EUROPEAN STUDENTS’ FORUM

HOW TO MAKE A WORKSHOP ON...

EVERY EU RELATED TOPIC

Y VOTE 2014

Y Yote 2014

If you are reading this that means that you are interested in the European Union affairs. Or you like conducting trainings. Or maybe you want to make people go and vote in the next European Parliament elections 2014.

Probably all of these reasons are more or less true to you and if you are still hesitating whether you should conduct a workshop to young people about EU or not, this document will help you decide that yes, you should!

Y Yote 2014

We will help you prepare and we will provide you with some tips and ideas of how to make your workshop attractive and interesting for participants.

But remember – these are only suggestions. You may follow them closely, you can get inspired by them or you can decide that there is nothing useful and you want to make a workshop in your own way.

The point is – if we, young people, want to have a say in Europe, we need to make a clear stand that we care and our suggestions have to be considered. The way to do it is voting. In previous elections, the percentage of young people turnout was really low. So, will you help us to change the future and statistics? Of course, the decision is up to you(th)!

Y vote 2014

TO START WITH

First of all – you need a topic. We provide you with 3 PowerPoint presentations on EU related topics:

a. How does the EU works?b. Impact of the EU on our daily livesc. The power of voting

You can use them along with the information documents attached to them and alter them to your needs, topic and audience. You can also do a workshop on other EU-related topic.

Y vote 2014

TO START WITH Secondly, there is some basic information you need to prepare before conducting a workshop:

AIM OF WORKSHOP – you can modify it a bit but the point of workshops is to inform participants about the EU and their rights, and encourage them to vote.TARGET GROUP - young people, but who exactly (students, AEGEEans, high school students…) it is up to you.METHODOLOGY – it means ways to reach the aim, like: team work, brainstorming, discussions, presentations…TOOLS AND MATERIALS NEEDED - like: projector, white board, pens; this information will help you list all the materials and make sure you do not forget to have them provided.TIME – how much time you will have? School lesson? University lesson?

Y vote 2014

PREPARATIONS BEFORE THE WORKSHOPYou have a topic and you have decided how it should (more or less) look like? Great! But that is not the end, the next thing for you to do is to answer the questions listed below. They are supposed to help you tailor what and how you will be presenting to the participants:

a. How old will be the participants? Are they still high school students or they are university students? Maybe they do not study but work? Or maybe they are unemployed?

b. What is their knowledge of the European Union? Do they know something, nothing or they know the structure of the EU pretty well?

c. What is their attitude towards the EU institutions?

Y vote 2014

PREPARATIONS BEFORE THE WORKSHOP

You can also consider making a survey covering these issues before your workshop.

It is important to know answers to these questions, because the content of this workshop should be adjusted to the participants. The presentation we provide you with should be a base and you should modify it to make it appropriate for your target group.

Y vote 2014

TASKS BEFORE THE WORKSHOP

Before the workshop, you should ask yourself whether it is possible (and useful) to contact the participants before the workshop to give them some tasks. If yes, you may e.g. ask them to think of something related to the topic of your workshop, like how they think their country would look like if it was not a Member State of the EU.

You can also divide them into few groups (if they can work together) or assign a separate presentation topic to every participant. You can ask them to make a very short presentation on an interesting aspect about European Parliament or voting.

Y vote 2014

WORKSHOP

Now it is time for you to shine! Be informative, well-prepared, innovative, engaging, encouraging! Spread interest of the EU!

To do that, you need more than just a PowerPoint presentation. Think of new ways to present knowledge to participants and to engage them to actively participate – both during your workshop and later in their lives.

Y vote 2014

WORKSHOP

There are some examples of actions you can take to involve them in your workshop:

a. Ask them to prepare presentations;b. Ask the participants to brainstorm on EU/EP achievements. You can

give them a list of areas of impact of the EU or give them a list of competences of the EU. You can also watch this video with them http://www.whathaseuropedone.eu/index.php as an introduction for brainstorming;

Y vote 2014

WORKSHOP

c. You can ask them questions: Which of the EP achievements is the most important for you?

Maybe there is something you would not be able to live without? How your life would look like, if your country were not a Member

State of the EU? There is constantly something going on in Brussels. But what has

actually changed in your life after accession of your country? Or what can be changed in few years of participation?

d. Make surveys on their expectations of workshop and level of knowledge about the topic – before and after your workshop;

Y vote 2014

WORKSHOP

e. Do simulations, e.g. voting simulation or decision-making process simulation with them;

f. Prepare an Oxford debate;g. Ask them to work in small groups and to e.g. prepare set of

rules how to vote based on relevant pieces of legislature, or prepare a campaign on how to increase voting turnout, or prepare videos (or scripts to videos) encouraging people to vote; or write a letter to a MEP on an issue important to them.

Y vote 2014

WORKSHOP

Keep in mind, that during your presentation you can use general data, but you can also adjust it to information about participants’ country. The EU has influenced every Member State in a different way. There are, on one hand, founding countries who have been members for 50 years and on the other there is Croatia which joined the EU on 1st July 2013.

Real changes the EU bring are long-term improvements and they can be seen and analysed after some years of membership. In general, you can point out several aspects of the EU influence on daily life of its citizens.

And finally, the most important part – ask them about voting – if they intended to vote before the workshop and if the workshop changed their attitude or not.

Y vote 2014

FOLLOW-UP

As always, project, and your workshop is a project and also part of bigger project – Y Vote 2014 It’s up to You(th)!, doesn not end when you leave the training room. There are some important tasks now:

a. There is the impact measurement part to do;b. Were there people interested in performing some local

actions within the Y Vote 2014 project? If so, collect their e-mail addresses, provide them with ways to contact us and let us know!

Y vote 2014

And at the end, we want to thank you for preparing a workshop in the framework of the Y Vote 2014 It’s up to You(th)! Project!

yvote2014@aegee.org http://aegee.org/yvote2014/

https://www.facebook.com/YVote2014 https://twitter.com/YVote14

EUROPEAN STUDENTS’ FORUM

Y VOTE 2014