International fuel for local youth participation
How and why do local youth services engage in youth participation? What do they learn during a European exchange? We dive into the subject with Laura Van de Vyver (coordinator Child and Youth Friendly City Sint-Niklaas) and Mieke Hulin (youth officer in Zwijndrecht). Later on, we took their story to Ellen De Grauwe (Bataljong vzw).
The octopus
For Laura, the essence of policy participation by children and young people is clear: "Policy works better when children and young people take the lead. I imagine a youth officer as an octopus, a link between policy making, children and youth. Our job is to bring their voice to politicians.
Capturing their signals and needs well, listening to their own advice: that's where it starts. We shouldn’t fall into the trap of translating those needs into actions ourselves. Young people and children think differently, make different choices. Start with how they themselves would tackle this problem and the solutions they propose. This is how to create involvement with young people, by taking them seriously and by listening."
Mieke agrees. To obtain the label of ‘child-friendly municipality’, Zwijndrecht conducted numerous perception surveys. Through various participatory methodologies, children and young people themselves took the floor. "It’s essential to think collaboratively with them and not make the mistake of drawing conclusions in their place. You need to actively listen to their needs and wishes and include them as equal partners in all policy areas."
Another important thing, according to Laura, is for local government to initiate the outreach: "Don't wait for young people to come to you but find them directly in their communities."
Golden ticket
Experimenting with various forms of projects is the common thread here. "In Sint-Niklaas there’s a program currently running called the 'Youth Budget,' a project wherein we’re collaborating with 11 local high schools," says Laura. "By a drawing of lots, about 50 young people are given the opportunity each year to offer a refreshing solution around a theme, allowing us to not only reach the 'super engagers,' but involve everyone through an inclusive approach. For the chosen solution, the young people receive a 'golden ticket' and an accompanying budget of 20,000 euros." Last year they decided to go into neighborhoods, driving a radio caravan around to discuss taboos. This year, they’re thinking about offering more leisure activities to young people." Throughout the process, young people learn to form and share opinions with the mayor and councilmen, they deal with the democratic process and learn to understand you can't always win every argument."
In Zwijndrecht, youths helped shape the skate park, an important meeting place for young people. "We went looking for motivated young people through youth work, the youth council and the sports associations. They helped determine the specifications and implementation and participated in the youth council discussions. Because of this approach we created intrinsic motivation which also made the youths willing to take on a responsibility for the continuation of the project."
European look at local youth participation
In the autumn of 2021, Laura and Mieke had the opportunity to be part of the Democracy Reloading partnership, where they exchanged expertise on local youth participation. Laura attended the stakeholder conference in Portugal, while Mieke followed a training course in Budapest.
We created intrinsic motivation which makes young people willing to take on responsibility for the continuation of the project.
They both agree: it’s simultaneously inspiring and challenging to consider participation across borders. Mieke: "The local context varies tremendously from region to region. Wherever you want to set up an engaging project, it’s always the commitment of the youth officer that’s decisive. Political support will determine whether you can launch or not. Still, the international participants share a vision and recognize the value of the competency model that’s provided.”
When Laura went to the conference in Portugal, she also connected with colleagues of her home country: “Back home, we’re each focused on our own local context, but through broadening our vision and looking at Flanders as a whole, we built a stronger national network that we can fall back on throughout the year. For instance, we recently visited Bruges and connected with our colleagues there, to get inspired by their launch of the Youth Welfare Consultation. And vice versa when we presented our Youth Budget to JES in Brussels. I’ll also never forget meeting the youth officials from the French speaking community. It’s striking that we needed to go abroad together in order to connect.” (laughs)
The refreshed toolkit
What’s next? To know more, we consult Ellen. She applies the competency model and toolkit of Democracy Reloading when working within Bataljong’s Participating Policy Committee. “During every committee meeting we zoom in on some of the skills of the toolkit. We’d also like to integrate the competency model into our course of policy participation, which lasts three days.
We link different skills of the toolkit to the different aspects of this course. Because of the logical structure of the competency model, it’s an efficient tool for reflection and encourages creating the ideal environment for local youth participation. This is something you can easily lose sight of amid the daily rush.”
At the end of 2022, the content of the toolkit will be refreshed. A welcome update, according to Mieke: “As a self-evaluation tool, the competency model is an inspiring start, however, to be used by other departments and coworkers in the council, it needs deepening and different expansions. For instance, it should be a reflex of policy makers to include the perspectives and opinions of children and youth. The toolkit can assist in stimulating this reflex when it has more current frameworks, good practices (preferably with local Flemish examples) and new methodologies.”
Ellen sees Bataljong as an agent in the continuity of broadening the toolkit, in tandem with JINT and other European partners: “We as Bataljong want to collaborate and devise methods to truly apply the competencies and skills in the field.”
Laura: “It would also be wonderful if the Democracy Reloading activities that focus on skill strengthening for youth participation, would reach a broader audience, beyond the youth officials.
It should be a natural reflex of policy makers to include the perspectives and opinions of children and young people.
Democracy Reloading
Democracy Reloading is a European strategic partnership in Erasmus+ Youth between about 20 National Agencies. It aims to support and strengthen cities and municipalities and in particular local youth officials, to fully include youth in local policy making. The content framework is a model with 24 competencies, built around 4 tasks: the municipality, youth, strategy and management. These contribute to creating the ideal environment for local youth participation. The accompanying toolkit supports the learning process and provides theory, examples, exercises and in-depth tools and resources.
JINT is a partner in this project and collaborates with Bataljong vzw in Flanders.
Authors: Inez Adriaensen and Lies Jacob
This article appeared in the 7th edition of SCOOP magazine.