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Description
The project responds to the diagnosed problem of the lack of strategic planning skills of the councillors of the Youth Municipality Council in Chojnice and the need to define the priorities of youth policy in the municipality. The aim of the project is to strengthen the competences of youth councillors and other young people (aged 15-19) in Chojnice, and to increase the recognition of the Youth Municipality Council as an institution representing local youth. We support young people in developing a draft municipality''s youth strategy. We organise workshops and meetings during which, together with young people, we work on a strategy setting out the priorities of youth policy in Chojnice. Young people go through the whole process of elaborating the strategy: from a diagnosis of the local environment through a SWOT analysis, setting directions for action and project proposals, to consulting the document and adopting it. During the work on the strategy, we provide young people with the support of an animator and a strategic and spatial planning expert. Once the draft strategy has been developed, it will be disseminated as good practice. Partner of the project is the Chojnice Municipality.
Summary of project results
The most important problems that the project was supposed to solve were:
- a discrepancy between native inhabitants and wealthy people from Lublin who moved to the countryside, although they have no sense of belonging and no willingness to get involved in the life of the community
- young people (14-15 years old) prefer to engage in various activities in Lublin, commuting there every day, and the local community is therefore very passive and nothing actually happens there
- low level of residents'' participation in shaping local policies
- Negative perception of civic engagement
- Low activity of families in shaping participatory attitudes
- Lack of professional and engaging programs for students
- Lack of cooperation in communities
Products: participatory education program consisting of a workshop simulating local government elections and activities for the community implemented on the model of participatory budgeting
Actions:
School recruitment: We recruited schools for the project: primary school named after W. Witos in Motycz, Primary School named after Ziemia Lublinska in Radawiec Duży, Primary School in Marianka, Primary School named after Stefan Cardinal Wyszyński in Wilczopol, Primary School named after 100th anniversary of regaining Independence in Kalinówka, Primary School named after B. Prusa in Płouszowice, Primary School named after J. Piłsudskiego in Jastków, Primary School in Świdnik Mały
Preparing the project team to implement activities in schools: The project partner conducted a training meeting with the project team on engaging people with different views in joint activities and conducting activities that would activate the local area and break stereotypes.
Implementation of the 2-day Elections in City M workshops: During the workshops, young people learned the principles of functioning of a civil society participating in the life of its community, the principles of voting, and the principles of participatory budgeting.
Voting to select participatory and civic initiatives regarding environmental care: Project groups ran a campaign to promote their ideas among the school community. The finale was a vote for the selected initiative. In each school, the three initiatives with the highest number of votes won.
Implementation of initiatives in school communities: Youth, with the help of the community and the project team, implemented winning initiatives
Meetings summarizing and initiating discussions on the shape of local policies regarding nature protection: During these meetings, students showed the guests around and showed the effects of their participation in the project and activities with the community.
Evaluation of the method of building civic and participatory attitudes among young people
Popularization of the method of building civic and participatory attitudes
Results - social change:
- Acquisition of knowledge, skills and civic attitudes by 160 young people (13-15 years old).
participatory, allowing them to actively participate in social and public life
- Activation of 8 local communities in terms of shaping civic and participatory attitudes among young people and other groups of citizens.
Young people participating in the project could get genuinely involved and contribute to the civic activation of their school communities. Thanks to the accessible scenario enabling the diagnosis of community needs, the participants "saw" that co-decision-making is not that difficult. Thanks to participation in the project, young people are able to determine the needs of the community, know who to turn to to ask for funding for their needs, and know how to prepare and implement a social project. The project also allowed participants to better understand their strengths and weaknesses. Thanks to the implementation of initiatives in school communities, the community focused on project activities to improve the quality of functioning of people creating the community. Young people also learned to use community resources, e.g. parents, local authorities, entrepreneurs.