YouMap, Young Urban cartographies
Partners | Young mappers
Coordinated by Lunaria, the YouMap project aims to promote the creation of an international information network based on open source software. It will be constructed by and for youth, and will fill information gaps that prevent youth today from participating in the full range of life in their communities. It will also give young people direct access to training and social opportunities.
One of the project’s main goals is get young people (both natives and migrants) involved in the creation of an innovative tool. This, it is hoped, will promote more active citizenship, allowing the youth opportunities of real interaction, exchange, and the chance to implement common ideas.
In this way YouMap will become a system of “Active Information”. It will be a way to develop new and existing initiatives which are aimed at promoting active and equal citizenship for youth. Once integrated into the YouMap system, these initiatives will become much more visible to a public who may not have seen them before due to their “grass roots” base.
The overall goal of this project is to share a new way to create and use information about the social and cultural life of youth in Europe. The hope is that by promoting encounters of native youth and second generation migrants in large European cities, discussions about each individual's social and cultural frame of reference will begin. From this, maps will be created that can be used by other young European citizens, travelling or not, who would like to explore routes proposed by other youth.
The main objectives of the project are:
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Creating and sharing a tool for youth to use in mapping their cities, and creating a database of information, to be hosted on the YouMap website.
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Building a network of young natives and immigrants who will work together in their respective countries researching and mapping their cities, and discussing the good and bad points of their city's access to youth opportunities.
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To create an intercultural setting that promotes exchanges and discussions about equal opportunities for natives and migrants.
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Creating a tool that will be equally useful for young people travelling and for youth desiring to live in their city in a more conscious way.
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To utilize new information technology to collectively create a tool that will be continuously improvable by users all around the EU.
The YouMap concept was born from the experience of the Youth Information Center of Mestre in Venice, and the on-going socio-anthropological project Tresegy, which performs research on the inclusion or exclusion of second generation migrant youth in Europe. Both projects are under the heading of Lunaria.
Considering the difficulties faced by social services dedicated to young people in most European Countries, and the lack of youth participation in their construction on a local level, we would like to start a new genre of autonomously produced services.
Small research groups composed of both natives and migrants from different areas and backgrounds will start things off. From this, thanks to Information Technology (IT), this new space for social exchange will be created and opened up to a wider audience. This will in turn promote the closure of the digital divide, meetings of groups with different social and cultural backgrounds, European youth mobility, and better access to each city’s cultural offerings (both public and underground).
What we'll map:
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Youth meeting sites in the cities
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Service centers for youth employment and training
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Cultural sites (cinemas, theatres, events, etc,)
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Non-formal schools of the arts, media, etc.
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Migrant and active citizenship associations
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Intercultural centers and projects
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Voluntary service and European mobility organizations
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Trade unions
The following training activities will be organized to prepare youth for participation in the project:
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Intensive IT courses
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Local workshop on the reuse of old PCs using open source software, and discussions about the digital divide
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Informal education workshops working on a balance between perceived and actual needs of youth as pertains to social and cultural inclusion and urban services and opportunities
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Meetings with high school students and youth from local associations (social centers, active citizenship, migration, etc.) to gather information on their needs concerning social communication and access to social spaces
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Exchanges between the five national research groups so that each may present their work, and work together to improve the multinational framework of the online mapping tool
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Presentations of the YouMap website in the 5 participating nations
The YouMap project has much potential. First, it can be used as a tool for youth to present their community life, neighborhoods and cultural differences to one another. Second it provides an opportunity for young people to share events, places, and people of interest in a closer cooperation with local institutions. This means that an exchange can take place between youth all around Europe, regardless of their situation, religion or culture.
Teams are in place and working in suburban areas of each of the five participating countries (Spain, Italy, Germany, France and Turkey). Youth of all backgrounds, but specifically those with fewer opportunities, migrants and immigrants are heavily involved with the project, and are recruited through local youth centers, schools, public social spaces, and sports centers.
YouMap is a European transnational project. It is supported by the European Commission, the Youth in Action Program – Action 4.4, and the Charle Magne Foundation (It). On a local level it is supported by several municipalities: Comune di Venezia Youth Policies Department, and the French Presidency of the European Union.