat and answers general questions
• Topics include police work and education, mopeds, legal issues , rights and intoxicants
• Close to 200 visitors per chat session

• A real time chat service
• Employees in various posts

• Police officer and youth worker

• Employees are in constant contact with each other during the whole shift via a voip connection

• Enables a collective and multidisciplinary work community

• This work form is co-ordinated by the Youth Affairs Department of the City of Oulu and carried out in co-operation with the juvenile crime squad of the Oulu police department

• Service available for youth all over Finland, as there are no municipal boundaries on the web

• Employees can be reached through user profiles also when the Jepari chat is offline

• Low threshold
• Reliability
• Preventative
• Real time, presence of adults
• Cost efficiency
• Ease of interaction
• Reach
• Working where young people are
• Equality

If youngsters have the opportunity to be part of youth projects, youth workers must not forget to link the project to the local environment to expect political changes. Otherwise youngsters will experiment new skills and share experiences of debate and innovating methods without reaching the main target: the political level.

To bring changes in the system, we should not forget to make the connection between the different elements of the system, otherwise we change one element without influence on the rest of the actors. That’s why youth workers have to work in network, and share experience at the different levels of the participation: local to global system. Democraty is its own worst enemy.

Amazing cities. Social constructions, where the best and the worst of humanity live together.  From the first fortifications in the Middle Ages to the megapolis of Tokio or Mexico, cities have developed and now seem the most natural environment to gather people. However, we may ask if people do really live together or they are just packed one next to the other.

And the question becomes urgent when it comes to youth. A city that looses young people is prone to agony. Where young people violently revolts, all institutions are at stake and peace and power disappear. Youth means hope and care.  If you miss them, if you let them down, you are discarding the values that have created your city; you are throwing stones against the community.

Thus there is a significant need to create, foster and maintain common ground. Cities are more than city councils and rules and taxes, cities are a social cosmos that must search for cohesion and solidarity. When drawing long term strategies, youth has to be taken into account in a manner that allows real involvement. The public arena should be open for discussion, but also for listening.

In these times of structural changes we cannot afford cat fighting on unimportant things. The economy, the society, the world have to (and will) be rebuilt. The questions are how and with whom. And, the answer my friend is blowing in the wind... and it smells like teen spirit.

– Tamara

(the title quotes William Shakespeare)

 It's great to be on this seminar..it's only one day we worked, but even now my head is full of practical aproaches, ideas and other useful stuff!

Thanks for organizators that make this seminar so interesting!!! I feel that you and participants are really interested in what we say and it is honor to be of part of this event.

Hope to get more and more impressions next days!

--
Santa

Here are the slides from Tony Geudens's presentation Situating the Urban Solutions Seminar:

You can listen to the talk on AudioBoo.