The aim of this international activity is to empower young people, age 18 to 30 year old, to strengthen youth participation in their local communities.

Activties take place in Arona, Italy for 4 days, from the he 21st of to the 24th of November, with the 20th and the 25th as travel dates. Accomodation and meal costs are covered by ECYC. Also travel cost are fully reimboursed, upon participation of at least 80% of the activity. 

If you wish to participate send an updated Curriculum vitae to info@ecyc.org

The 3 main objectives of this activity are are:
- To explore different forms, strengths and obstacles of youth participation at local level.

- To explore the Revised European Charter on the Participation of Young People in Local and Regional Life and how it can be used to promote youth participation.

- To plan concrete actions for enhancing youth participation and removing barriers for youth participation, including holding workshops with young people at community level.

Over the course of 4 days, participants will acquire knowledge and tools that will allow them to develop concrete actions aiming to foster youth participation in their own realities. To do so, we will start by working on developing a good understanding of youth participation. We will look at all the different forms (voting, volunteering, sitting in a committee etc.), levels (the “ladder of youth participation”) and conditions (“RSMOS”) of youth participation, mainly using activities from the Have Your Say! manual.

Moreover, we will provide participants with the tools to understand how to tackle the barriers that young people in their communities face when it comes to participating and we will empower them to put that into practice once back home. The reasons and background of the barriers for participation will be explored, in order to tackle the obstacles for participation more effectively.

The second objective refers to the Revised European Charter on the Participation of Young People in Local and Regional Life. The charter will be introduced as not only a definition of what youth participation is, but we will highlight that it also works as a document that can be used to boost the validity of young people’s case in the local contexts. Participants will learn about the Charter’s content through activities based on the Have Your Say! methodology.

Lastly, we will support participants in the development of their idea for a set of actions aiming to strengthen youth participation in their local communities. Each participant will be required to include, among their actions, a workshop to be held with other young people and using the learning outcomes from the training course. Participants will “test” the workshop ideas during the training, and will implement it back home with the help of their organisations (youth clubs, youth centres etc.). This way, they will act as multipliers and more young people will benefit from the knowledge shared at the training course.

If you wish to participate send an updated CV to info@ecyc.org and we will get back to you. If you have any questions or comments please let us know at ecyc@fcjmp.be