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Description
Research from the Centre for Public Opinion Research points to a low level of civic engagement among the rural populations. Fifty two percent of small towns and villages citizens declares they are not interested in politics or pay minimal attention to it. We know from experience that engaging children and collaboration with local schools can positively influence the entire community, reaching both parents and teachers. These initiatives teach the youngest generations how to be active civically from the early age. We would like to address the low civic engagement among the citizens of Brzeski and Bocheński districts (Małopolskie Voivodeship) by implementing a School Participatory Budget in three rural primary schools. We picked schools from three different municipalities to promote the participatory budget method across a larger and more diversified area. For each of the schools we will put together a work team composed of the representatives for the students, the school faculty, and parents, as well as design general rules guiding the organization of the School Participatory Budget. Next, we will promote the method, collect the ideas for projects and have a vote. Finally, we will implement the projects selected by the participants. Our partners are the three primary schools interested in the implementation of the School Participatory Budget: Rotmistrz Witold Pilecki Primary School in Jodłówka, Jan Paweł II and Cardinal Wyszynński Primary School No.2 in Jadowniki, and Henryk Sienkiewicz Municipal Schools in Bogucice.
Summary of project results
Research conducted by the Centre for Public Opinion Research indicates that rural communities are not very active in public life – as many as 52% of countryside inhabitants declare to take no or little interest in politics. At the same time, we know from our experience that engaging children, for instance, by parents and school employees and cooperation with schools have positive impact on activating the entire community. Such initiatives teach citizens from an early age how to be socially active.We have responded to the problem of low civic activity in our region, namely in the Brzeski and Bochenski commune (in the Małopolskie province), by implementing the School Participatory Budget (SPB) in three rural primary schools. We selected schools from various communes to popularise the SPB method in a larger and more diversified area. We created a separate working team made of the representatives of pupils, school and parents for each school. We also prepared general SPB organisational regulations. Then we promoted the method. Children and youths proposed 99 ideas for projects, we run a voting and carried out 28 projects selected by participants.Our partners included three schools willing to implement the School Participatory Budget that got their pupils engaged, namely Rotmistrz Witold Pilecki Primary School in Jodłówka, John Paul II and Cardinal Wyszyński Primary School No 2 in Jadowniki and the Henryk Sienkiewicz Commune School Complex in Bogucice.Evaluation survey results show that our activities helped strengthen social and civic competencies of school working teams and to enhance the sense of agency among participants and make them believe more that their ideas are feasible. Furthermore, participants confirmed that their writing and project planning skills had improved.
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