The step project:societal and political engagement of young people in environmental issues

Decisions on environmental topics taken today are going to have long-term consequences that will affect future generations. Young people will have to live with the consequences of these decisions and undertake special responsibilities. Moreover, as tomorrow’s decision makers, they themselves should learn how to negotiate and debate issues before final decisions are made. Therefore, any participation they can have in environmental decision making processes will prove essential in developing a sustainable future for the community.However, recent data indicate that the young distance themselves from community affairs, mainly because the procedures involved are ‘wooden’, politicians’ discourse alienates the young and the whole experience is too formalized to them. Authorities are aware of this fact and try to establish communication channels to ensure transparency and use a language that speaks to new generations of citizens. This is where STEP project comes in.STEP (www.step4youth.eu) is a digital Platform (web/mobile) enabling youth Societal and Political e-Participation in decision-making procedures concerning environmental issues. STEP is enhanced with web/social media mining, gamification, machine translation, and visualisation features.Six pilots in real contexts are being organised for the deployment of the STEP solution in 4 European Countries: Italy, Spain, Greece, and Turkey. Pilots are implemented with the direct participation of one regional authority, four municipalities, and one association of municipalities, and include decision-making procedures on significant environmental questions.</p

D1.7: Minutes of 4th Advisory Board meeting

<p>The current deliverable is the fourth report on the activities of the STEP project’s External Expert Advisory Board (EEAB). The members of the EEAB were contacted either through physical meetings or via Internet. This deliverable summarizes the recommendations that these experts have provided to the project consortium from M23 (April 2017) until M30 (November 2017). During the previous months of the project implementation, several activities with the members of the EEAB have been organized and the feedback gained was reported in the deliverables D1.2, D1.5 and D1.6.</p

D1.6: Minutes of 3rd Advisory Board meeting

<p>The current deliverable is the third report on the activities of the STEP project’s External Expert Advisory Board (EEAB). The members of the EEAB were contacted either through physical meetings or via Internet using WebEx. This deliverable summarizes the recommendations that these experts have provided to the project consortium from M15 (August 2016) until M22 (March 2017). During the previous months of the project’s implementation, several activities with the members of the EEAB have been organized and the feedback gained was reported in the deliverables D1.2 and D1.5.</p

D1.4: 2nd Data Management Plan

<p>The purpose of the current deliverable is to present the second version of the STEP project Data management plan. The deliverable includes all the significant changes such as new data sets, changes in consortium policies and any external factors that may have influenced data management in STEP project. It is submitted on Month 12 as a Mid-Term review of the STEP Data Management Plan.</p

D1.5: Minutes of 2nd Advisory Board meetings

<p>The purpose of the current deliverable is to document the liaison that has taken place with the STEP External Expert Advisory Board (EEAB) and the recommendations that these experts have provided to the project consortium from M4 until M14. The first meeting with the EEAB was held in M3, while the most important points discussed during this meeting were reported in D1.2-Minutes of 1st Advisory Board meeting.</p

D7.2: Dissemination Pack

<p>Deliverable D7.2 “Dissemination pack” provides an overview of the STEP project website, the first leaflet of the project, the first issue of the project newsletter, and a promotional video. It also provides a “snapshot” of the website at the time of writing this document (November 2015).</p

A Roadmap for the delivery of e-Participation: lessons learned from the STEP project

<p>This document is intended for Public Authorities working and delivering projects and activities in the area of e-Participation, with particular reference to young people. This document reconsiders a number of the outputs produced by STEP and formalizes in a number of recommendations what has been learned during the execution of the STEP project. Recommendations are offered around a framework for e-Participation composed of six steps which is based (and enhances) a framework proposed in the PanEuropean Best Practice Manual on e-Participation. The framework, together with the recommendations presented in the document, thus offer a reusable roadmap for Public Authorities wishing to conduct their own e-Participation processes.</p