Building a bridge between youth and politics

The reasons why we have decided to propose a Youth Democracy Project lie in the common feelings of dissatisfaction and disappointment at the political system at both a national and local level. Young people either are not interested in politics or they think that politicians are not really working hard to meet and fulfil people’s real needs. We believe that this perception could be changed, even though just at a local level, by shortening the gaps between young people and politicians and making both of them aware of what they can actively do to change the situation.
Firstly, we have started thinking about how to build a sort of bridge between young people and institutions and we have pointed out two main objectives: improving the communication between young people and politics and spreading the information about the institutions and their functioning. In our opinion information and knowledge are the bases to start building a solid bridge and shortening the distances. We hope that this project will encourage the active participation of young people in the life of their local community and will enable them to compare their results and exchange good practices with a European partner.
We plan to achieve our goal by a series of activities aimed to enable young people to learn about the political system (with practical workshops and events simulating the functioning of the democratic institutions and the roles of decision-makers) and learn to critically analyse political and social issues in order to make their voices heard.
Due to the multiethnic variety which characterizes our town and in order to give voice to everybody, our team will be composed by young people coming from different social and cultural situations with different experiences and needs.