Not that long ago, at the beginning of the summer, we met in the mountains of Spain in “Sende” coworking space, in order to discuss the improvements to be made to the youth coworking guidelines. Now, the end of the summer is marked with another partnership meeting, this time by the sea in Estonian coworking space “Forwardspace” in Parnu. This coworking has been created less than a year ago by the efforts of young enthusiasts’ group. “Forwardspace” is the same homelike as “Sende” coworking, however it is totally different! It points to how different coworkings can be and how one can make it appearing to modern youth by adding creativity. Something similar, but slightly different is planned for Ķekavas Youth Initiative centre (JIC; Latvia) – in trial mode!

“Promotion of key competences of youth by coworking concept approach in youth centres” project meeting was organised on Friday September 7^th in Parnu. During the meeting partners have discussed the work in progress. At the end of the summer the work on the 1^st part of guidelines has been successfully completed, reported and next steps planned. The second part of the guidelines will be available next year. It will cover the description of JIC coworking creation in Ķekava (Latvia) and explain, what to take into account when implementing the coworking space. It is significant, that after the end of this project Ķekavas Youth Initiative Centre is going to move to new premises – New Ideas centre, which will give an opportunity to improve the coworking and to attract more young people. To make the guidelines as effective as possible, during the meeting partners have discussed the ideas of promoting opening of coworking spaces in youth centres by filming video reviews. This could also engage young people and help to realize their own projects. For now the planning work is being implemented, which will end up with a more concrete plan.

“Promotion of key competences of youth by coworking concept approach in youth centres” project has been commenced in the end of January 2018 with intensive work on guidelines for youth centres and youth workers. The aim of guidelines is to acknowledge how to create coworking space, what to pay attention to, why and how it need to be integrated in youth centres. Partners have worked hard during the summer in order to improve the guidelines. In following 2 months translations into Spanish, Italian, Estonian and Latvian will be managed, as well as common design of documents. The guidelines for the youth centres, youth workers, NGOs and other stakeholders, who work actively with youth, will be available in December 2018.

The main objective of the project is to introduce coworking concept to the youth centres in the rural areas and hence stimulate entrepreneurship and educational opportunities of youth through coworking concept.

In parallel to these tasks, active acknowledgement of young people and their needs related to coworking in Ķekava municipality starts in September. Ķekava’s JIC will start practical piloting of coworking, where each young person is invited to engage – with help or as a user of coworking for work, studies or project purposes.

In order to reach the objectives of the project, 3 active coworking spaces “Viaindustriae” (Italy), “Asociacion Cultural Sende” (Spain), “Forwardspace” (Estonia), as well as Ķekava’s Youth Initiative centre and Social Innovation Centre (Latvia) collaborate together. The next and the final meeting of the partners within this project is planned in Foligno, Italy in March 2019.

The content of this publication is sole responsibility of the project coordinator and may not always reflect the views of the European Commission or the National Agency.

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