Municipalities4Democracy - The municipal youth perspective

It is a four day international training module for municipal youth policy officers and decision-makers on how to design and implement youth participation in municipal decision-making. This training module is repeated several times allowing many local officers and local politicians to participate. It has been designed to support municipalities in making youth participation relevant to their local reality, and to become empowered by both theory and practice. 

What to expect from this training course?
The aim is to discuss how to successfully involve young people in municipal decision-making and strengthen democracy in your municipality. During the activity you will understand the four steps of the Democracy Reloading model and learn about related theory, relevant tools and several practices. 

Objectives of this training course

• to share experience of the participants regarding local youth participation in decision-making,
• to understand the content and the functions of the online Toolkit, and the prepare the participants for further independent use,
• to identify ways and ideas for your municipality to further develop the local youth participation, 
• to understand the potential for municipalities to use the Erasmus+ Youth programme and its funding opportunities to achieve this

Who is this training course for?

• Primarily for municipal youth policy officers and local political representatives focusing on youth policy and citizens, secondary it is also open to youth workers who coordinate / support youth council or other types of youth participation structures, who want to implement or improve the youth participation in municipal decision-making,
• Participants must be able to follow (speak, read and listen) the training course in English language,
• Priority will be given to participants from countries that are members of the Democracy Reloading Partnership (see the list below).

The methodology of the training course is based on non-formal experiential learning. Participants will share their experience and practices, there will be few presentations by experts and most of the sessions will be interactive and participatory. The tools of Democracy Reloading will be used and presented in the training course. 

About Democracy Reloading

Democracy Reloading Partnership is a long-term cooperation project of Erasmus+ Youth national agencies that started in 2015, with the aim to contribute to the development of youth participation in democratic decision-making at local and regional level across Europe. The Partnership runs until 2027 and includes the maintenenace the European website, organisation of training courses, webinars and conferences on the topic. The website: https://democracy-reloading.eu  

Member countries: Portugal, Italy, Belgium (FR and FL), Hungary, the Netherlands, Norway, France, Spain, Slovakia, Cyprus, Estonia, Poland,  Sweden, Greece, Iceland, Bulgaria, Armenia,