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Youth Watch
Start date: Sep 1, 2015, End date: Feb 29, 2016 PROJECT  FINISHED 

The most relevant topic addressed by this project is youth participation in decision making process on local level. However, this project has international character because results and recommendations are disseminated in all of the partner countries, where they were adapted to suit the needs of every specific local environment. This project tackled lack of will of authorities to include young people and give them the opportunity to experience political participation and be decision makers in their own environment, which is from an early age crucial for young people to become active citizens. The key problem addressed by this project is low level of inclusion of young people in decision making process caused by lack of will to include / motivate young people for active participation in society. Participants explored formal barriers to youth participation in local self-government, such as the lack of transparency, lack of citizenship education and a lack of young people's priorities being reflected in mainstream politics. The main objective of this project was to create preconditions for inclusion of young people in decision making process through interaction / structured dialogue with decision makers. Therefore, "Youth Watch" drew attention to the fact that young people have the right and should have the opportunity to have a real say when decisions affecting them are being made. “Youth Watch” is KA3 project – dialogue between young people and policy makers, which gathered 31 participants, including 4 experts from youth policy field, 3 members of project team and 11 decision makers from 4 countries which spent 8 days in Samobor, Croatia interacting, observing and giving recommendations for improvement of young people position to representatives of decision makers. This project included both young people who are familiar with youth policy in their countries, as well those who aren’t familiar but want to increase level of youth participation and gain knowledge applicable in their own community. Main project activities were based on non-formal education methods, discussions, debates, interaction, research, simulation, youth work and evaluation of participants to develop their personal and professional potentials. Participants were working plenary and in 4 groups, focused on exploring some specific key area of this project (youth policy, culture. sport / free time and social services for young people). Each team had international character, in order to exchange different points of view on relevant issues and to get familiar with decisions regarding issues important for youth from the perspective of every participating country. In the beginning of the project participants gained insight into legal and theoretical aspect of youth participation in local self-government in Samobor and presented the situation in their community. Through meetings with decision makers and discussions / debates, participants identified key areas in which improvements need to be made in order to improve position of young people and include them on equal basis in decision making process. . For the purpose of dissemination and exploitation of results, this project included 2-day conferences in all included partner countries, in order to adapt reccommendations brought by participants to the needs of specific environments and implement them in practice. The project has impact both on participants and decision makers. It fostered a sense of citizenship and made policy processes more transparent and accountable towards young people.. Participants have brought reccommendations in 4 key areas: youth policy, culture, sports and free time as well as social services, which were presented to local decision makers and written down on canvas, set on the main square in Samobor to be visible to all citizens. TV show about the project in duration of 60 minutes was recorded on dissemination conference in Marseille – which can be seen on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFVwOG1uPPc. Project also resulted in new ideas for future projects of partner organizations.

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