STEP Forward

About the Project

STEP Forward (Sustainable and Transformative Education for Participation in Democratic Life) linked active citizenship to formal education by drawing attention to the values of sustainability (environmental, protection, self-sufficiency, social justice) and integrating them to non-formal education activities.

Aims and Objectives

STEP Forward aimed at promoting the application of active and participatory education through experiential activities and solution-oriented educational approach. By exploring alternative community models, social and ecological initiatives the project used information and resources to design a new educational module with the scope to integrate these in the formal education system.

The specific objectives of the STEP Forward project were:

  • Introducing an inclusive definition of Sustainability;
  • Raising awareness about social and environmental initiatives; alternative economic models; new forms of cooperation and civic participation to youth;
  • Cultivating and promoting transformative, experiential and non-formal learning and its specific applications;
  • Fostering critical thinking and democratic education.

Activities and Deliverables

  • 1 Training Course on Sustainability and Community Building;
    Participants learned about the basic concept of sustainability; understood the role of community building and were able to map and describe particular socio-ecological and economic initiatives around the world; developed skills and competencies on creating their own non-formal educational methods; and enhanced cross-cultural understanding.
  • 6 Job Shadowing activities, the design of an educational module which will incorporate issues of democracy, civic participation and sustainability in a non-formal education format combining experiences from Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America;
    The international working groups of participants will collect information for presenting the experiences of sustainability cases from their Job Shadowings mentioning their benefits for the community; the challenges and opportunities in a non-formal format that will be included in an educational module.
  • 1 Training Course in the form of a Winter School to present and apply the module to youth workers and other professionals of the education sector interested in Sustainability and alternatives to the formal educational system;
    The module will introduce basic concepts of sustainable communities (how do they work, how could they be applied, their benefits and costs) and democracy, as well as, tools for civic participation and volunteerism, non-formal education methods. The Winter School aims to enhance the capacities and knowledge of the participants to educate young people, organize local events and also train other practitioners to apply the same and other similar methodologies.
  • 7 local events for advocating towards sustainability and participatory education with the promotion of the module to the local communities; The purpose of the local events is to communicate and experiment on the produced amount of information to the different community actors (policy makers, teachers, professors, students, youth workers) in order to influence their work activities and materials that are already using for their work.

Target Groups

STEP Forward targeted educators, youth workers, researchers, project managers, youth organisations, young people, local communities and the EU.

Partners

  • Inter Alia (Coordinator) – Athens, Greece
  • Solidarites Jeunesses Vietnam (Partner) – Hanoi, Vietnam
  • Sedavp Ghana (Partner) – Tamale, Ghana
  • Asociacion Projuven (Partner) – Malaga, Spain
  • Brigada de Voluntarios Bolivarianos del Peru (Partner) – Lima, Peru
  • Resource Hub for Development (Partner) – Nairobi, Kenya
  • Xeracion Valencia (Partner) Gandia, Spain

Duration

November 2017 – March 2019

Co-funding

STEP Forward was co-financed by the ERASMUS+ programme of the European Union, Key Action 2: Capacity Building in the Field of Youth.

Project Number: 589950-EPP-1-2017-1-EL-EPPKA2-CBY-ACPALA

More Info

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