Problems and Purpose

The main aim of the project is to increase the social commitment and empowerment of young people through providing tools and ready-made solutions. This will help to create more efficient support methods for youth engagement into joint-decisions about issues concerning a given local community. 

By analyzing the best practices and methodologies of youth education based on municipal participatory tools and school participatory budgeting and the development of common European standards for the inclusion of young people in municipal participatory budgeting over the 2 year length of the project and beyond, we will have a practical impact and facilitate youth participation in the democratic processes.

Background History and Context

Why are the participatory budgets taken into account? 

Contrary to the participation in other more formal local or parliamentary elections, the participation in participatory budgets is open to people of much younger age. In this way, even the very young people will be able to learn what opportunities they have to co-decide about spending public funds in their neighbourhood – in the school and municipality. 

Our project creates an opportunity to experience democracy in action, especially at the local level. We know young people wish to be good citizens, as it has been seen by the recent climate change school strikes happening across Europe. This project will harness that energy and help make it into a lifelong learning opportunity. 

Organizing, Supporting, and Funding Entities

The project is funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.

Methods and Tools Used

As part of the implemented project we will deliver creative and innovative tools and support youth workers, teachers and educators by creating the set of tools:

• the guidebook/toolkit – showing the model of using the tool such as a participatory budget, developed on the basis of materials and data collected in different countries;   
• the video material promoting the youth involvement into the participatory budget;   
• the interactive map of good practices on how to engage young people in democratic processes in Europe and throughout the world.

The materials will be prepared in the national languages ​​of all partners: in English, Spanish and Polish.

The project also involves the international training course in the project topic to which teachers and educators interested in using the tools of participation in non-formal education will be invited. 30 people from all countries participating in the project will take part in this training course.

The developed models and tools will be subject to the testing phase, in which 75 young people will take part: 25 people in Białystok, 25 people in Warsaw and 25 people in Belfast (the UK).

The last phase of the project focuses on the dissemination of the project results through organizing 5 seminars at all project partners.

What Went On: Process, Interaction, and Participation

September 2019 – the start of actions

It’s time to start! This is the moment when we first met online with the working team composed of representatives of each partner organization after submitting the project application. We looked at the application once again and exchanged good practices of similar activities. We made first steps to organize our meeting in Poland.

October 2019 – First international working meeting in Warsaw

For the first time we met “face to face” in Warsaw, the capital of Poland. It is here where we learned more about the Erasmus Plus programme itself and the rules of implementing European projects. This has been the time to elaborate the detailed schedule, the division of tasks and to exchange the first concepts of the IO (Intellectual Outputs).

September 2019 – December 2021 – Work on the guidebook/toolkit

The main effect of our project is the guidebook to methods of involving children and young people in urban politics and participatory tools, with the particular emphasis on the participatory budget. We work in teams by preparing the main elements of the guidebook such as the main values of the youth involvement, the collected methods and test results and the good practices from around the world.

April 2020 – Training for teachers and youth workers / Glasgow

The main focus of the four-day workshop for the group of 30 people involved in implementing projects related to budgets and the participation is the youth work. The goal of the meeting was to exchange good examples of youth involvement in public life in Scotland. These examples are going to serve as the base of the principles of our guidebook. The meeting was supposed to have been organized by Shared Future, together with its British partners.

Due to the epidemic, we were forced to cancel the training in Glasgow on participatory budgeting, which was planned for April as the part of our “Youth PB Accelerator” project. 30 people from partner organizations from Poland, the UK and Spain, as well as Scottish representatives of public administration, social and youth organizations were supposed to participate in the event. However, we continued our project despite the obstacles. We did not want to miss the opportunity to even partially implement a very extensive training programme. Therefore, using the possibilities of the internet technology and the flexibility and readiness to change the main organizer – Shared Future CIC, we invited delegates from Scottish Youth PB programmes to participate in three online workshop sessions on 21st-22nd April 2020.

Here you can learn more about how the workshop sessions went: https://youthpb.eu/noticias/online-workshops-from-in-glasgow-we-act-despite-disruptions/

June 2020 – Second International Working Meeting / Granada

The working meeting in Spain was going to be organized for us to exchange the first fragments of the guidebook and to finalise further assumptions of this material – such as its graphic design, necessary attachments and promotion among recipients. The meeting was also set to be a test of our ideas for the preparation of the video and the map of good practices.

Due to the pandemic, we were forced to cancel this meeting.

March 2020 – December 2021 – Work on the video

The short film is a tool to show to the broad audience what the school participatory budget is and what benefits it brings to the whole school community. We want to encourage youth workers and students themselves to read the entire guidebook and the created materials by promoting the video on the project’s website and Facebook page.

October 2020 – December 2021 – Work on the map

The map of good practices is a crucial part of the project. It includes examples of successful processes involving young people in urban participatory tools with a special focus on participatory budget mechanisms. Each good practice presented there consists of short description of activities and links to the source of knowledge and created materials. The map is interactive and created collaboratively, which means everybody is able to submit their own case to the map published on our website.

January 2021 – Third international working meeting/ Bialystok

The main focus of the second Transnational Project Meeting in Poland was testing the already developed solutions. The goal was to visit one of the schools which carries out a participatory school budget based on our materials. Conversations with teachers and students involved in the activities would have helped us improve our guidebook.

Due to the pandemic, we were forced to cancel this meeting.

October 2020 – March 2021 – Testing

The developed materials such as the model school budget and the class scenarios are tested with students, teachers, parents and youth workers. In one of the Polish schools the model of school PB is implemented. We engage befriended non-governmental organizations from Belfast and Warsaw to carry out testing.

June 2021 – Fourth international working meeting in Belfast

The final meeting of the working team is primarily the time to summarize the activities around the Intellectual Outputs and to finalise the materials after the testing phase. During the meeting we look at the collected evaluation materials and prepare to the series of dissemination events.

September 2021 – Events which disseminate effects (Bialystok | Warsaw | Belfast | Manchester | Granada)

Dissemination events take place in each country of the partner organisations. Their main aim is to promote the created materials among decision makers, schools and youth workers. During the meetings we present in detail the materials and their practical application. Additionally, we create the space for discussion on the challenges of civic education and urban participation.

As the project is still ongoing, this section will be updated in the future.

Influence, Outcomes, and Effects

To achieve the project’s goal, we will seek to develop the abilities and competences of youth workers in order to ensure the participation of young people in the civic life of the city, community or school. We mainly intend to train teachers and educators how to implement and use participatory budget (PB). Not every youth worker or teacher knows the participatory techniques of engaging young people in public life, or see the possibilities of a participatory budget in this regard. There is currently a lack of structured models and classroom materials for the delivery of participatory budgeting which holds back its growth. Teachers, educators in both formal and informal settings currently lack the skills or resources to deliver on this concept.

As the project is still ongoing, this section will be updated in the future.

Analysis and Lessons Learned

As the project is still ongoing, this section will be updated in the future.

External Links

The project website https://youthpb.eu/