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Description
Our project is a response to the problem of passivity and low civic engagement among the youth from small towns of Biłgoraj District (Lubelskie Voivodeship). The problem has been recognized through a series of surveys conducted in 2020 and data from the participating schools. According to that research, only several students in the entire district are engaged in volunteering. Our project would engage young people from six small towns in the Biłgoraj District: Smólsk, Korytkowo, Sola, Bidaczów, Buków, Hedwiżyn, and Dąbrowica. We will divide our operations into three areas – knowledge, experience, and action. As part of the knowledge area, we will organize civic workshops and an educational campaign entitled “More Civically Engaged.” Participants will learn how to innovate, participate in the decision process pertaining to their community and engage others in their town. Additionally, they will develop their knowledge of civic culture and how to collaborate with local community and government. The experience area will consist of themed meetings at the town halls, NGOs, field games and Oxford debates. The youth will continue their education through gaining experience and will be able to witness firsthand the civic engagement in action. As part of the action area, the participants will implement 12 projects in their respective communities, engaging others to participate as well. This part will allow the young people to use the knowledge they have acquired earlier in the project. Priorities and ideas developed by the youth will teach the local government about young people’s perspective. In total, we want to engage 140 individuals from six small towns and 20 different organizations.
Summary of project results
Our project was a response to the problem of an overall passivity and low levels of civic engagement amongst young people from towns and villages of Biłgorajski district (Lubelskie Voivodeship). We identified the problem through our own polling conducted in 2020 and from the data provided by local schools. The results have shown that only a couple students in the entire district tried engaging in volunteering work in the past. The project aimed to engage students from six towns in the district: Smólsk, Korytkowo, Sola, Bidaczów, Buków, Hedwiżyn, and Dąbrowica. We divided our actions into three areas: the area of knowledge, of experience, and of action. As part of the area of knowledge we organized civic workshops and an educational campaign called “More Civic." Workshops taught participants how to create innovation, participate in decision making process about your community, as well as engage the local community. Additionally, participants developed their knowledge about civic culture and learned how to cooperate with authorities and other citizens. The experience area consisted of meetings at city halls, with local NGOs, as well as civic games and Oxford debates. Young participants were able to continue their education through exercise and experience what civic engagement looks like in practice. The action area consisted of 12 civic simulations that participants conducted within their communities. That was their opportunity to implement all the skills they have learned up to that point. Priorities and ideas presented by the youth allowed authorities to get familiar with young people''s perspective. In total we had 196 participants from 6 towns and 33 entities: local authorities and civic organizations. Thanks to surveys and interviews we know that we have managed to successfully address the problem of low civic engagement among young people in the districts we have selected. Our three areas design allowed the participants to expand their knowledge about civic participation and experience it first-hand. Also, other citizens of the engaged communities were motivated into increased activity through their participation in meetings organized by the youth.
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