The European project ‘MAAT: Mobilizing Youth for Gender Inclusive Cities’ addresses the persistent gap in urban planning and infrastructure that often overlooks the needs and aspirations of women and LGBTQI+ individuals. This initiative empowers youth to take action in creating Intersectional Gender-Inclusive Cities by implementing an innovative methodology known as Youth Policy Labs. These labs are structured to actively involve young people in identifying key issues and proposing solutions to existing gender gaps in their cities. By providing a safe and inclusive environment, Youth Policy Labs enable participants to share their ideas, discuss challenges, and collaboratively work towards solutions that foster social equity.
This methodology also creates opportunities for dialogue and collaboration between youth and policymakers, bridging the gap between these groups to address policy deficiencies effectively. Serving as spaces for learning, interaction, and problem-solving, Youth Policy Labs bring together diverse perspectives to tackle societal challenges. The insights gathered in these labs help communities and local governments make informed decisions that address the needs of young people, ensuring that solutions are tailored to their realities and effective in practice.
The MAAT project organized 16 Youth Policy Labs across four European countries—Italy, Serbia, Romania, and Cyprus. These labs focused on four distinct topics designed to engage young people in local community initiatives and equip them to work towards creating gender-inclusive urban environments. By encouraging active participation and fostering collaboration with policymakers, the labs amplified youth voices in the policy-making process, helping identify gender gaps in urban planning and offering actionable solutions.
Through this initiative, the MAAT project has contributed to strengthening partnerships between communities and local governments while promoting gender inclusivity in urban environments. The Youth Policy Labs not only empowered young people to address systemic inequalities but also provided cities with valuable tools to evolve into inclusive and equitable spaces for all genders. This project serves as a model for fostering intersectional gender inclusivity through participatory urban planning and policy-making processes.
You can check here the Youth Policy Lab report:
DOWNLOAD THE YOUTH POLICY LAB REPORTS HERE
The non-formal education programme developed under the MAAT project has specific objectives that align closely with the general goals of the initiative. These include promoting non-formal learning and active participation among young people and youth organizations, enhancing civic engagement competences, fostering the skills needed to participate in decision-making processes, and encouraging youth to engage in institutional political processes and policymaking. Additionally, the programme aims to raise awareness about the dangers of urban intersectional gender discrimination and biases and to instill in youth the belief that their actions can influence how a city functions. These objectives contribute to MAAT's overarching aim of promoting evidence-based urban policymaking that addresses the real needs of city users, particularly women, through an intersectional gender lens. They also support the educational and personal development of young people, while fostering cooperation, inclusion, equity, creativity, and innovation at the level of youth organizations.
To achieve these objectives, a state-of-the-art non-formal education programme has been designed, developed, and tested. It leverages a gamified learning approach with a strong social component, allowing youth to engage online using a computer, tablet, or smartphone. The programme integrates an interactive social network called InclusiVille where participants can share and evaluate ideas on urban planning through a gender-sensitive lens. This virtual city simulator enables youth to see the direct impact of their actions. The gamified experience is complemented by three face-to-face sessions, an interactive flipbook, and support materials such as PowerPoint presentations and dynamization techniques.
The main results of this work package include the pedagogical framework, which outlines the target audience, objectives, storytelling, OER development, programme mechanics, and graphic elements. This framework ensures the learning medium and visuals are designed using educational psychology principles to enhance functionality and communication. The second major result is the non-formal education programme itself, incorporating gamification and the virtual city simulator, along with supporting materials for the face-to-face sessions. The third result is the validation and pilot testing, conducted by project partners UNINETUNNO, CIP, HELIX, PWB, and FGB, in English and translated into Greek, Romanian, Italian, and Serbian.
Take a look into the Pedagogical Framework:
DOWNLOAD THE PEDAGOGICAL FRAMEWORK HERE
Try out the gamified learning experience:
ENTER INCLUSIVILLE HERE
You can also download all documentation and .scorm files if you wish to implement the program at your organisation:
DOWNLOAD ALL THE DOCUMENTATION AND .SCORM FILES HERE
The work package of “Strategies and Resources for Youth Workers” aims to enhance the skills and tools available to youth organizations and workers, contributing directly to the overarching goals of the initiative. Its specific objectives include promoting non-formal and informal methodologies, increasing advanced pedagogical and digital skills for youth engagement, fostering know-how on gender inclusion, and developing engaging digital learning resources to address urban intersectional gender discrimination and biases. Additionally, it seeks to inspire youth workers to motivate societal action among youth on these topics. These objectives align with MAAT's broader goals of promoting cooperation, inclusion, quality, creativity, and innovation at the organizational and policy levels in the field of youth work, while supporting the educational and personal development of young people and fostering active participation.
To achieve these objectives, this work package implemented several key activities. First, it organized national round-tables to facilitate co-creation and co-management with youth, digital participation, deliberative engagement, and youth activism. Second, it developed a comprehensive tools and resources bank to support youth workers in implementing informal and non-formal learning activities. This included mapping existing resources and creating 25 activity templates with corresponding tools. Third, the package included an international peer-learning activity which fostered knowledge exchange and collaboration. Lastly, it organized five webinars to share insights into challenges and best practices for implementing youth participation strategies, engaging key speakers and practitioners.
Find below the resources:
Toolkit 1: Co-creation and co-management with youth
DOWNLOAD TOOLKIT 1 HERE
Toolkit 2: Digital participation among youth
DOWNLOAD TOOLKIT 2 HERE
Toolkit 3: Deliberative participation among youth
DOWNLOAD TOOLKIT 3 HERE
Toolkit 4: Mapping of resources and development of tools
DOWNLOAD TOOLKIT 4 HERE
Toolkit 5: Youth activism and youth movements
DOWNLOAD TOOLKIT 5 HERE