Activity objectives

Objectives of this training course 

• to assess the existing policy context, the youth participation structure and system, the municipal environment, and the personal competences from the perspective of the participants (both municipal officers and youth representatives)
• to share experiences and practices of participants regarding democratic youth participation in municipal decision-making,
• to understand the content and the potential of the Democracy Reloading tools and the new website, and to prepare the participants for further use,
• to understand how Erasmus+ Youth and ESC programs, and Europe Goes Local tools can support developing youth participation in municipal decision-making,
• to identify possible next steps to further develop the strategy and structure of municipal youth participation and its management, and further improve the competencies of all stakeholders locally.

Description

This training course is a variation of the Municipalities4Democracy training course module of the Democracy Reloading Partnership, aiming to train municipal youth policy officers and municipal youth representatives at the same time, so that they can reflect together on their planned or existing youth participation practice and identify ways of improving it. The training course will have moments when the officers and young people will work together, and moments when they will work separately. The training course is based on the Democracy Reloading approach and its Workbook.

Participants are expected to apply in tandem as follows:

• One municipal youth policy officer from a municipality where there is an existing youth participation structure, together with one youth representative from their existing or planned youth participation structure (for example, youth council, student council, or a youth ngo).
• It is the municipal policy officer who must apply, indicating the youth representative selected by the municipality. The youth representative should between 18-24 years old. Due to complex child protection policies, we cannot select minors (under 18).

Priority will be given to the member countries of the Democracy Reloading Partnership and to those municipalities that have experience in implementing, or a plan to design Erasmus+  / Solidarity Corps projects with the topic of local democratic youth participation.

Members of Democracy Reloading: Portugal, Italy, Belgium, Hungary, the Netherlands, Norway, France, Spain, Slovakia, Cyprus, Sweden, Greece, Iceland, Bulgaria, Poland, Estonia, Armenia,