We see it all around us, in the news, in personal stories, in studies: The challenges the pandemic entails are often difficult, and even more so for young people. For months they have struggled through an accumulation of uncertainties and limitations, but the effects of the corona crisis seem to be increasing. That is precisely why time and attention for young people is extra important during this period. Because what about the prospects of these young people? What do they get stuck in? And what can we do to help them?

To address the social disengagement of young people and their low participation levels in civic and political life, people need to become more engaged into their communities, appreciate the values of volunteering and active citizenship, recognize their benefits, as well as focus on positive youth development. The enhancement and systematization of community engagement through digital tools, in combination with youth positive development is one of the ways for the target to be achieved, thus allowing to youths to gain a sense of competence, selfworth and belonging into the community.

Hence, #UComE consortium, composed of of ZID Theater, NGO with a cultural,

artistic and social scope (applicant), two NGOs with a social scope – CIP from Cyprus, IASIS NGO from Greece- and one SME with a focus on inclusive educational innovation through digitalization –Logopsycom from Belgium -, intents to provide youth organisations and youth workers with modern, digital tools that attempt to systematize the methodological framework that youth organisations use, so as to bring youth back to their communities, through the activation of ‘active citizenship’, ‘community-based learning’, and the use of creativity in youth work. ZID will specifically focus on the creative approach, thinking and developing different creative tools within the project. ZID sees the use and development of creativity as an engine for youth participation.

A rich array of #UComE project tools, taking also into account structural gaps in community engagement pointed out by the COVID-19 pandemic, would allow youth organisations to foster critical variations of actions, initiatives and projects, which target different levels of community engagement through systematic action plans that could turn into real interventions for the communities.

As such, through the creation of this project, the three main expected results are:

#UComE Guidebook on “Contemporary Methodologies and Tools on Community Engagement” for youth workers that introduces the theories and concepts of community engagement from a youth point of view.
#UComE Toolkit on Community Engagement for Youth Organisations and Youth Workers with:
A DIY Manual for youth workers and organizations, entailing 16 training workshops relating to different forms of community engagement.
A Toolkit comprised by existing software and digital tools that are targeted for the management, coordination and communication processes involved during the lifetime of an initiative, with the goal of systematizing and modernizing the manner through which these processes are carried out.
A Library (part of the toolkit) with special template formats for community analysis and mapping, media campaigns, conferences, development of creative tools and others, which are useful for the conduction of a community engagement activity.
IO3: #UComE Online Project Management Platform offered in 4 languages, which will guide the user electronically on how to analyse, plan and manage her/his community engagement activity, in order to produce a custom-made, comprehensive Action Plan for Community Engagement; 20 formulated Action Plans
IO4: #UComE on the ground: Public awareness campaign and Outreach activities involving participants from local youth organisations and other volunteers.

Duration: 2022-2024 (24 months)

Project Number: 2021-1-NL02-KA220-YOU-000028784

Project Website: www.ucomeproject.eu

The European Commission’s support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.