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EUROPEAN YOUTH CARDS as a Tool for Inclusive Youth Mobility Better mobility opportunities for young people with disabilities or from disadvantaged backgrounds. The European Youth Card Association (EYCA) is an association of 38 member organisations in 36 countries across Europe distributing youth cards to nearly five million young people.
The EYCA vision is a Europe where all young people are mobile and active.
This publication showcases good practice from the EYCA network presented during a European seminar on better mobility opportunities for young people with disabilities or from disadvantaged backgrounds. The seminar was co-financed through the Partial Agreement on Youth Mobility through the Youth Card in the framework of the Council of Europe (PA).
EYCA’s mission is that member organisations work together to stimulate more young people to be socially, culturally, educationally and economically mobile. They do this by: • delivering quality European Youth Card services • contributing to better policy on youth mobility and active citizenship.
The same seminar launched the 2014-2015 EYCA PA Work Programme. EYCA would like to thank all participants, the Council of Europe, the Austrian Federal Ministry of Families and Youth and the EYCA member organisation in Austria, Jugendkarte GmbH, for hosting the event.
This is achieved through co-operation with a large number of partners and stakeholders. Since 1991 EYCA has co-operated with the Council of Europe to deliver a work programme connected to the Partial Agreement on Youth Mobility through the Youth Card. 21 Member States of the Council of Europe contribute to this Partial Agreement to develop, in collaboration with EYCA member organisations, more effective policy and practice responses to youth mobility.
Read on to find out more about good practice examples from: • • • •
While European Youth Card services are universal for all young people, EYCA has identified there is a need to develop more inclusive youth mobility in order to meet the needs of young people who face barriers to becoming mobile, both in terms of social navigation and crossborder mobility.
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Carnet Jove, Catalunya, Spain Young Scot, Scotland, United Kingdom Carné Joven, Madrid, Spain Carné Joven Europeo, Aragón, Spain.
EUROPEAN YOUTH CARDS SUPPORTING YOUNG PEOPLE FROM DISADVANTAGED BACKGROUNDS
Ω Carnet Jove, Catalunya, Spain
UNG PEOPLE YO R TE AF ED OK LO R FO S RD YOUTH CA The Catalan Youth Agency has 30 years’ experience working with the youth card. The main purpose of Carnet Jove is to promote and facilitate inclusion and equality for all young people. The European dimension of the Catalan youth card focuses on mobility and quality information about European opportunities. Disadvantaged young people who live in foster care and are being looked after by the Government are a particularly vulnerable group and lack many of the opportunities most young people can access. Since 2008, the Catalan Youth Agency has been operating a special programme using youth cards to support the social inclusion of young people who do not live with their parents as a result of difficult family backgrounds.
Looked after young people receive support via the youth cards in the following ways.
• Youth card opportunities and publications are regularly sent to centres for young people who are looked after.
• They receive the youth card for free when they reach the age of 14. The card is valid until they turn 21.
• Briefing and training are provided to those who work in specific social work services in Catalunya.
• They are able to access the same services and advantages as all other cardholders, including nearly 8,000 discounts and benefits in Catalunya and 60,000 discounts and benefits across Europe through the EYCA network.
In 2014, 987 looked after young people were European Youth Cardholders in Catalunya.
• Looked after young people have the opportunity to take part in programmes and services delivered by the Catalan Youth Agency.
Ω Young Scot, Scotland, Uk ENGAGING EXCLUDED YOUNG PEOPLE Young Scot has a great track record of programmes and activities designed to engage excluded young people, supporting them on the path to positive destinations. Here are just a few examples of how Young Scot supports and involves young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. • The Young Scot All In Audit Programme had young people from excluded groups (young people in care, from rural areas, young carers, etc.) act as expert inspectors looking into the inclusiveness and accessibility of Young Scot services. Audits have produced specific changes in Young Scot services, for example improving the accessibility of information.
According to Catalan Government’s survey of the impact of youth cards on young people in the region, Carnet Jove cardholders have higher levels of participation and social concern, more hobbies and use cultural leisure options more than non-cardholders. www.carnetjove.cat
Promoting positive role models – the Young Scot Awards
looked after young people about the youth card and how they can access it. For instance, young people in three young offenders institutions in Scotland now receive the youth card on their release. The demand for the card in these institutions has been very high, with over 200 requests in the first two weeks of the programme in one institution alone. • The Young Scot card has helped eliminate the stigma associated with free school meals for children living in poverty. Children can access their free school meals anonymously through the cashless catering function of the card. 28,249 young people aged 12-18 used the card to access free meals in 2013.
• Young Scot has also established successful partnerships with various support agencies in order to inform
The Young Scot Awards celebrates the achievements of young people in Scotland and puts them front and centre in a very high-profile annual ceremony with extensive media coverage. Over 1000 guests attend the ceremony while thousands more watch these inspirational young people on television. The overall winners of the 2014 Young Scot Awards were the Young Care Leaver Campaigners – a group of 10 young people who grew up in the care system and who successfully lobbied for the law in Scotland to be changed to give young people in care more support than ever before. Through the Young Scot Awards, young people from all over the country had the chance to find out about the Young Care Leaver Campaigners and get inspired. www.youngscot.org
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BETTER SERVICES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR YOUNG PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
ΩCarné Joven, Madrid, Spain L ONLINE ACCESSIBILITY FOR AL From June 2014, young people with disabilities can access and take full advantage of the online platform of Carné Joven, Madrid, Spain. An accessibility audit found that www.carnejovenmadrid.com is in compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0, level AA. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines are a set of recommendations and standards set by the Web
Accessibility Initiative of the World Wide Web Consortium. Technology, implementation and design rules come together to facilitate the access to information for the largest possible number of people, including those with visual, hearing or mental impairments. Speaking about what motivated them to make their website disabilityfriendly, Maite Hernández stated that “for Carné Joven Comunidad de Madrid it is very important to work in
an inclusive manner; our ideal is for all young people between 14 and 30 who live in Madrid to have a Carné Joven, irrespective of their place of origin, socio-economic level and/or abilities. This is why we decided to dedicate ourselves to developing a website that meets these standards, that gives everyone equal access to information.” www.carnejovenmadrid.com
Ω Carné Joven Europeo, Aragón, Spain GREAT IDEA
Since 2012, young people with visual disabilities living in Aragón, Spain can access a special edition of the European Youth Card designed especially for them. The card features an
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identification marking in Braille, which helps cardholders use the QR code on the card and differentiate their European Youth Card from their other cards. In this way, blind or visually
impaired young people have access to European Youth Card services! www.carnejoven.es
H CARD SERVICES UT YO E IV US CL IN E OR M R FO WORKING TOGETHER
Young Scot, Scotland, UK
Around 16,000 Young Scot cardholders (over 3%) have a disability and use their card to access free travel. In order to improve their services and make them more accessible to young people with disabilities, Young Scot started working with the Haggeye Youth Forum in co-designing youth card services. A project of the Royal National Institute for the Blind, the Haggeye Youth Forum works with 12 to 25 year olds living with sight loss in Scotland. Haggeye aims to encourage more local and national facilities and services to be made more accessible to people living with sight loss. Hag-
geye creates opportunities to enable young people's voices to be heard and for young people with sight loss to meet new people and make new friends, take part in social activities, discuss issues, influence the provision of services and, importantly, to campaign for change. Haggeye was thus in a perfect position to provide Young Scot with ideas on how to make their services more accessible to partially sighted young people. During the inclusive mobility seminar in Vienna, two young representatives from Haggeye, Tuesday Berry and Katrina Thomson, presented their organisation and co-operation with
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Young Scot and demonstrated the importance of inclusive mobility opportunities.
ar ago e e y A “ v ot ha n this d l u I wo coming to s f ye h a o e g d g e a dream Vienna. H t of my t ou ar in semin me to ge ly live l d helpe se and rea hou e.” my lif
www.youngscot.org www.rnib.org.uk/scotland/youth-engagement
WHAT CAN bE DONE fOR MORE INClUSIvE MObIlITY THROUGH YOUTH CARDS? More effective inclusive mobility creates obvious benefits for individual young people but also enriches services, organisations and communities by creating better opportunities for more young people. Inclusive mobility needs to be embedded in all aspects of designing youth policy and practice rather than be an “add-on�. Services and opportunities for inclusive youth mobility will have a greater impact if young people themselves are engaged in designing them. Additional efforts are needed to involve more young people as co-designers, especially young people who have experienced social and physical exclusion. Efforts could also extend in some instances to engaging with families and with other members of the community. Many specialist agencies and networks are already working to create specifi c opportunities for more inclusive youth mobility. There are also many examples of successful co-operation between specialist agencies and youth information and youth card networks aiming to provide universal services to all young people. EYCA supports and encourages all its member organisations to reach young people with disabilities and fewer opportunities by disseminating good practice examples and through its Quality Standards for European Youth Card operations.
Published by the European Youth Card Association in October 2014. Changes in circumstances after the time of publication may impact on the accuracy of this information. For more details, please contact EYCA at www.eyca.org or mail@eyca.org. Produced with the support of the Partial Agreement on Youth Mobility through the Youth Card in the framework of the Council of Europe.
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