Italy
participants
The goal of the activity was to raise awareness in high school students about the importance of voting in the upcoming European Elections.
We tried to reach it by providing critical information on the functioning of the EU and showing them many of the possibilities that exist thanks to the EU in the framework of international cooperation and mobility and by involving them in discussion activities.
The activity was coordinated with local students and a volunteering association, named MFE (Movimento Federalista Europeo).
The target audience was around 100 students aged 17-19, who were encouraged to join the activity on a volunteer basis. Most of them are called to vote for the first time, and we wanted to give them information on three topics.
The first part was a brief introduction about how the EU institutions work, then a presentation on the main parties in the EU Parliament took place and finally we explored possibilities that the EU provides to young people and students.
In this context, ESN volunteers were keen on describing the Erasmus+ project and all the many opportunities in this framework that exist.
ESN volunteers also took care of making the event more informal and friendly, organizing some small activities that aimed at involving participants and make them think about the European Union.
The leading questions were: "what is EU for you? In one word or small concept" // "state one positive element of being in the EU and one thing you could change". Answers varied from Euro, commercial exchanges and no barriers as positive to limited integration and complexity of the bureaucracy as element to change.
