project
partners
Youth Bootcamp for Civic Service Models in Education and Social Action
Content Development & Implementation
the case
Across Greece, young people demonstrate strong motivation to engage in education, climate action, and community resilience, yet they often face structural barriers that limit their ability to translate ideas into sustained civic impact.
In response to these challenges, the Youth Bootcamp for Civic Service Models in Education and Social Action was designed as an intensive, two-day process combining skills development with participatory strategy design. Organized by the Goethe-Institut Athen and Ecogenia, with the support of DOTANK Plus, the bootcamp brought together young professionals and active citizens aged 18 to 35 to co-create practical civic service models for education, environmental stewardship, and social action in Greece.
PROJECT GOALS
DOTANK Plus was tasked to the design and delivery of a bootcamp aimed to:
Equip young participants with practical skills in innovation, stakeholder engagement, AI-enabled fundraising, and impact storytelling
- Facilitate a structured participatory design process enabling youth to articulate needs, challenges, and opportunities
- Support the co-creation of a Youth Strategic Framework for Civic Service Models in Education and Social Action
our approach
1. Integrated Skills Building and Participatory Design
The bootcamp was structured around two complementary pillars. Day one focused on skills development through interactive workshops on design thinking and Theory of Change, stakeholder negotiations, AI for fundraising, and impact storytelling. Day two shifted toward participatory design, guiding participants through visioning, stakeholder mapping, program design, and the consolidation of youth-led recommendations
2. Youth-Centered Facilitation and Co-Creation
Sessions were designed to surface lived experience, local insight, and emerging practices, ensuring that the resulting strategy reflected real constraints and opportunities faced by youth-led initiatives.
3. Strategic Framing and Synthesis
Inputs from group work, discussions, and presentations were synthesized into a coherent strategic framework. This included context and needs analysis, identification of structural challenges, articulation of a shared ambition, and definition of guiding principles and strategic priorities for civic service models in education and social action.
4. Alignment with Civic Service and Sustainability Agendas
The process was grounded in broader debates on civic service, youth employment, environmental stewardship, and social resilience.