Objectives:

Overall: contribute to a fairer and more sustainable world through awareness-raising and empowerment of European citizens in advocating for global development.

Specific: engage citizens of highly-indebted countries in understanding the interdependence of national and international issues of social justice, and in supporting the reinforcement of development policies, despite the austerity measures implemented at national level.

Beneficiaries:

Direct: 3,600 young adult citizens of the European Union; 20 experts in Non-Governmental Development Organisations (NGDOs); 15 journalists and 270 policy makers.

 

 

Global Activities:

• Elaboration and dissemination of a survey to collect opinions and perceptions from Portuguese young people (15-30 years of age) about Global Development and Social Justice. The analysis of these responses resulted in the publication “Survey on young
adults’ stances towards Global Development and Social Justice”;

• Competition and selection of the Youth Ambassadors for Global Social Justice;

• Organisation of a Global Youth Forum in Brussels, 5-9 July 2014, resulting in a Youth Declaration;

• Dissemination and participation in 7 webinars about Collaborative Economy, Microfinance, European Citizenship Initiatives and Social Justice, with the participation of CSO experts from several countries;

• Development and implementation of the awarenessraising and advocacy campaign “Change the Economy: Think Social!” at European level;

• Engagement of members of the European Parliament: Carlos Coelho and Sofia Ribeiro (Aliança Portugal), João Ferreira and João Pimenta Lopes (CDU), Liliana Rodrigues (PS) and Marisa Matias (BE) through face-to-face meetings, and exchanging emails about the project and the campaign with the Youth Ambassadors for Global Social Justice;

• Participation and presentation of the campaign in various national and international events dedicated to Social Economy and Solidarity Economy, including:

• I Forum of Ethical and Solidarity Finance, Porto;

• Event on Social and Solidarity Economy organised by GUE/NL Group at the European Parliament, Brussels;

• Forum on Social Economy and Entrepreneurship, Lisbon;

• Meeting with the Portuguese Ambassador of the European Year for Development, Cláudia Semedo, on “Sustainable Growth, Entrepreneurship and Decent Work”, Lisbon;

• I National Cooperative Meeting “Ritmos de Mudança”, Abrantes;

• International Conference of the Centre International de Recherches et d’Information sur l’Economie Publique, Sociale et Coopérative (CIRIEC), Lisbon;

• Lecture “Social Economy: the richness of diversity. Concepts and Practices”, Porto;

• European Forum of Social and Solidarity Economy, European Parliament, Brussels;

• II Forum of Ethical and Solidarity Finance, Faro.

• Promoting a petition to put Social Economy and Solidarity Economy at the centre of political and economic agendas in the European Union and its member states, and to indicate 2018 as the European Year for Social Economy and Solidarity Economy;

• Creation and updating the project’s website (www.challengingthecrisis.com/pt) and facebook page (www.facebook.com/challengingthecrisis);

• Production of information materials and the animated film “A story about Social Economy and Solidarity Economy”;

• Organising the event “Light the Way – Portugal”, within the international coalition Action 2015, with more than 240 participants who left their wishes for the world in 2030 on a wall specifically created for this event;

• Facilitation of 6 face-to-face and 3 online meetings with Youth Ambassadors for Global Social Justice;

• Presentation of the project as a good practice in Global Citizenship Education in several international events:

• Annual Conference of the One World Network (Eine Welt Net), Munster;

• DEAR Fair organised by the European Commission, Brussels;

• DEAR Cluster Meeting organised by the “DEAR Support Team” of the European Commission, Dublin;

• European Congress on Global Education at the NorthSouth Centre of the Council of Europe, Zagreb.

• Elaboration and publication of an Advocacy Manual, based on the experience of Youth Ambassadors in promoting the campaign “Change the Economy: Think Social!”;

• Organisation of the Social and Solidarity Economy Week in 15 libraries in Portugal;

• External evaluation to the project though an innovative system that enabled a continuous improvement of activities and several brainstorming moments about the project’s outcomes;

• Participation in partners’ meetings, monitoring and planning meetings foreseen by the project, via webex.

 

Partners:

IDEA, Fair Trade Hellas, FCRE, CIPSI and SLOGA