Young and Participative - Youth Democracy Project
Young people in Europe should have their say and should participate in the political and social life of their communities. But very often youth participation initiatives are not successful if they come from adults. They are not suited to the interests, needs and style of young people. The project „Young and Participative” will prepare 50 young people to promote participation in their local communities.
Almost 50 young people from France, Greece, Italy and Poland will participate in a complex and coherent self-development programme and become “participation ambassadors”.
The ambassadors will:
- Participate in an international youth meeting
- Get the chance to facilitate a local youth forum in another country
- Receive coaching and support after they come back from the meeting
- Implement their own participation activities
There were three international youth meetings:
- In Lecce, Italy from 11 to 14 December 2009
- In Lefkas, Greece in 30 March to 2 April 2010
- In Metz, France in 28 June to 1 July 2010
Young people will participate in one of the three international peer education meetings. These short meetings will give young people a chance to come up with their own innovative, creative or even crazy ideas and concepts for youth participation. It will be a chance for them to share experience, learn new skills and develop their competences necessary for promotion of participation.
In the end of each international meeting, there will be a local youth forum. The participation ambassadors will have the role of facilitators at these local youth forums. This will be integral part of the meeting so that they can use their newly acquired knowledge in practice. At the same time, it will be a unique peer learning concept as the youth forums will be led by young people for young people and with an international dimension.
Young people from the local community will be invited to the youth forums as well as local decision-makers. This will give a chance to many young people to express their opinion about local issues and problems as well as to discuss with the decision-makers how to increase youth participation in solving these issues. We will involve the local authorities and European deputies from the represented countries. It will also promote generally the concept of youth participation among other , decision-makers and general public.
As a follow-up, after coming back from the international meetings, young “participation ambassadors” will be provided with coaching and support by experienced youth workers. They will be motivated to organise a small-scale participation initiatives in the local group. This will give them a chance to use their experience in practice and multiply the participation concept.