Next step: To vote or not to vote?

Aims & objectives

The aim of the seminar was to explore the causes of the low electoral participation of young people, identify and showcase different measures taken to entice young people into getting interested and involved in elections and enhance further cooperation on the topic.
The seminar was the first step of a long-term process aimed to look at the electoral participation of young people, initiated by a group of National Agencies.

Its objectives were to
understand the current electoral participation of young people (background, experiences, motivation, obstacles, …) through research findings and good examples of practice;
share local, national and European initiatives aiming to encourage young people to participate in elections, especially first-time voters and help them make informed choices;
explore the role of social media in supporting young people’s participation in electoral processes;
stimulate and reinforce co-operation among participants.

Target group & international/intercultural composition of the group & team

The organisers were Salto Participation and a group of National Agencies of Youth in Action.
The facilitators' team involved me and another facilitator from Hungary.
The participants were 26 coming from Austria, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, France, Hungary, Malta and Spain.

Training methods used & main activities

Non-formal learning methodology was used including:
Energizers
Team building activities
Presentations
Discussion groups (of different forms)
Daily and final interactive evaluations

Outcomes of the activity

The outputs were:
a social media platform: videos; social media report;
an executive summary with main outcomes;
action-oriented proposals;
and achievement of the proposed objectives.

Your tasks and responsibilities within the team

Creation of event's objectives
Design of programme of activities
Facilitation of sessions
Content reporting

I worked on this training for 4 days as a full time trainer.