Augsburg, Germany, October 2019 – The partners of the Efus-led LOUD (Young Local Leaders for Inclusion) project held their second coordination meeting in Augsburg (DE) on 24-25 October as the project enters its second phase of designing alternative narratives and messages to intolerance and extremism.
The objectives of the meeting were to exchange on the now concluded needs assessment phase and on the projects to be implemented by the partner cities, as well as to review the various stages that have to be planned when developing a campaign of alternative discourses to intolerance and extremism, and to discuss the training of the young people who will design these campaigns in the partner cities.
> Designing local campaigns on various themes
Through LOUD, young people and local authorities are working together to develop alternative discourses to intolerance and extremism aimed at young audiences with the objective of strengthening social inclusion and cohesion in their home cities.
On the first day, the partners presented the themes of their respective local campaigns: Rosny-sous-Bois and Lille (FR) will work on equal opportunities; Augsburg, Düsseldorf (DE) and L’Hospitalet (ES) on racism; Pella (GR) on discrimination against disabled people; Leuven (BE) on polarisation at school between local and migrant students; Valenciennes Métropole on discrimination, extremism and radicalism, and Montreuil (FR) on critical thinking and media education.
How will these campaigns be broadcast? There are various options – video clips, festivals, social media… – which the participating groups of young locals will choose according to the local audiences they are targeting with their message against discrimination and extremist contents.
> Training local authorities and young people
The partners also took part in an interactive session on the various stages of a communications campaign, which was organised by Eurocircle, a Marseille-based association that is part of the Centre d’Information Europe Direct Provence (CIED). Eurocircle develops and implements European projects based on international mobility that seek to facilitate young people’s access to the job market and employability as well as to foster active European citizenship. The objective of this session was to tool up cities so they can better support their selected group of youths in planning and producing their campaign.
The second day of the seminar was focused on the training sessions that will give the youngsters the necessary skills to design and implement their communication campaigns. The partners also identified the local resources they will need to mobilise at each stage of the campaign, from the original design to broadcasting and evaluation.
> The next phases
The training sessions will be delivered between November 2019 and February 2020 with the support of the project’s partner organisations (Eurocircle, Fondazione Mondinsieme and streetwork@online). Furthermore, local authorities will have access to webinars on contents and methodologies.
LOUD’s next coordination meeting will be held in March 2020 in Reggio Emilia (IT).
> Call for experts
LOUD is currently looking for experts who will support the youngsters in designing and realising their communication campaign. Find the application here.
Contact at Efus: Tatiana Morales, Programme Manager (morales@efus.eu)
and Pilar De La Torre, Programme Manager (delatorre@efus.eu)
