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Description
In Romania, at the level of small communities, the degree of citizens’ involvement in identifying and solving community problems (formulating problems, identifying solution resources, mobilizing resources) is very low. In general, people / citizens are not aware of the importance of civic involvement in maintaining democracy and do not know how they can get involved in community life to improve public services. These aspects (lack of awareness and lack of tools for participation) are reflected in the lack of involvement / participation of citizens in community life. The goal of the project is to increase the involvement of citizens in the civic life of the community and involvement in the decision-making process at the local level. The main important expected result is the increasing of the level of information and awareness of citizens about the role they play in maintaining democracy, increasing the degree of participation in community life and the democratic process. Therefore, the activities will increase citizens'' attention by developing innovative and intelligent participation tools, through coordinated participatory actions, by developing informal civic networks and also by involving the media. The target group of the project is represented by citizens from the project implementation area (20 small rural and urban communities in the North East region). Young people will learn through innovative methods how to get involved in civic action and how to use tools to monitor the authorities and influence the decision-making process.
Through the project activities will be increased the number of young people who: become aware of their civic role, monitors the activity of the authorities, actively participates in public consultations and act civically, carries out advocacy actions.
Community Agenda project is not about community problems, it is about the people, especially the young people and their ability to change things and improve their life.
Summary of project results
The problem addressed in the project was the low interest of young people from rural and small-urban areas in political life and the lack of involvement in community life. The direct beneficiaries were young people, mainly students of school units from 20 UATs (counties of Iasi, Vaslui, Botosani).
The activites have contributed to the civic mobilization of this group, the practice of democratic attitudes and behaviors. Working tools were created, the most relevant being comic books and the interactive ones with the Teo character. 20 mentors were selected and trained, actively involved at the local level. Thus, over 100 training meetings were organized with young people in 20 communities. 2006 young people developed their skills in topics such as civic involvement, the functioning of local public authorities, so.on. 505 young people were actively involved in monitoring activities of the 20 local public authorities. The students took part at meetings with local authorities and prepared proposals for solving some local community problems. 77 civic initiatives from 18 local communities were formulated and promoted . The "Community Agenda" contest was organized. Young people sent individual or team applications with the theme of civic involvement: short texts, drawings, audio and/or video materials. 50 young people being awarded. The team of media experts engaged in the project published written and audio-video materials about the communities and the impact of the project. Organizational development activities were implemented: development of websites ( promotor and partner), trainings on topics related to internal/external communication, use of digital technologies as a tool in the development and
increase of visibility of organizations, etc.
The project reached its goal to increase the involvement of citizens in the civic life of the community and involvement in the decision-making process at the local level ,
awareness and civic activation for at least 2000 young people.