Description
The project addresses the issue that few young people in Bulgaria are interested and actively involved in politics by voting or taking part in civil society initiatives due to lack of information. Thus the project aims to raise the awareness of young people about their civil rights and obligations, active citizenship, free and fair elections and participatory democracy. First, analysis of secondary school curricula and best practices of civil education will be carried out by means of online debates in forums and social network sites. Second, a test module on active citizenship and the election process will be developed and tested on 100 students. Next, 50 students will be selected for a follow-up workshop and the most active will be registered as independent observers of the EP elections. Finally, a guide on active citizenship will be developed as a leaflet and mobile device application. The main target group is the young but the project will benefit the civil society in general.
Summary of project results
One of the goals underlying CEMI’s Statute and the project is to support the development and full integration of young people in the public life. All the participants concluded that such project was needed in particular due to the fact that hardly 10.3% of the young people in Bulgaria had taken part in a public campaign, initiative or action. 92 young people acquired basic knowledge of the nature and content of active citizenship under the project and we helped raise the awareness about fair and democratic elections mainly via the training module developed and tested in a natural environment and the training seminar. Many participants had the opportunity to apply in practice the knowledge acquired. With the registration of the observers we raised the transparency of the elections and the share of young people involved in civil monitoring. We raised the interest of young people towards involvement in public processes via innovative presentation (specialized software, simulations). In addition, proposals were made to the competent institutions to improve civil education in schools and further raise awareness by developing an application for mobile devices.
Summary of bilateral results