Eleven Goals. Eleven groups. Eleven changes...both personal and local.
The Eleven Changes project aims at taking 150 young people through a transformative learning process, challenging them to critically reflect on and act for the 11 european Youth Goals, and become who they were meant to be: local agents for positive change. With a focus on creating a snowball effect, we want to mobilise these young people to become peer leaders in their community, reaching more and more people over time.

Tomar, Ribatejo, Central Region of Portugal

Tomar is a small city in the interior of Portugal. According to national statistical sources, it’s population has been decreasing annually, having in 2018 a total of 23.046 inhabitants, 3.729 of these young people between the ages of 15-34. The lack of opportunities is one reason for the decrease in youth numbers. There are also specific groups with fewer opportunities and higher risk of exclusion, such as the roma community, students in professional courses or with financial difficulties. The project has this context in mind, aimed at empowering young people in Tomar but also to contribute to higher social cohesion, building bridges between different realities, helping young people use their voices, enabling dialogue and involving young people in new opportunities, decentralising them.

This project is aimed at young people, 15-20 years old, attending professional courses in the city of Tomar. This specific group experiences prejudice, at local and national levels, by choosing this educational path, which is more practical. This prejudice stays with the students even after they finish the courses, with negative effects in their future opportunities. On the other hand, young people in Tomar are also affected by the lack of diverse opportunities in personal development, culture or education, available in larger cities. This project will also have a positive impact on the school and local communities, through the community and peer actions developed by the young people. We believe that, this way, we will be able to create bridges and promote stronger social cohesion.

0.Kickoff + management
1.Capacity building for professionals: on non formal methodologies + for the co-development of the programme for young people (3 days)
2.Programme for young people: 5 sessions on personal and social skills development +5 sessions on the Youth Goals, for 11 groups and a total of 150 young people, through non-formal methodologies (6 months)
3.Community actions: after the Programme (step 2), each group of young people will co-develop and implement an action for their school or local community, around 1 of the Youth Goals (1 month)
4.Bootcamp: 22 young leaders (2 per group) will participate in a 5 days residential course to become peer educators
5.Peer Actions: the young leaders will facilitate new sessions for young people, as a peer education experiment (3 months)

For us, success in this project means:
1) a pilot transformative learning programme is tested and ready for replication, exploring european goals and values;
2) local young people are mobilised for community change towards active citizenship and the Youth Goals, assuming their role as peer leaders and with an impact at local and global levels.
Results:
1 pilot programme co-developed and tested
1 publication prepared, to ensure replication of the learning programme for young people
1 capacity building for professionals training implemented
110 sessions for 11 groups implemented
150 young people trained
11 community actions for 130 people
22 young leaders take part in the bootcamp
22 young leaders develop peer actions for 120 people
11 short videos about the 11 Youth Goals

To strengthen democracy and citizenship through young people, by focusing on helping them become change makers in their own communities, is the goal of this project. We believe young people can be agents of change but, to become so, they need to discover their potential and recognize their role as multipliers. To support this process, we will be offering a personal and social skills development programme, to help 150 young people be more prepared to propose concrete actions in their community around the Youth Goals and to become peer leaders, reaching out to other young people. We want to start a snowball effect, reaching more and more people over time. For us, local change can and will lead to global positive transformation and personal development supports the development of a community.

The Eleven Changes project matters because it contributes to the empowerment of young people that are aware of their own skills, engaged in their school and local communities, more informed and active in their choices. We recognise the importance of european agendas for youth: Lisbon+21, in which 21 commitments were made towards the promotion and guarantee of youth rights; Youth Goals, that gave voice to young people themselves to express their needs and views. Both these agendas put youth in the centre of the discussion, which both the partner organisations also focus on. We believe that working with young people is the path for real change, if we can engage them through active and experiential methodologies. This will ensure a local and global positive impact.

1. Staff costs 33.053€
2. Office expenses 2.310€
3. Transport and accommodation costs 6.100€
4. Pedagogical material costs 1.860€
5. Communication and dissemination costs 3.165€

_ suggestions of good practices in the issues we are exploring in the project
_ any comments on the path proposed or general comments - every suggestion will ensure the project is the best it can be!
_ possible future partnerships with organisations working in the same field