More information
Description
The aim of the project is to engage young people from the Youth Municipal and Communal Councils in the Świętokrzyskie Province in shaping the democratic future of the province. We create a network of young people and collect good practices and ideas on how to shape youth policies in the province. Together with a six-person representation of the Youth Municipal Council of Kielce and the Youth Parliament of the Province we are visiting with our ‘Dreambus’ all Youth Communal Councils in the province. Collected good practices and ideas will be passed to the Office of the Marshal to be used in the Strategy for Youth of the Świętokrzyskie Province for 2021-2030 which is being developed. Each meeting with a Youth Municipal Council lasts two days. In the first day young people get to know each other and exchange good practices, and in the second day they take part in motivational and development training. Preparing our project, we used the Office of the Marshal’s report entitled ''Świętokrzyskie for Youth – Directions for Supporting Social Activity of the Youth in the Świętokrzyskie Province for 2017-2020'', as well as our own experiences from everyday work with young people. According to the aforementioned report, ''a clear barrier to the development of social activity of youth is the low regularity of the undertaken activities (...). In the Świętokrzyskie Province young people aged 13-30 have insufficient opportunities to actively engage in social life, and the offered substantive and financial support, both for young leaders and informal youth groups, as well as non-governmental youth organisations and those working with youth, turns out to be insufficient''. The report shows that social activity is a means to develop skills needed to succeed in one''s career and personal life.
Summary of project results
The aim of the project was to actively engage young people from Youth Councils of Towns and Communes in the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship in shaping the democratic future of the voivodeship, to create a network of contacts between young people from Youth Councils, to exchange good practices and ideas on shaping youth policies in the voivodeship. Świętokrzyskie, in connection with the currently created perspective of the Youth Strategy for the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship for 2021-2030.
As part of the project, we held a number of two-day meetings with active youth in the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, and we also involved people from all over Poland. The conclusions drawn during the meetings, as well as the good practices that the young people exchanged among themselves, brought mutual benefits, the effects of which we saw almost immediately (at one of the meetings, youth councilors from the Rzeszów Voivodeship talked about how they managed to influence the local authorities to create more bus lines on key routes for young people. The Youth Assembly of the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship also launched such a proposal - https://www.emkielce.pl/region/radni-mlodziezowego-sejmikuinterweniuja-
regarding-expedited-bus lines; young people from the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship also started to create a study on communication exclusion among young people, inspired by conversations during the implementation of our project.
However, the most important thing, crucial from our perspective - and that of young people - is that the authorities take into account the voices and demands of young people throughout the entire duration of the project. In the meantime, the Strategy has changed its name to "Youth for Świętokrzyskie 2030+" and will be approved in this form, probably next year.
Our meetings show that young people noticed, among others: the following problems in your environment:
-small youth entrepreneurship
- few or no cultural and entertainment places for young people
-lack of cooperation between schools
-lack of cooperation between school principals, offices and youth bodies
-a small number of events aimed at young people
-insufficient social awareness of young people
-lack of promotion of youth organizations in schools
- insufficient influence of young people''s opinions on decision-makers
The positives they see are:
-scholarship programs
-contact with local government officials
- funds for MRM activities
-contact with the MRM supervisor
-consulting issues regarding public transport with young people
-good contact between youth councils
-activity of youth councilors
-social media of youth bodies
-the power to break through the youth assembly
The last element that emerged from our meetings, conversations and research were the demands of young people:
-grants for youth initiatives
-education on youth bodies at local government units
- entrepreneurship development training
-workshops supporting leadership competences and self-development
-promotion of social and volunteer activity
-workshops for Student Governments
-increasing communication and cooperation between youth groups
-opening schools for NGOs
The applications developed over almost a year and a half were submitted to the Marshal''s Office of the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, which took
actively participating in supporting their youth councilors, taking into account their needs and listening to what young people have to say.
We believe that our project has contributed to the creation of many great friendships, the expansion of young people''s network of contacts and a real sense of influence and their own agency, as well as to the development of constructive conclusions for the future, which will be reflected in the "Youth for Świętokrzyskie" Strategy.