Europe is important, not just from a geopolitical or economic point of view. Europe is our future, without Europe our future becomes narrower, smaller, darker... Many people in Europe see above all what does not work well and many problems are pushed to the EU. But Europe is a process, an idea that can evolve and become ever better. However, the prerequisite for this is that we are involved, and that young people, in particular, are involved. That we, civil society, younger and older, women and men, long lived and immigrant here, that we are all committed to it in our diversity and in our uniqueness! And that we become aware of Europe’s achievements! The Conference on the Future of Europe and the Youth Forum will provide a great opportunity to create a space for such discussions in autumn 2021. Pedagogical objectives • getting to know an intercultural group • formulate and justify your own ideas • Participation in democratic processes of ideas • Arouse interest in the EU • show how the EU works in people’s everyday lives, especially young people • communicating the principles of inclusiveness, openness and tolerance as part of the “Conference on the Future of Europe”. By building a good group dynamic, we want to build on the topic of trust within the group. Language animation has an important place here. It serves to remove inhibitions. In a multilingual environment, participants need to use different communication strategies and should not be afraid to make themselves understandable with their hands and feet. Foreign language skills should be used without fear of mistakes, even if they are just single words. In this way, the participants are relieved of the fear of the unfamiliar communication situation and within the group a basis of trust is built up. In addition, individual important terms can be learned and a first reference to the other languages is established. The languages appear less foreign and it is also aroused interest in the other culture. Other know-how activities and workshops also contribute to good group dynamics. Without this important phase, only a few participants would freely express their opinions and ideas and it would be difficult to discuss their content. The exact selection of methods is carried out by the team, which will be on site. Only in this way can the methods be adapted to the needs and interests of the participants and to the group dynamics. Our teammates are well trained and able to adapt the choice of methods flexibly throughout the week. Thus, there is also time to address questions of content or to manage any conflicts within the group. Content work on EU The EU is a complex and sometimes bulky topic. Even people who are fundamentally interested in Europe do not necessarily have all the details about the Member States and the institutions in their minds. This complexity creates uncertainty – especially among young people. But you don't have to know every answer to participate in social discussions! Expert knowledge can be found. Communicating this to the participants is one of our tasks in non-formal education and is far more valuable than the exact knowledge of annual figures and legal texts. When choosing the methods, the team will be careful not to give the participants the idea “I should actually know that...” but rather to awaken curiosity to the other countries and regions of Europe and to make you feel that their everyday experiences and opinions are important. In order to explain the context of the Citizens’ Forum and explain the types of civic participation in the EU, an external expert will provide input in one day. With this knowledge, the participants can then plunge into the discussions. The participants themselves experience what it means to shape politics. One of the important experiences to be conveyed to the participants in this project is the participation in an idea-finding process and the active participation in political discussions. That’s why the participants are supposed to help shape the program themselves and have a lot of open space in the open space format. With this method, participants themselves have the opportunity to put topics and ideas on the agenda. Only in a second step are times and rooms set up for working groups, which the participants can freely choose and change. At the end of the event, the resulting ideas will be shared with politicians and discussed together. The results of this event feed into the major conference on the future of Europe and anyone who wants can contribute personally to this conference with the knowledge and experience of the Youth Forum.