The aim of the training programme is to deepen the understanding of cultural workers about young people in rural areas and their way of doing cultural activities and events. Among other things, cultural operators will learn to identify the different forms and expressions of youth culture in rural areas and will be equipped with tools to reach out to young people in rural areas. For their part, the project will provide employers' organisations with tips on good practice and well-founded policy recommendations for cultural youth work.
Young people in rural areas will also be involved in the development of the training programme. The aim is to empower young people to create their own cultural space and to inspire them to organise their own cultural events.
The project is divided into three parts:
1. Needs analysis
In need analysis part we will find out what young people in rural areas think about culture and what training needs cultural workers working with them have.This will be used as a basis for designing a local training programme. In addition, the cultural policies for young people in rural areas in the municipalities will be identified.This needs analysis will be carried out through literature, municipal strategies and plans, workshops and surveys.This phase will culminate in a seminar at the end of September 2022, where the results will be presented to an academic audience and to cultural and youth actors
2. Developing and testing the training programme
The participating universities will develop a common training programme, which will be tested simultaneously in three pilot courses in Finland, Denmark and Portugal. As part of the training programme, local cultural workers will visit other countries for inspiration and learning.
3. Creating policy recommendations
The regional partners involved in the project will jointly assess the impact of each local training programme and any differences between them. A report will be written on the findings and the discussions will be used to develop policy recommendations for cultural youth work in rural areas of the EU. The project will end with a teleconference in June 2024.
