Inter Alia’s strategy for Youth 2021-2023

Youth is connected to change, experimentation and fluidity. Social, economic and cultural circumstances constitute “youth” a diverse experience as to its duration and the space for exploration it provides. The period between the dependency of childhood and the “independence” of adulthood is always formative for youngsters and their emotional, social and professional development. 

Since its creation, Inter Alia seeks to empower youngsters, to articulate their needs, and shape their environment. Inter Alia tries to achieve these aims by inspiring and enabling civic and political engagement, and by helping youth discover and utilise skills and competences in order for them to be able to claim their space in private, professional and public life. Inter Alia holds that the empowerment of youth requires acquisition of both theoretical and practical tools in order to lead it to action. In this context, Inter Alia aspires to:

• Engage youth in sociopolitical dialogue and enhance its effectiveness in influencing decision making;
• Empower youth and increase employment opportunities through training, skills’ development, and participation;
• Confront interpersonal and intergroup stereotypes and enhance intercultural understanding among youth.

Inter Alia’s strategy promotes this agenda through enabling interaction among youngsters and connecting youth with experts (policy makers, scholars) as well as through activities promoting peer learning, self-help and collective decision making. It is grounded on field work, research and continuous interaction with youth, youth organisations and institutions. It thus fosters more diverse, inclusive and engaging activities that can attract more youngsters and stakeholders. Moreover, the strategy foresees actions to support youngsters and youth organisations in implementing activities, enhancing local connections and international network and developing their capacities.

Inter Alia’s work plan in the field of youth has four main pillars: Education, Political Engagement, Research and Cultural Awareness. It includes different fields of action (advocacy, community development, intercultural understanding, youth work, active citizenship, civic education) and applies different methods and tools to test, exchange, promote, implement and up-scale good practices at different levels (local, national, European, international).

The specific objectives of our work-plan for the upcoming 3-year period are to:

1. Engage youth in social and political dialogue and to enable their input in the EU processes through fostering debate among youth and with stakeholders on challenges of democracy in Europe.
2. Empower marginalised youth through activities that enable them to advocate for their rights and by fostering contact between the “majorities” and “minorities”.
3. Cultivate empathy and inter-cultural exchange by enabling mobility, cultural exchange and volunteerism both in the EU and beyond.
4. Upgrade the role of youth organisations by advocating for more effective funding models, establishing quality standards, further recognition of non-formal education by national and EU authorities and making recommendations to authorities.

Inter Alia’s strategy puts in action the existing know-how of its members and builds on previous projects, while attempting to introduce new viewpoints, notions and methods. Effective partnerships render the plan attainable. Complementarity of approaches and fields of expertise is a central factor for the selection of our allies and partners. Broad geographic coverage in line with the respective social needs and the capacity of partners to mobilise local communities, experts and stakeholders, are equally significant. Most partnerships build on existing initiatives while new ones are added, based on partners’ profile that fit to the priorities of the network and could offer fresh inputs that diversify its impact. 

The strategy is driven by regular consultation with target groups. Inter Alia and its partners work with local communities in order to specify, prioritise and tackle social challenges through action. Stakeholder analysis is an important preparatory step for most activities, aiming at stakeholders that have high influence on target groups in the sense of high power and high interest in the mission and vision of Inter Alia. In addition, the plan includes parties that currently hold low power but have significant dynamics in their fields and could grow through participation in planned activities. Different groups are targeted by different activities. Yet, there is an emphasis placed on the role of professionals in the field of youth due to the significance of their role in supporting youngsters to navigate themselves out of personal, social and economic predicaments in a cohesive and sustainable manner.

The strategy opts for diversity and foresees quality action regardless of scale. It includes action taking place at local level and remote areas, to regional, to European and global in the context of specific projects. In this way, beyond their specific aims, the projects will contribute to the diversification of networks, partnerships and stakeholders. Funding will be sought by different sources and sectors in order to remain able to follow the agenda and pursue the vision for Europe Inter Alia holds, with as little external limitations as possible.

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Yearly Plan for Youth 2023: Ambition and Intended Impact

Inter Alia has been active in the field of youth since its establishment in March 2023, and for almost 10 years has been providing educational and other skills-related services, builing and developing a strong and at the same time ever growing community of like-minded individuals and organisations. All three streams of our work (Roots School of Critical and Explorative Learning, Heart Point of Civic Intervention and Bloom Space for Culture and Arts) promote active engagement and participation, which is a self-reinforcing circle of activities and impact, where each of the two elements is both a prerequisite and an outcome of the other.

All proposed activities fall under at least one of the streams of work, designed and based on the same methodology of interchanging and reinforcing action and impact. 

Our work plan promotes small actual changes and thought provocation, activating deeper processes of change in the longer term. It focuses on different target groups and will be implemented with diverse stakeholders, aiming at having an effect on all involved parties. Foreseen activities aspire to broaden and deepen engagement and knowledge and will affect young participants on several levels:

• Personal: Participation is a need and an attitude as much as a means for the attainment of goals. Through the work plan we aim at developing personal ownership (through the course on Community Organising) and awareness (curriculum on Critical Thinking) over community affairs as well as skills related to community building and volunteering along with the passion and willingness to promote change.

• Group: In the aftermath of their involvement, young participants will act as multipliers of the results, spreading them further to their direct environment, friends and networks. After enhancing their connection to the civil society sector and becoming more aware of the associated opportunities and encouraged by partners, it will be easier for them to generate their own ideas and implement new projects, namely in the context of European Solidarity Projects and Youth Participation initiatives.

• Societal: After taking part in activities, networks and connections between youth, youth organisations and stakeholders across partner countries will be strengthened. Involvement of new populations, not previously active in civil society organisations, will provide new resources in social processes. Inclusion of remote communities and marginal populations will increase the awareness on EU policies, their importance and potential channels for action. Besides, new ideas and recommendations will be provided for policy makers and decision makers aiming to an inclusive reform process at the EU level.

Need analysis & intended impact on participants

Youth is a core target group of Inter Alia. Active citizenship of youth, as it was proved in the EP elections in 2019, has the potential to revitalise the European demos, improve democracy and make the voices of youth heard. This is consistent with increasing trust in EU institutions indicated by recent Eurobarometer findings (standard Eurobarometer 95, 96, 97). Still, the results of the EP elections in 2019 also highlighted growing polarisation and the formation of a stronger than ever political bloc clearly rejecting the EU.

The momentum is (potentially) positive, as there has been a surge in cross-country organisation and (youth) movements on environmental issues, taxation, inequality and anti-racism. While such movements are often perceived as friendly to the EU, they also constitute a crucial mass of people who need to be consistently won over. This will be achieved through inclusive policy-making processes. Deliberative democracy, which is upheld by the recent EU citizenship report, needs to be enhanced and diversified in order to include groups that are harder to reach and to maintain interest of citizens, especially youth.

Participating youngsters will be empowered to articulate their demands and defending their rights. The work programme seeks the engagement of youth based on: a. the potential impact that the activities could have on persons and communities, and b. their power, seen as the capacity or potential of mobilising persons or resources for initiating or enhancing transformational processes. Both aims will be pursued through Inter Alia’s under RSCEL (WP2) and the Heart Point of Civic Intervention (WP3).

The Action Plan for EP elections 2024 includes a minimum of 40 activities across network countries aiming at: a. offering knowledge about the stakes of the EP Elections on key contemporary issues and b. the creation of spaces of interactions between candidate MEPs, stakeholders and citizens. The RSCEL curriculum will be adapted to the upcoming elections aiming to discuss youth participation. It will support participants in positioning themselves on contemporary political debates. Roots Winter School 2023 will emphasise on different means of participation and will discuss the importance of formal processes, including voting. The Youth Pool will also provide tools for youth to make their voices heard. Born in EU project foresees a large-scale pan-European campaign to promote voting in the elections aiming to reach out to over 2.5 million citizens – primarily youth given the profile of partners organisations.

Need Analysis & Intended Policy Impact

CSOs active in the field of youth are developing fast as service providers to a transnational audience in both quality and quantity (Erasmus+, Annual Reports). However, they are lagging behind as actors in the field of policy and in mainstreaming youth work and reaching out to youth with fewer opportunities. We view that funding channels play a key role in this. Resources available under “Mobility” and “Cooperation” actions are invested, almost exclusively, directly to CSOs leading to a significant improvement in the level of services provided. On the contrary, accessible funds under the “Policy” key action is a small fragment to the overall budget, leading to modest policy inputs by organisation to decision making (see Chart 2). 

Concerning channels of allocation, over 97% of the available funds are allocated to CSOs through projects while less than 3% is directed to supporting the operation of organisations (see chart 1). Project-based funding reflects the need for measurable results and tangible progress and is indeed in line with fast-changing circumstances in the realities of youngsters. When it comes to reaching out and maintaining commitment by persons with fewer opportunities and policy work, however, reliance to projects creates uncertainty when specialisation and continuity are required. As a result, Erasmus+ does not include marginalised youth to the extent needed for tackling inequalities and fostering equal access to services and resources. In addition, the involvement and policy input of organisations in decision-making is scarce and not systematic. This is why we emphasise our advocacy/policy efforts in promoting: a) more balance between operational and project-based funding to youth organisations and b) more evidence as to the effectiveness of different funding channels.

Chart 1

Chart 2

So far, the efforts of Inter Alia (and several other civil society actors) for increasing operational funding to youth organisations have been partially successful: as of 2023, operational funding doubled, while the accreditation for CSOs active in the field of Mobility is a step in the right direction. Still, the percentage of budget accessible to CSOs under KA3 has reduced significantly in the latest three annual programmes in comparison to the previous MFF (2014-2020 – see charts below). The increase of 2023 is modest as percentage of part of the overall KA3 budget and should be extended. At the same time, our request for data indicating the relevant impact of operational funding in comparison to project-based funding has not been satisfied, although a parliamentary question by an MEP raised the issue in a question to the EC.

Using our existing contacts from the field of policy and decision-making in Brussels as well as our civil society networks, we will claim for evidence regarding the prevalence of project-based funding in comparison to operational funding. At the same time, we will push for the increase of operational funding under existing calls while claiming an increase of accessible funds for CSOs under KA3. 

Chart 3

Chart 4

Target Groups

Inter Alia counts hundreds of projects and activities involving youth and leads a network of 65+ members of collaborators. In 2020, 140 organisations, networks and unions active in the field of youth endorsed a pan-European campaign related to the Erasmus+ allocation carried out by members of the network while approximately 1000 youth CSOs were formally informed about the campaign. These partnerships will be utilised and cultivated with a view to increase the outreach to a crucial age group for the future of the EU’s political community. The organisations will acquire practical skills and will get feedback on ideas and projects they can later apply in their own communities.  In more detail, we shall target:

• Organised civil society in the field of youth: Individual civil society organisations as well as networks and unions of actors and stakeholders of the third sector active at local, national and European level will participate in capacity building activities, be informed about and invited to contribute in policy related actions and our advocacy agenda (see section 4), will be shared the deliverables and asked for feedback. The aim is to create a secondary, wider but looser network, with similar priorities, perceptual and methodological approach in the areas covered by the Operational Grant and to promote mobilisation and advocacy. This network will contribute to the visibility and broadening the audiences of the RSCEL and of Inter Alia’s EU funded projects. They will benefit from new capacities in the field of advocacy cultivated through targeted educational activities and practice (by engaging with Inter Alia’s campaigns) as well as from the replicable, open-source intellectual materials produced for peers and their beneficiaries.

• Non-organised civil society active in the field of youth: The EU funding programmes (e.g. Erasmus+, CERV) duly identify grassroots actors as key for upholding European values and guaranteeing the quality of democracy. In the context of its Council of Members, Inter Alia’s working groups will be supported (with knowhow and financing) in organising small-scale actions and will be offered workshops in community organising, the European political terrain and tools for CSOs as part of the Membership curriculum (under RSCEL). Inter Alia will connect with, promote actions of grassroots organisations, and disseminate their work and agenda through its networks while offering its knowhow and contacts to decision makers.

• Policy makers: State and EU institutions exist to elaborate and implement policies. Inter Alia will be involved in the crucial in-between process of receiving feedback by citizens and the civil society for the optimisation of policies. Inter Alia will promote deliberative democracy by pushing policy makers for opening processes to the public and facilitating citizens’ involvement and through the intense involvement in the Conference on the Future of Europe (6 activities in 2021 and another 4 planned by the closing of the deliberation in April). In this way, it will enable policy makers to produce better targeted more effective policies and responsive to the needs of citizens.

• Decision makers: The connection of the civil society to national MEPs and to EP committees is of utmost importance for the future of representation of the EU. Inter Alia will utilise and extend existing channels of communication with policy and decision makers at the EU level (CULT EP committee, EAC). Moreover, through targeted training and learning by doing, peers from Inter Alia’s network will be supported in stepping up their own interaction with decision makers. A similar process will be applied to national MPs. Open channels of interaction between decision makers to citizens and the civil society enables wise decision making that promotes social peace and integration.

• Groups of youngsters suffering discrimination due to intersections of identities they carry: Intersectionality is an adopted approach by Inter Alia, applying to all processes and activities. Enhancing democracy starts from empowering the least represented groups to articulate their needs in the public sphere and be heard. Groups carrying intersecting identities are usually the least represented in the public discourse while their traumatic life experiences discourage them to claim their rights publicly. Activities and events organised in view of the EP elections will bring together candidate MEPs to discuss issues connected to discrimintation and inclusion. Thus, we will offer the ground and the circumstances for these individuals and groups to express their needs and inform communities and policy-making institutions with their perspectives and press for them been taken into account. Moreover, groups with intersecting identities will be targeted by training activities. Roma, disabled, LGBTQI+, asylum seekers, refugees and migrants are targeted both individually, through specialised activities, and collectively, as groups that suffer oppression in the context of the existing power structure. Our network of partners in this application includes specialised organisations in each of these areas and enables access to the beneficiaries. They will acquire practical skills and will get feedback on ideas and projects they can later apply in their own communities (for instance, as part of the Super FEM project – European Youth Together 2022 – 2024). Besides, all texts published by Inter Alia use gender-sensitive language while a working group on gender is created as part of Inter Alia’s council of Members.

• Local communities: Youth from small and remote communities across Europe are involved in cultural activities, awareness and advocacy campaigns given that their sense of belonging to Europe is the lowest. Through special screenings, art exhibitions, training and open debates, participants will experience Europe as something less remote from their reality. In this way, their perspectives and needs will be articulated and brought to the policy level while their engagement in EU affairs will be increased.

Participants’ involvement

Given the aim of the work plan that is to Engage, Connect and Empower youth, the overall success relies on the engagement of participants that, in turn, depends on their understanding of the aim and the benefits from it. Thus, participants in learning activities will go through the RSCEL basics presentation; in a shorter version in case of ad hoc activities and in a separate workshop in the case of attendants of the curriculum (see details in part 4). In this way, they will be inspired and attracted for taking part in other activities and will act as multipliers of the work plan.

The plan will abide by the following principles:

• The harder to reach and involve a person, group or community, the more resources will be invested in engaging participants as not all EU citizens are equally knowledgeable about EU processes, and the path towards equality of participation passes through mutuality. Women will make up a minimum of 50% of participants (according to Inter Alia’s social media metrics, women 18-34 make up approximately 40% or our usual audience) while participation of other genders will be practically sought through prioritising their inclusion in local and international working groups and activities. Mothers will be explicitly encouraged to participate with their children in local and international activities. If needed, childcare support will be provided by the respective partner to enable their participation. Activities will be organised in spaces that are accessible for persons with movement difficulties. Project partners will seek additional resources for offering access to open events to individuals with impaired sight or hearing.

• The more specific the target group (as to identities or experiences) the more responsibilities ascribed to the project teams. This principle is applied for two main reasons: first, the experiences of a person belonging to a specific target group cannot be assumed; they need to be articulated by the persons themselves. This requires a safe space and time. Second, because individuals belonging to target groups facing challenges are the ones in most need of emancipation and agency. Giving them room to experiment and grow is the only way to acquire ownership of a project and thereof of themselves as citizens.

• The more remote a community, the more intense the deliberation prior to the actions. Smaller and more remote communities tend to need more time to open up and share thoughts and ideas and also they have their own ways and habits. In order to organize successful ventures, respecting these and by-passing difficulties is crucial.

• The more specialised the venture and the deliverable, the more intense the involvement of participants and the less the engagement of the general public and individuals not previously involved in civic projects.

Impact assessment

Inter Alia is among the top-5 organisations in Greece in its main fields of action with regards to its effectiveness (social and economic impact), organisation and transparency as measured by Thalis II, the only thorough and extensive research of the third sector in the country. While important as a point of reference for the organisation’s impact, external assessments use generic indicators that have certain limitations when it comes to a deep evaluation in line with statutory documents, strategies and plans. Inter Alia has campaigned for the importance of financing impact assessment as a continuous process for civil society organisations and has advocated in front of EU funding structures to foresee and provide specific impact oriented tools and resources. This grant will be an opportunity to train and educate our team as to what and how we need to measure in the short, medium and long-term.

Outreach effectiveness

As mentioned also above, since its establishment our organisation has been growing not only in numbers, but also in outreach and this has been one of our success measures. So far, Inter Alia’s outreach can be viewed as a system of concentric circles, where the ones closer to the core are smaller and associated with stronger ties, while opening out the circles become bigger, loosening the ties among members and with the core. This sense of belonging is directly reflected in our logo, the artichoke which has a number of layers, and a heart. 

Looking into the activities more concretely, and in accordance with our stakeholders’ analysis, all target groups will be approached differently, using specialised channels and communication instruments. There will be a differentiated approach among those that are closer to the organisation (Council of Members) or our partners and thus easier to reach, and those institutions, groups or persons that are harder to reach, necessitate more time and energy but will bring added value to our work, thus increasing even further our outreach.

Summary of the Work Plan for 2022

Two years since the beginning of the pandemic, Europe remains in a state of shock and denial. While the effect of the pandemic on public healthcare will eventually subside, the social and economic impact has not yet started unravelling. A grim future lays ahead; particularly for youth. Recent crises exemplified that economic stagnation, unemployment, frustration, poverty and lack of sustainable life prospects hit younger populations the hardest and offer ground to anti-social behaviours and political choices. In this framework, Inter Alia’s work plan 2022 aims to:

• Enhance youth engagement and empowerment through democratic education, advocacy and civic participation.
• Empower marginalised youth through activities that will enable them to advocate for their rights and by fostering contact between the “majorities” and “minorities”

• Advocate for effective prioritisation and budget allocation of EU policies in the field of youth.

• Enable contact, exchange and collaboration among youth organisations and with other stakeholders at local, national and European level.

• Enable inter-cultural exchange of youth in Europe and beyond.

Approach & Activities

The work-plan capitalises on the diversity of Inter Alia’s partnerships and expertise. Our network combines non-formal learning and scholarly knowhow for dealing with contemporary challenges of youth. By enabling cooperation among different stakeholders, the work plan will enable: a. the exchange and up-scale of existing ideas and projects and their opening to more target groups and population groups b. develop new projects and initiatives with an EU-level scope and a local-level application.

The work plan focuses on education, political engagement, research and cultural awareness. The course of action spreads to the fields of advocacy, active citizenship, civic education, youth work, sustainability, cultural exchange and volunteerism. The methods to be used in the civic and educational activities are peer-learning and learning-by-doing. Regarding research activities, Inter Alia and partners will develop policy documents, organise focus groups, on-line surveys, policy-making debates and structured dialogue activities.

What you should be looking out for

Learning mobility & Volunteering

Following to the lifting of travel restrictions Inter Alia will organise or be actively involved in a series of transnational learning activities – youth exchanges, seminars, trainings, volunteering opportunities – in the fields of advocacy, cultural awareness, theatre and others. Stay tuned through our website and social media.

Positively Different Short Film Festival & Special screenings

Gender, sexuality, race, class, ethnicity, religion, able-bodiness – are determinants of our present and future, life prospects and obstructions. PDSFF2023 focuses on their intersections and follows stories of characters, individuals and communities that experience oppression due to identities they carry. Shedding light on life paths of “others” – often through realism and humor and other times through abstraction and experimentation – the festival aims to give space to co-creation, networking and shaping of collective claims.  Our aspiration is to turn PDSFF into an institution for promoting intersecting identities and raising awareness on issues of discrimination and oppression experienced by individuals and groups that fall through the cracks of representation in contemporary polities. All information here

Campaign: Life beyond EU Funding. Imagining a Different Role for Youth Organisations in Europe

We campaign across Europe arguing that structural EU funding to youth organisations needs to increase. We request that operational funding reach 5% of the overall Erasmus+ budget in the field of youth on a yearly basis. This can only be sustainable through a series of policy interventions in the system of allocation and the overall terms of operation of the youth sector on the EU level. Check out the campaign website.

Youth Pool

A series of interactive online meetings of young people to present themselves, identify youth issues in their community based on the European Youth Goals, focused on best practices and solutions, proposing and implementing advocacy actions – https://civilsocietynetwork.weebly.com/

Public makers – Toolkit/Online Course

The course is divided in 4 modules: (1) Ways of thinking, (2) Ways of working, (3) Tools of work and (4) Living in the community. The first module will give an introduction to the open data to its students. Visualisation of the data and its accessibility are the topics that will be covered in the second module. How to use open data tools and sources to create a change in the community is what will the students of the Public makers course find out in the third module. Last but not least – the fourth module will be focused on the lobbying for change.

STEP Online Series “Social Transformation & Ecology

A series of online local seminars on issues of ecological sustainability, circular economy, environmental justice and activism. During this seminar, activities related to the STEP project will be implemented online. After the completion of the seminar series, participants will develop local sustainable intereventions dedicated to important environmental days such as the Global Degrowth Day and the International Environment Day. 5 online meetings have been foreseen.

Youth Work Fair Youth Work Fair promotes the exchange of know-how about experiences and forms of youth work, to highlight the role, prospects and challenges of youth work at local, national, European and international level as well as to inform those interested in training and skills development opportunities, both in Greece and abroad.

Partnerships

Our network in the field of youth involves more than 120 organisations, institutions, networks and municipalities from around the world. Cooperation is primarily made on a project-basis. However, Inter Alia has taken up an effort to include partners in a new decision making body within the organisation, the Board of Members, and to broaden the ground for statutory agreement with other civil society actors.

Expected Results

The work plan aims to empower youth organisations and enable partnerships thus contributing to the proliferation and diversification of networks and stakeholders dealing with needs of youth at the local, national and EU level. In specific, the work plan aims to: a. Raise interest and awareness of young people on EU matters; b. Develop skills and competences for youngsters, youth workers and educators; c. Enable contact and inter-cultural exchange between youngsters beyond national, ethnic, racial, social and gender divisions; d. Raise awareness among policy-makers on challenges of youth and push for policy reform.

Target Groups

Youngsters residing in Europe; Youth workers & educators; Civic and youth organizations; High-school and university students; Policy-makers; Scholars.

Deliverables

• Educational modules (3);
• Short-films created by youngsters carrying marginalised identities (8);
• Policy recommendations on youth policies, media literacy, open data & democracy (3)
• E-platform on youth participation;
• Performances using theatre as a tool for political engagement (6);
• Open cultural events about shrinking public space (25);
• Awareness campaigns on shrinking public space (2);
• Festivals aimed to empower young artists and raise awareness on oppressed identities (2)

​Funding

Apart from EU funding, Inter Alia will continue cooperating with private and public international organisations, local and national authorities and donors.