Democracy Reloading helps municipalities engage young people in decision-making through tools, training, and support.
We provide support to municipal authorities in designing and implementing youth participation in municipal decisions and in using Erasmus+ funds to improve it. Our operation includes the development and maintenance of this online platform, the production of assessment tools and publications and the organisation of training activities for municipal youth policy officers and young people. We expect to increase the number of municipalities with meaningful youth participation policy, to improve existing municipal youth participation structures and strategies, and to increase the number of Erasmus+ projects realised by municipalities in the field of democratic youth participation.
Meant for
Municipal youth policy officers - Civil servants working for local or regional authorities, and responsible for your policy and youth participation.
Political representatives - Elected politicians of local or regional councils/ self-governments, whose priority and policy focus is youth and youth participation.
Youth representatives - Members of local youth councils or other types of youth participation structures that can influence municipal decisions, who represent the young people of their municipality, their organization, or their school.
Youth workers - Youth workers who facilitate and support municipal youth participation, or coordinate the work with the municipal youth council.
Training modules:
Municipalities 4Democracy - A four-day international training module for municipal youth policy officers and decision-makers on how to design and implement youth participation in municipal decision-making.
Erasmus4Democracy Project Lab - A three-day seminar to find out how Erasmus+ Youth project can help you develop municipal youth participation, and you may find new partner municipalities for it.
Youth4Democracy - A 4-day training course for local youth representatives of municipal youth councils on how to improve youth participation in municipal decisions.
Study Visits - A 3-day activity for youth policy officer and their local partners to visit, understand, and reflect on the local youth participation practices of a town or a region.
European Webinars - A 90-minute online seminar about one of the 4 key tasks of the Democracy Reloading program, including the presentation of one municipal youth participation practice.
Detailed descriptions and calls are available on the Democracy Reloading website.
Main Resources
Reference Framework - The Democracy Reloading Reference Framework, and other infographics can help you to understand the diverse tasks to be mastered in connection to municipal youth participation.
Reflection Cards - The Democracy Reloading Reflection Cards include 32 cards, based on the Reference Framework of the Democracy Reloading program.
Assessment Tool - The Democracy Reloading assessment tools help you to review the reality of your municipality, the quality of your youth participation practice and the competence of all stakeholders.
Workbook - The Municipalities4Democracy Workbook supports the learning process of the participants of the M4DEM courses, but can also help any youth policy officer to reflect on their municipal youth participation context.
Self-directed learning tool - A collective e-learning tool for municipal authorities and their local partners.
Who is involved?
National Agencies for Erasmus + Youth and the European Solidarity Corps in Belgium (FR and FL), Italy, Portugal, Hungary, France, Norway, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Spain, Cyprus, Poland, Greece, Bulgaria, Iceland, Sweden and Armenia. Other Erasmus+ national agencies are also welcome to join.
Democracy Reloading collaborates with important European organisations such as the Council of Europe Youth Department, SALTO Participation, DYPALL Network, Europe Goes Local, and KEKS. We are open to further collaboration with interested relevant organisations that share similar objectives to revitalize democracy in Europe.
Get in touch!
For your questions, reach out to the project coordinator: Laszlo Foldi, laszlo.foldi@cfwb.be, Bureau International Jeunesse (Belgium)