Municipalities4Democracy - Local youth policy and youth voice

If your municipality wants to be better in good governance and develop local democracy through engaging local young people in municipal decisions, this training course will help you develop your related competences. Engaging young people in municipal decisions will require that your municipality:

• address the needs and interests of youth, 
• involve youth in decisions influencing their lives, 
• work to increase their level of ownership of and responsibility for their own community, 

With this commitment you will develop the quality of your local democracy. We believe that when young people are informed, trained, empowered and trusted they will be better actors of change and promoters of deeper and wider local democracy. 

Objectives of this training course

• to share experience of the participants regarding local youth participation in decision-making,
• to understand the content and the functions of the Democracy Reloading tools, and how to use them in your local context, 
• to identify ways and ideas for your municipality to further develop the local youth participation, 
• to understand the potential for municipalities to use the Erasmus+ Youth and ESC programme and its funding opportunities to develop municipal youth participation.

Who is this training course for?

• Primarily for municipal youth policy officers and local political representatives focusing on youth policy and citizens, secondary it is also open to youth workers who coordinate / support youth council or other types of youth participation structures, who want to implement or improve the youth participation in municipal decision-making,
• Participants must be able to follow the training course in English language,
• Priority will be given to participants from countries that are members of the Democracy Reloading Partnership (see the list below).

The methodology of the training course is based on non-formal experiential learning. Participants will share their experience and practices, there will be few presentations by experts and most of the sessions will be interactive and participatory. All 4 Democracy Reloading tools will be presented in more detail and we will explore ways of integrating and using theem in the youth policy context of the municipalities.

About Democracy Reloading

Democracy Reloading Partnership is a long-term cooperation project of 19 Erasmus+ Youth national agencies that started in 2015, with the aim to contribute to the development of youth participation in democratic decision-making at local and regional level across Europe. See further details HERE.

Member countries: Portugal, Italy, Belgium FR, Belgium FL, Hungary, the Netherlands, Norway, France, Spain, Poland, Slovakia, Cyprus, Sweden, Greece, Iceland, Bulgaria, Armenia.