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Description
This project responds to the following needs: inadequate civic knowledge and skills among young people in the Lublin County, little interest among families in developing civic attitudes in children and young people, and negative attitudes towards participation and local cooperation among the residents of our county. As part of the project we are implementing an innovative educational programme to build participatory and civic attitudes in young people. It is attended by 160 school students in 8 schools in the Lublin County. As part of the project, we conduct ‘Elections in the M City’ workshops as a game that simulates local elections. During the workshops, young people learn about the principles of civil society, including voting in elections or participatory budgeting. In each school, we run a participatory budget campaign: young people prepare and submit their project proposals, and residents cast their votes for them. The three projects with the most votes will be implemented by young people supported by the local community. Open meetings will be held in each school to summarise the project. During the meetings we will present the project activities and initiate discussion in the local communities. The direct beneficiaries of the project are 160 7th grade elementary school students (13-15 year-olds) from eight small, rural schools in the Lublin County. As a result of the project, young people will learn how modern civil society functions and will gain skills to actively participate in social and public life. As a result, they will be able to involve the residents of their localities in activities to protect the environment or solve other local problems. Our partner is the Peron 3 Social Cooperative, which will prepare the project team to carry out activities to activate young people and the whole communities.
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.