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Description
During the implementation of our project we will teach young people’s from the Ostrowiecki and Opatowski districts (Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship) about active participation in public life. According to a 2018 report from KUŹNIA – Ostrowiec Association, reporting from the local newspaper “Echo Dnia” and our own surveys conducted in 2020 we have concluded that the majority of students from these districts is pessimistic about their prospects for the future. Majority of our young respondents doesn’t know their rights and duties, knows very little about possible forms of civic engagement, and considers migrating to a major city to be their best chance for upward mobility. Thanks to our actions we will increase the awareness of civic rights and duties among the young people, a willingness to participate in civic life and faith in the ability to have a positive impact on the democratic institutions and life of the local community. We will organize seminars and workshops for 200 young citizens of the Ostrowiecki and Opatowski districts. The youth will participate in two discussion panels and will create Civic Rights Watch Groups. These groups will observe and analyze potential cases of unequal treatment, discrimination, civic rights abuses, etc. We will create an online, multimedia guidebook that will serve our youth and teachers as a source of information and tips for civic engagement and as a textbook on rights and duties of citizens. We will collaborate with the local media to promote the project and its initiatives. Finally, a competition will take place in both districts to find the Most Citizen-Friendly Government Office.
Summary of project results
During the implementation of the project, we expanded the knowledge and skills of young people from the Ostrowiec and Opatów counties (Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship) regarding active participation in public life. Reports, available information from local associations, data from the "Echo Dnia" newspaper, and our own surveys from 2020 indicated that most students from these counties had a negative perception of their chances and development opportunities. The majority of young respondents were unfamiliar with their rights and duties, had little knowledge about forms of civic engagement, and considered emigration to larger cities as their biggest opportunity.Thanks to our actions, awareness of civic rights and responsibilities among the youth increased, as well as the willingness to participate in community life and the belief in the possibility of positively influencing democratic institutions and local communities. We organized seminars and workshops for 376 young residents of the Ostrowiec and Opatów counties. The youth participated in two discussion panels and created two groups for monitoring civic rights. We developed an online guide called "Citizen Activity Vademecum," which serves as a source of information and guidance on civic activities for the youth and teachers, and as a textbook on rights and responsibilities associated with being a citizen. We collaborated with local media to promote the project and its individual activities. Subsequently, in both counties, we announced a competition for the most citizen-friendly local office. The winner was the Bodzechów Municipality Office in the Ostrowiec county. At the end of the project, we organized a meeting to summarize all the actions, effects, and results achieved. During this event, we also presented an award to the winning municipality.Based on the evaluation surveys, we know that thanks to the workshops and training, the youth strengthened their knowledge of democracy and civic rights, and their feelings of helplessness and disorientation decreased. We also observed a significantly higher willingness to take action for their community.
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