#euroCM

“EuroChangeMakers (#euroCM) projekt on vastus praegustele demokraatlikele väljakutsetele, mis on viimastel kuudel COVID19 pandeemia kontekstis silmitsi seisnud. Praegune pandeemia olukord mõjutas otseselt kodanike demokraatliku osalemise võimalust. Füüsilised distantseerumismeetmed säilisid kõikides Euroopa Liidu liikmesriikides – kodus püsimine, massiürituste keelamine ning füüsiline distantseerumine avalikkuses.

Sellised piirangud mõjutavad peamiseid õiguseid, sealhulgas vabaduse ja turvalisuse õiguseid (Artikkel 6), era- ja pereelu austamist (Artikkel 7), mõttevabadust, südametunnistust ja religiooni (Artikkel 10), eneseväljendust ja informatsiooni kättesaadavust (Artikkel 11), kogunemis- ja ühinemisvabadust (Artikkel 12), kunsti- ning teadusvabadust (Artikkel 13) ja liikumis- ning elamisvabadust (Artikkel 45). (FRA, Bulletin 2, 2020).

Seega saab tulevasest perioodist 2021–2022 ELi tuleviku jaoks kriitiline punkt, kus kodanikud peaksid koguma, arutama, mõtlema ja osalema Euroopa projekti kriitilistes küsimustes: Digitaliseerimine, keskkond ja sotsiaalne ühtekuuluvus. Mis puutub programmide üldeesmärkidesse, siis meie ettepanek: – ühest küljest selgitab see paremini, kuidas EL toimib, eriti kodanikuhäkatonide ajal (A2, A4), kus osalejatel on võimalus oma ideid ja ettepanekuid täpsustada, et need paremini Euroopa raamistikku sobiksid; – teiselt poolt edendab see Euroopa kodakondsuse mõistmist ja tunnetamist, tehes koostööd Euroopa tasandil ja kaasates ka Lääne-Balkani riigid (Albaania, Serbia ning Bosnia ja Hertsegoviina).

EuroCM loob digitaalse platvormi, kus kogu sisu koondatakse, ja samal ajal loob see üleeuroopalise mitteametliku noortevõrgustiku (ECM), kus 100 noorel (18–30-aastastel) on võimalus tegutseda, kodanikega nõu pidada ning ennast väljendada Euroopa tuleviku teemal; Konkreetsete eesmärkide osas pakub euroCM välja mitteametliku võrgustiku, mis koosneb nii 18 riigi kodanikuühiskonna organisatsioonidest kui ka noortest (ECM). Mõlemad tasandid töötavad koos ning püüavad ergutada arutelu, mõtisklusi ja edendada Euroopa väärtusi selliste põnevate ja tõhusate meetodite abil nagu vlogimine, intervjuud ja kodanikuhäkatonid. Lisaks loob see võimaliku kaasatuse mitmel tasandil: alates #euroCM hashtagi lihtsast jälgimisest sotsiaalmeedias ja Euroopa uudiste ja arvamustega kursis hoidmisest kuni osalemiseni ühiskondlikul häkatonil, mis põhineb koostööl ja kuni ECM-i rolli võtmiseni (EuroChangeMaker), töötades 8 kuud vabatahtlikult ELiga seotud teemadel.

Selles protsessis toetavad kodanikke partnerorganisatsioonide poliitikakujundamise eksperdid, neile pakutakse võimalust suhelda poliitikutega Euroopa kodanikuhäkatonil nii näost näkku kui ka veebis ning lõpuks kogutakse, liidetakse ja edastatakse nende vaateid kõrgetasemelistele sidusrühmadele. Selles vormingus analüüsitakse Euroopa tulevikku kolmes põhisuunas: sotsiaalne ühtekuuluvus, kliimamuutused ja digitaalsus – kolm aspekti, mis on tõhusad ka euroskeptilisuse vaidlustamisel. Kodaniku häkatonide loominguline formaat võib käsitleda otse euroskeptilisi narratiive, mõista nende argumente ja koostöös elujõulisema Euroopa projekti lahendusi välja töötades. ”

CIVIC HACKATHON 

Date: October 6, 2021

Place: Narva College

Team: Noored Uhiskinna Heaks, Narva College (Oleksandra Golovko, Kaur Kötsi)

Target group: Narva College students (2 participants 16-17 y.o, 19 participants 18-30 y.o., 4 participants 31-44 y.o.)

Language of the hackathon: English

Preparation:

1. The Narva College students were informed about the upcoming hackathon.
2. We also asked them to bring friends who are interested in the future of Europe because we promised to show them that grass-root activism and active citizenship principles matter and can lead to fruitful results.
3. The participants were asked to share their concerns in at the following website https://futureu.europa.eu/pages/getinvolved. It was also explained to the students how the website works and how they can contribute and add posts with ideas.
4. A spacious room was provided to ensure that the students could communicate without endangering their lives as COVID-19 was already quite virulent in Estonia and first restrictions were introduced. Other safety measures were also ensured e.g. hand disinfectant.
5. Students were asked to think about the urgent problems that Europe is facing now and discuss them with friends, relatives, or google to become more knowledgeable in this area. They were also asked to share ideas on https://citizenos.com/.
6. A PowerPointPresentation was prepared that could facilitate the participants’ understanding of the hackathon stages and what exactly was required from them in terms of cooperation, communication, and outcomes at every single step of the hackathon.
7. In the middle of the hackathon, the participants were offered a coffee-break.

Hackathon day:

1. The room for the hackathon was prepared and the participants arrived on time with the exception of a couple of participants who were under 10 min late.
2. The hackathon started with a dynamic introduction of all the organizations that supported the hackathon, facilitators, and welcoming of the participants. We also explained the main aim of the hackathon and what is expected from the participants by the end of the event.
3. We played a game of “BINGO” that allowed the participants to get acquainted with each other, feel more relaxed, and concentrate on the topics of the hackathon – digital, green, social. The participants were mostly from Narva College, but they were from different groups and did not know each other very well. This game allowed the participants to establish friendly relations and see already who they wanted to cooperate with.
4. We also used the MentiMeter digital tool that stimulated students to concentrate more on the issues that they were going to discuss as well as highlight the areas that could be paid attention to during the design thinking stages.
5. The participants made 4 groups (green, digital, and 2 social).
6. The facilitators explained every stage of the hackathon and prepared a scaffolding presentation.

At Stage 1, we wanted the participants to share their experience and learn to empathize. The discussions were long and required more time than we had expected as the participants researched the problems they were particularly concerned about. It means that they wanted to share more and needed to be heard.

At Stage 2, we defined the problems, and the participants used the fishbone analysis approach to identify the stakeholders, causes, and effects. As the number of initial ideas was high, this stage also required more time than we had expected.

At Stage 3, the participants ideated, and they were trying to find out solutions that could be successfully used to overcome the variety of modern difficulties. Finally, they concentrated on one most feasible solution according to them.

At Stage 4, the participants worked with the prototypes. Due to the limited time, too talkative participants, and COVID restrictions, the students explained the prototypes to the facilitators, other participants, and did not have time to go outside to check the prototype with the town citizens.

At Stage 5, the participants improved their prototypes.

At Stage 6, the participants presented their prototypes to the audience, received and answered questions. The discussion here was also long and involved different aspects that directly or indirectly related to the issue.

At the end, the participants shared their views on the event, what they liked as well as what they are going to do differently from now. Some participants really seemed inspired, and they said that they feel they can make a difference.

Outcomes:

Social: Family abuse. The best solution is to increase the general level of awareness of the problem and rights in the community through better education, information campaigns, special services, hotlines, higher number of specialists and psychologists in institutions of different types.

Social: Language of education in the multicultural Europe. The language of instruction is often a segregation line that does not allow many people to receive proper education, is a reason for chauvinism towards others etc. A solution could be more intensive youth work in multicultural communities that would engage the people and help them acquire the necessary skills for the future. Another aspect is a low salary in the system of education when the teachers feel overworked and/or discouraged from making step to support the students who are struggling with the language of instruction.

Digital: Information overload and hygiene. Integrating media literacy and critical thinking into the compulsory courses. A lot has been done about critical thinking, but many people still do not understand that critical thinking is the ability to assess information that comes from a variety of sources and at the same time retaining their integrity and avoiding cybercriminals.

Green: The heating season is coming, and people are already anticipating the bills. Europe should allocate more money on research of alternative ways of energy, how to transport it without suffering heavy energy losses. At the same time, all over Europe, we witness the decrease in the interest in nature-related subjects (e.g. physics and geography) and more in humanities (e.g. languages). More investment, scholarship, and support should be given to energy research and promotion of nature-related subjects and (poly-) technical universities and colleges.

The participants left the event inspired. After the event, in the corridor, they said that they would love to have more similar events.

Meil on ülihea meel, et Noored Ühiskonna Heaks saab kaasa lüüa sellises suures projektis.
Loe #EuroCM kohta rohkem veebilehelt: https://eurocm.geyc.ro/