(YOU)th feel DEMOCRACy

“(YOU)th feel DEMOCRACy” is an 1.3 youth in action project that involves 16 young participants in various non-formal education activities in order to develop a pozitive attitude and the capacity of the young people to participate in the democratic system as active citizens.

During the 9 days of intensive non-formal program the participants will develop knowledge of democratic systems in the partner countries, history of developing a democratic process in our countries, skills to survey the public opinion on the democratic issues in the community, to organize a public theater representation and to promote active citizenship in general and solidar common actions and reactions of the citizens in the legislative/political process.

Young people in general don’t know the democracy is functioning, what are the democratic principles and from where those are coming from, they don’t know exactly how to get themselves involved and solve particular social, political issues at local level because they have not been guided and motivated to practice this kind of abilities and attitudes. Young people have a lack of knowledge regarding the understanding of the democracy and how can they be a part of the process of taking decisions or to influence public opinion through an awareness raising campaign in order to determine the improvement of some aspects related to youth or social policies that are interested for them.

Through project activities, young people will have the chance, beside a strong intercultural experience, to find out what are the most important public and state institutions in their communities and how those institutions are functioning, they will learn new techniques needed to identify social problems in their communities, and how they can involve themselves in solving those problems or to involve local authorities in solving identified issues.

Young people will practice theater based techniques, attitudes and pro-social comportments, social activism and participation. They will learn how to use theater as a tool for social intervention and how to attract public authorities’ public opinion attention towards the problems existing in their own communities.

The main aim of the project is to develop a positive attitude and the capacity of the young people to participate in the democratic system as active citizens.

In concrete, the project objectives are:

-to encourage an positive attitude towards democratic mechanisms for 16 young participants from 2 countries for 9 days;
-to facilitate the dialogue and cooperation between young participants and local public authorities;
-to develop the abilities in using theater as a tool for social intervention for 16 young participants;

Dates of project implementation: December 1th 2011-July 30th 2012

Venue: Drobeta Turnu Severin, Romania