From 15-16 March Poraka Nova hosted the mobility event in Bitola, where participants (stakeholders and young people ) from Agder, Norway and Glocal Factory, Italy attended. The two day agenda was filled with visits to various venues were young people of Bitola have space to participate in different activities. From the Municipality of Bitola, to youth centers and youth organization and Universities we covered all important places were young people met stakeholders or policy makers. +10 participants of this event had intercultural shared experience on same topics, young people and their democratic participation in the processes.
During the first day, the first visit was reserved to the Municipality of Bitola, they presented to us their activities related to youth and sports, the grants that the municipality plans to allocate exclusively for youth organizations in the near future. They also presented us with the functioning of the local youth council and its role in the implementation of youth policies. They also showed us the newly opened youth center, where the YMCA organization currently operates. The stuff from youth cultural center presented to us their activities related to young people in the field of entrepreneurship, employment, culture, social protection. Additionally, YMCA shared their activities for organizing youth camps for young girls and young boys, with the aim of acquiring leadership skills and making social changes.
On the second day we visited Universities in Bitola, started with a meeting in Poraka Nova where we discussed some of the youth issues in Norway and Italy and after that we got a presentation from – Presentation of Young Entrepreneur from the company Bintern – Dimitar, and a – Presentation from the Youth Ambassador and Young Activist from the organization Youth for Change – Pece, where they both discussed the challenges and barriers that they had to overcome in their growth and development as professionals.
Afterwards visit to the International Slavic University was organized, where we got a presentation from the university and the students about their Erasmus+ program. After that we went to Faculty of Biotechnical Science – Bitola and Faculty of Biotechnical Science – Bitola. where we had a presentation from the school staff along with their students about their programs and exchanges. After that we got a presentation from the Faculty Student Assembly they presented their programs, events and experience.
Having collected our impressions from both days, we can say that we had a very productive event, filled with interesting discussions, presentations and visits. Some of the conclusions were that young people from Macedonia and Italy are facing similar problems regarding youth participation and less involvement in decision making process. Macedonian youth are very creative and innovative from the various problems they face, so they constantly look for and create new innovative solutions to approach problems and find solutions for them. On the other and Norway has more advanced system for including young people in democratic process, their politicians are more open provide easy access to approach them and provide space were young people’s voice are heard and their issues are resolved or addressed very efficiently. All participants from abroad had very good impression on how Macedonian institutions are open for collaboration and provided insightful presentations for youth related topics.
On the 15th of March Trikala’s Youth Council had their first open event. The youngsters choose to start their public presence with an issue that is extremely important for Greek society: violence against women.
The event took place with the collaboration of the local Support Centre for Victims of Violence and it was divided in two parts:
Information from the staff of the Support Center for Women Victims of Violence of the Municipality of Trikala
Open discussion among attendees on issues of gender-based violence and equality.
Check out the latest news and updates of our NEUEYT project, activities and events. The partners from E-Trikala created the latest edition of NEUEYT Newsletter which will inform you about the achievements of our 8 Initiatives, the numbers of events, participants and outcomes from the stakeholder meetings in each partner country, and update about the mobility events that are currently implementing in March and April, where young people and stakeholders visit different countries and discuss about the project and youth participation in democratic processes.
Over the last decades, the involvement and participation of young individuals in the decision making process (social, political and civic), became really important. As a matter of fact, many European institutions and organizations constantly emphasize the significance of youth participation as a ‘space’ where young people can freely express their views, or opinions and decision-makers can listen to their views, or opinions and hopefully take them in consideration. Today, on average, one in two young Europeans uses the internet to interact with public authorities. Of course, due to the level of education, especially in the area of digital competences, many young people use different digital tools for engaging in the decision making process.
Different digital tools for youth participation
Visual Argument
The ‘Visual Argument’ tool is used to collect and map the different arguments of a debate. It can help young people in collecting useful insights about the connection of different opinions, especially their similarity and distinction. While the insights can be useful, however they typically require participants to complete surveys, and that can be disengaging in the process of following the debate. However, the best-known example for the use of argument visualization is the online platform vTaiwan, where stakeholders can discuss how to formulate or revise regulations, through mutual exchange of opinions.
Co-drafting
Co-Drafting is a ‘collaborative’ tool that is most commonly used for team groups to write and edit texts together. They are typically best used with an established group where there is a common purpose and established norms for working in different circumstances. This is a great opportunity for young people, who want to be involved in the decision making process to join this platform and give their opinions and thoughts on a certain topic. One of the most interesting examples of this currently is the Coronavirus Tech Handbook, where everyone can inform or contribute by sharing their personal insights for better protection of Covid-19.
Crowd mapping
Based on the name of this digital tool, young people can make suggestions about dealing with current issues, by sharing their location on a map. They can use this for a variety of purposes, like reporting potholes, disaster relief or giving insights on improving the local community. The ‘Crowd mapping’ tool can provide an effective way of collecting insights from the local community about a certain place, object or an overall community problem. CrisisCommons is a great example of a crowd mapping tool. It is an online global community of different volunteers, government agencies, and citizens who are effectively improving the resiliency and response before the unfortunate disaster occurs.
Ideas Generation
This tool is an excellent opportunity to enable young participants to submit ideas in response to a certain local issue or topic. There is also the possibility for commenting and voting for an idea, where the highest voted ideas rise to the top of the list and therefore receive more votes. Given this opportunity, young people can freely choose the idea or suggestion that they think is the most effective solution to the given problem. One of the best examples of using an ideas generation platform was DecideMadrid, which enabled residents to propose ideas for new legislation.
Conclusion
The participation of youth in the decision making process is important, because youth are the most valuable asset in every society. Participation promotes the well-being and development of young people. The more opportunities a young person has for meaningful participation, including questioning, expressing their views and opinions, the more experienced or competent he or she becomes. Also, by using different tools for political participation, young people can enhance their skills, competencies, and become more confident to establish professional relationships.
Author: Ljupka Janevska, web content writer in Poraka Nova
On the 20th of February, HUB NICOSIA facilitated the first stakeholder table in the framework of the NEUEYT project. The aim of the stakeholder table was to introduce the project to various stakeholders in order to build bridges between the activities developed in the project and policymaking.
The meeting was very relaxed and interesting for the participants. The stakeholders were mostly active in education and youth work. Following the introduction of the participants and exchange of areas of expertise, the project manager for Cyprus, Dora Heracleous, presented the objectives of the meeting and the important role that those 3 stakeholder tables will have in the development of policy recommendations.
The brief discussion was followed by a more thorough understanding of the project, its main goals and objectives, while the main work packages were also presented. The participating stakeholders discussed some identified good practices and how those practices helped the partnership develop and structure the novel framework which involves the 8 initiatives suggested by the NEUEYT project.
During the meeting the stakeholders had the opportunity to become more familiar with the 8 initiatives and the different approaches that the partners followed during their implementation process. An extensive discussion followed that was relevant to how the concomitant implementation of the initiatives by at least 3 partners allows them to test the initiatives’ adaptability.
The meeting was rounded up with a Q&A session during which the stakeholders had the opportunity to ask questions; share insights and impressions; and tell us how they envision their further involvement in the project.
AGENDA: 14:00 – 14:15 Welcoming participants 14:15 – 14:30 About the project + ToR Youth Digital Participation 14:30 – 15:00 Youth Digital Participation – Needs and challenges 15:00 – 15:45 Recommendations/guidelines for policymakers and stakeholders – open discussion 15: 45 – 16:00 International mobility Hosting 16:00 Refreshments
On 24th February in the offices of Poraka Nova in Bitola, the 2 nd stakeholders meeting was held under the name “ Democratic participation of the young people” At the meeting were present 24 participants, of whom 11 stakeholders and 13 young people. The profiles of stakeholders were university professors, pedagogues, members of the youth council from the municipality, workers in the municipality in the youth sector, members from the local NGOs The profiles of participants were high schoolers, university students, and unemployed young people. At the beginning, it was presented the NEUEYT project, his initiatives in general, and explained the ones we already held in Macedonia. Also, future plans were presented. Afterward, the young people took space and talked about their points of view on the local problems they are facing, unemployment, lack of information they are facing in the digital era, and some of the topics that were tackled in the silent debate. It was narrowed down that the information we are providing for them they are not getting it and we have the feeling that the nowadays youths are uninterested and passive. So the direction it was held in that direction, to find common ways where both sides can meet in the middle. The NGOs representatives but also other sectors private and public need to find a way that is easy and understandable for young people, to find the right links (social media, and other relevant online services they are following), to ask about their real problems, to ask their advice for help, for explaining the real issues. They shared some past problems and issues when tried to get in touch with the young people, but were unsuccessful. Some of the problems that public sectors are facing is that they are lacking staff and overflowed work. The private faculty mentioned that they have a mentor professor that guides the young people during their study year, informs them about their studies but also other relevant happenings. A good practice that can be taken for governmental faculties and institutions. A step that will make easier the students life but also institutions. Young people to be more open, feel free to discuss, to be more responsible if they want to be freer when expressing their ideas, to seek for support and guidance. On the question, if they are ready to take democratic participation they said yes, but they need more time, learning, experience, more information and of course support. One of the keynotes that were highlighted was that:
The communication between young people and the stakeholders is on a low level and both sides need to work on it. They need to make more effort if they want to create/get the right information
To use the right channels for information
To use the “youth dictionary” if they want to be understood and supported
To find the right access, attractive and approachable for the young people
Proactive young people that need to work on their passive behavior, to ask for help NGOs and/or relevant institutions
Proactive institutions. They need to use the right channels for informing young people. Especially the educational ones. They need to work on their employees (professors and staff) that can be part of different programs, maybe to set a norm for attending trainings courses relevant for youth information, so the young people will get the right information and/or feel free to approach the person that is responsible for it. Also they can take the good practice from the private faculty for mentoring.
Future activities: On the study visit in 15-16 March, visitors from Norway and Italy, along with the stakeholders and young people that were present are going to visit:
Both faculties – Biotechnology (governmental) and Slavic (private) and their youth unions
Medical and economy high schools,
Local NGO`s YMCA, youth cultural center, youth center
Municipality – the members of the youth council and the members of the voluntary sector
The next, 3 rd stakeholders meeting will be held in Struga with the same people on this meeting.
