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Description
The Youth Self-Government Lab project is implemented in the City of Cieszyn from October 2021 to July 2023. The project is a response to the diagnosed needs of young people studying in Cieszyn secondary schools. A survey we conducted in April 2021 on a sample of 360 people showed that 87% of respondents do not have a sense of agency in their local community. Furthermore, young people do not know how municipal government works, what challenges it faces and what their role in shaping local policies might be. At the same time, there is a clear potential for change: over 71% of the respondents felt that the issues of Cieszyn are interesting and important to them. Therefore, the project’s main objective is to increase the sense of agency among participants of the project, but also to develop their competence in the field of self-government knowledge, self-presentation, and conscious use of media. 30 young people (14+) from the Cieszyn Silesia Region have applied to take part in the project. From January 2022 these persons have been participating in regular cross-curricular seminars, self-government workshops and competence-building and integration workshops. We are working together to create the statute of the Youth Municipal Council and support its re-establishment in Cieszyn. In cooperation with the project partners (gazetacodzienna.pl, redakcjaBB), young people will soon start publishing their own texts dedicated to local issues. The project will end with a Youth Forum in June 2023, during which we will present an evaluation report, examining the change in the sense of agency of young people in Cieszyn. The Youth Self-Government Lab is not only a rich program of educational activities, it is also accompanying participants in their daily challenges and supporting their own initiatives.
Summary of project results
In April 2021, our team conducted a survey on a sample of 360 students from Cieszyn secondary schools, which showed that as many as 87% of respondents did not have a sense of agency and influence on the development of the city. Cieszyn, like other cities of a similar scale in Poland, is aging quickly, most young people go to study in larger centers and often do not return. Since our organization is strongly involved in the affairs of the local community, we decided to address this problem as part of the project and strengthen the sense of agency of young people, so that Cieszyn is a city in which they want to live and to which they will want to return in the future. An important goal of our project, which we managed to achieve, was the establishment of the Youth City Council in the city, a body which, after the project implementation period, continues to function and gives young residents real opportunities to influence the development of Cieszyn. It was possible, among others, thanks to cooperation with the city authorities, including the mayor of Cieszyn, Gabriela Staszkiewicz, who took the project under honorary patronage.
Over 150 young people participated in the project. The educational aspect of the project was very important to us, which is why during its implementation we organized 17 inter-area seminars, during which young people could discuss with outstanding experts on topics important from the perspective of the challenges we face today, such as the climate catastrophe, public transport, health mental health, education, or the development of new technologies. During 7 workshops, people participating in the project learned about, among others: with knowledge about the functioning of local government, the Youth City Council and its competences, they worked on the new statute of the Municipal Council. Some of the project participants shared the knowledge acquired as part of our educational activities with their younger colleagues during workshops on youth involvement organized in two primary schools. As part of our project, we also created: the project''s FB page, which contains all the most important materials related to the project, and a 4-episode podcast "Youth in local government" created by the project participants. The integration aspect of the project was also important to us, building a network of contacts and exchanges between people studying in various schools in Cieszyn. We started and ended the project with meetings (in a hybrid formula) devoted to youth involvement, attended by young activists and people involved in the activities of youth councils.
As part of institutional development, during training and language courses, our organization was able to strengthen the competences of 13 employees, including management staff. We also managed to repaint the main hall of the Community Center in Cieszyn and, to a basic extent, adapt the interiors of our premises in Cieszyn and Warsaw to the needs of people with disabilities. Thanks to the implementation of the project, we also managed to create a subpage of the Political Criticism Club in Cieszyn.
The biggest change that has taken place in the city thanks to our project is the creation of the Youth City Council. Thanks to many months of effort by our team and the participants of the project, discussions began in the city about the possibility of establishing a Youth Council, which ended with success. Earlier, young people, together with tutors, prepared a new MRM statute. It therefore had a direct impact on the shape and functioning of the future Council. The Council included two people participating in our project. Moreover, at the end of the project, we also established contact with youth councilors and organized workshops for them. We have prepared the Young Councilors to some extent to fulfill their role. In addition, some of the young people who participated in the project continue to cooperate with us, continue to participate in the events we propose, but also implement their own initiatives and emphasize that the impulse for their own activities was participation in the project and the knowledge they gained during our seminars and workshops. knowledge. Thanks to the project, some young people believed that they could have a greater impact on their immediate surroundings.