Description
The project is about strengthening Municipal Youth Councils (MYC) as institutions of civil dialogue enabling young people to participate in decision-making processes on the local level. The project will be implemented in 3 municipalities (Krynica Morska, Lisewo, Płużnica) where we will conduct model processes of decision-making through cooperation between local authorities and MYC. In addition, we will perform advocacy activities directed to representatives of local governments. The real participation of young citizens in decision-making processes depends on their attitudes, and we want to persuade them that it's possible and useful. We will perform two types of activities: 1. In 3 municipalities the authorities together with the youth will go through a process of diagnosing local problems, their prioritising, to solving one of them. 2. Advocacy activities to enhance competencies of municipal authorities and officers in including the youth in decision-making processes using MYC. The partners are the Polish Council of Youth Organisations and municipalities of Krynica Morska, Lisewo, Płużnica.
Summary of project results
"The project was a response to the fact that the potential of the Youth Municipal Councils (YMC) was insufficiently used as institutions of civil dialogue. The aim of the project was to strengthen the YMC mechanism. The activities were led in 3 municipalities (Krynica Morska, Lisewo, Płużnica), and also included nationwide advocacy initiatives. The main result of the project was conducting in municipalities a model processes of including the youth in decision-making. In Lisewo, the YMC participated in decision-making on Jordanek management (the project was then implemented and had financing in the municipal budget of 2016), in Płużnica the local authorities decided to open a youth club in the former building of the Municipal Social Assistance Centre, and in Krynica Morska a 2.5-hectare area will be created for leisure and recreation, for which the YMC prepared a social land management plan. In all municipalities the project activities helped to solve important problems diagnosed by the youth: lack of meeting places, inadequate offer for youth from local clubrooms, the need to manage public areas. In the diagnosing process 466 persons participated. Members of YMC took part in 66 hours of workshops. The municipalities were supported for 16 days by an expert. Under advocacy activities, cooperation was started with unions of local government units (the Union of Polish Cities, the Union of Polish Small Towns, the Union of Polish Metropolies and the Union of Rural Municipalities), a seminar was organised for the authorities and officials (together with the Government Plenipotentiary for Civil Society - 153 participants), and thematic documents were prepared and disseminated: the analysis of support standards for youth councils in EU, description of YMC good practices in cooperating with the authorities (Radom, Płużnica, Olsztynek, Wąchock, Bydgoszcz), the charter for youth council principles and standards of activities. The group of persons, organisations and institutions was also built - the coalition for Youth Municipal Councils (21 organisations), to enhance the quality of YMC activity in Poland. The role of the partner, the Polish Council of Youth Organisations, was to disseminate results among their member organisations and to cooperate with local government unit unions."
Summary of bilateral results