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Description
According to a research from the Centre for Public Opinion Research, the youth have a much lower sense of agency than adults, while 45% believes they have no influence over what is going on in their municipality. On the other hand, research conducted in Zgierz (Łódzkie Voivodeship) showed that the majority of young people believe social engagement is political in its nature and goals and only 13% of those surveyed wants to continue living in Zgierz. According to the research from the City Hall the main problems of Zgierz are insufficient educational offer, low sense of attachment to the place by the youth, and a decrease in social activity among the young people. We will work on a strategy for developing five school councils and Youth Councils, which are currently struggling with low interest from students. We will organize a series of workshops for the most involved individuals in Zgierz. Participants will be trained in managing a team, strategic planning, interpersonal skills, and leadership competences. Young people will develop their knowledge and animation, moderating, and organizational skills that can be applied when volunteering and engaging in civic or cultural projects. We will conduct 40 workshops in schools, talking to students about the functioning of local governments, opportunities to participate in the life of a city, as well as the city’s current offer for young people. Questions that we will collect during the workshops will be presented to the City Hall and sport and art centers. All the answers will be turned into an online database, which will serve as a source of the most important information for young people. Finally, we will support the young people of Zgierz in design and implementation of 10 local initiatives. The goal of each will be the improvement of functioning of a part of the city that holds a special importance for that group, initiation of cross-sector collaboration and highlighting of diverse areas of civic engagement.
Summary of project results
According to the research from the Public Opinion Research Center, Polish youth has lower sense of agency than the Polish adults. 45% believes they have no way of influencing their municipality. Different research conducted in the town of Zgierz (Łódzkie Voivodeship) showed that most young people believe that civic engagement has political character and is aimed at achieving political goals. Only 13% of the surveyed youth declared they wanted to live in Zgierz in the future. According to the city townhall’s research, main problems of Zgierz are lacking educational programs for its residents and a low sense of attachment to the place among the young people.In order to address these issues, we have established collaboration with local student councils from five schools. Together, we have designed plans for their growth and development, and have organized a series of workshops for participants aged 16-20 from Zgierz. We have trained them in team management, strategic planning, and have developed their interpersonal and leadership skills. Based on our interviews with the participants we see that they have developed their knowledge and skills, useful in organizing civic, cultural and volunteering events. We have conducted 40 workshops at the participating schools, talking to students about their local government and how it operates, opportunities to get involved in the life of their town, as well as about what does their town has to offer to young people. Questions we have received, we passed along to the townhall and sporting and culture centers. We took all the survey responses and created an online database, which will work as the source of crucial information for the youth in our town. Lastly, we have supported young people between 14 and 18 years old to design and implement 10 grassroots initiatives that aimed at improving an area important to that particular group, kickstarting an across-sector collaboration, as well as showing a variety of different civic engagement opportunities.Thanks to the workshops we were able to touch on subjects important to the Zgierz’ youth. We were able to activate the youth, which resulted in their engagement in an election campaign ahead of the elections for the Youth Council of the town of Zgierz. Thanks to the implemented initiatives, we were able to strengthen the voice of the youth at schools, as well as generate new opportunities in town, such as amateur volleyball league, self-defense classes, and sex-ed workshops.
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