The event was held in the premises of our branch office. Our participants were young people of different ages and projects, apprentices, young people with disabilities, young people looking for a job and people aged between 35 and 55. Overall, there were 41 participants in the event. As there were many young people attending, we split the workshop into two sessions. Every session was 3 hours long and was based on open-space elements.

The agenda was:

Welcoming 

Presentation of “Easy EU”

Input EU 

Brainstorming “what does active EU-citizenship mean to you”

Input e-democracy and tools

Brainstorming “what role does social media play”

Summarising

Feedback round 

The event went very well. In general, people had very interesting aspects on “active citizenship” and “social media”. We got aware that there is a lack of information on the EU, the committees, and functions as well as on opportunities. They feedbacked that they are now more aware of their social media use, the influence they consume as well as the fact, that every topic might be political. The event raised their interest and shared tools with them to enable them to speak out. 

Even though the event went very well it is clear that a lot of young people struggle with their motivation or passion for topics at the moment. They consume very passively and are not aware of the influence social media has on them. It was interesting to see their reaction on topics like “social media bubble” and the translation of the word “influencer”. They might not get more active after this workshop, but they left with new ideas in their head and maybe the awareness that there are tools to use for raising their voices and get heard.