IdeaLab for EU4Youth Alumni Network
January 22, 2021

IdeaLab for EU4Youth Alumni Network


On 16 January, an IdeaLab event was organised for the EU4Youth Alumni Network. The event took place in a hybrid online/offline format, bringing together more than 100 participants, including EU4Youth Alumni, 57 young people from target groups, 6 mentors, 1 facilitator, 1 coordinator, and 2 coordination team members.

The IdeaLab was organised as an innovative and experimental event with the aim to generate creative ideas for the work with young people, especially in times of COVID-related restrictions. The event therefore marked an important milestone in a chain of activities planned in the framework of the Alumni network.

Alumni and the young people with whom they have been working over the past months presented their ideas and further developed them in an intensive meeting lasting almost five hours. Translation was provided into six languages (Armenian, Azerbaijani, Belarusian, Georgian, Romanian and Ukrainian) to ensure inclusiveness for those young people from target groups who did not have an understanding of the working language (English).

After sharing their ideas, Alumni and young participants were asked to adapt their ideas to fully digital formats, blended formats and fully-in person formats. This was very much appreciated and provided Alumni with alternative plans and quick reactive strategies to the changing context in which they have to work.

After this exercise, the groups developed further steps to implement these ideas. As a result, most of them defined the activities to be organised in the coming months, when and how they will test and implement them, and the resources they need.

The planned activities are varied and adapted to the needs of each target group. They include:

  • Many Alumni are planning simple educational activities with their target groups in topics where they feel competent and which target groups highlighted as their interest. These include soft skills and personal development, employability trainings, women and leadership, English clubs, rights and discrimination of people with disabilities.
  • Actions in the community led by the Alumni and the target group, such as creating a youth media studio for developing videos and technical skills, establishing a regular support group for young single mothers, and opening small youth spaces led by Alumni for their target groups.
  • Running different activities self-organised by target groups in cooperation with the Alumni, such as: boardgames evenings, debate events, photo contests, cooking evenings, arts and crafts meetings, sports competitions, youth camps, etc.
  • Digital initiatives: other alumni are planning activities to develop digital materials with the target groups and spread them online to raise awareness on different topics, creating social media spaces and campaigns, etc.

The  EU4Youth Alumni Network aims to build a network of beneficiaries of EU Mobility programmes and youth networks in the Eastern Partnership to provide peer support and guidance for disadvantaged youth groups.



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