Promising outcomes for the ‘Youth engaged on both shores’ European project with Algerian municipalities
For two years, the ‘Youth engaged on both shores’ project (or JESR for Jeunesse engagée sur les deux rives) has built and developed tools and dynamics that we shared during a closing seminar held in Tichy from December 6 to 9, 2018. This event focused on “local action, concertation and participative democracy at the service of youth” has also been a space for reflection and co-construction of perspectives beyond the JESR project.
The JESR project was initiated in January 2017, under the leadership of Cités Unies France and its partner Etoile Culturelle Akbou in Algeria and around several French and Algerian local governments: the city of Aubervilliers and its partner Bouzeguène, the city of Epinay-sur-Seine and its partner Tichy, the city of Mulhouse and its partner El Khroub and finally the territorial Community of the Vallée de l’Hérault (CCVH), which is developing a partnership with Biskra following the JESR project.
2019 will be a year of transition for the JESR project partner organisations but also a year of continuity and structuring of other projects. The network’s dynamic of the project will be pursued but also extended to other organisations and actors, in particular, for CUF, during meetings to take stock of this project and structure the perspectives. This JESR experience will also be shared via the Algeria country group and the July 10th edition of the “Internationalisation of towns & regions” meeting.
Then, via decentralised cooperation: work is already underway between the Algerian local governments and their French partners, Epinay and Tichy on volunteering, Aubervilliers and Bouzeguene on youth exchanges, Mulhouse and El Khroub on the cultural side, the CCVH and Biskra on tourism and the economy.
Finally, the JESR project also continues through the programs developed by the partners: be it the ADICE with its volunteer program in the Maghreb region, or the Etoile Culturelle of Akbou on youth participation schemes. The goal is that these programs can be accessible and benefit Algerian and French organisations and local governments.
