Local Youth Councils on an international scale

Starting from the idea that young people are the driving force of society, able to influence decision- making processes and shape the future of their reality, from local to global level, this project aims to foster the potential of young people to be active citizens and actors of real social change in their local communities. The project focuses on the quality of youth work at the international level in terms of analysing and increasing capacities and possibilities of youth workers from civil society organisations and municipalities to engage young people in decision-making processes at the local level through local youth councils, and equipping young people with the skills and competencies for quality participation. We believe that the local youth council is a model that can have a huge potential in reaching out to marginalised youth that has something to say and can bring different perspectives on local issues but are usually not involved in such structures. Therefore, the project will focus on establishing and improving the existing local youth councils in the participating municipalities in Italy, North Macedonia, Morocco, Tunisia, Palestine and Portugal by developing a Quality charter on participatory and inclusive local youth councils and training modules, together with a series of training and capacity-building activities that will help capacitate the members of the youth councils to act as multipliers in creating an inclusive and representative democratic structure for youth participation in decision-making processes corresponding to the needs of their communities. Altogether, over 500 participants (youth workers, young leaders, young people, and municipality officers) will be directly involved in the project activities. Due to the online dimension of part of the project actions, the project will reach far beyond the original partnership and aims to have a worldwide impact.

Results:
-Educational programme for local youth councils;
-Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on youth participation and local youth councils;
- Local training “My Dream Youth Council”;

-Job shadowing activities;

Objectives:
-To equip the youth councils with knowledge and skills to affect policy-making at the local level;
- To create spaces for the exchange and sharing of practices related to youth participation in decision- making at the local level between young people from different parts of the world;
- To enable youth workers to learn first-hand about the functioning of local youth councils and making them more inclusive of their colleagues from different municipalities through job shadowing opportunities;
- To create a sense of belonging to the local and global community among youth by engaging them in interaction with their peers from around the world;
- To develop a global platform (open course) that will promote the new inclusive model of local youth councils.