Local Youth Councils in SB - An Effective Way to Promote Youth Participation

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Most of the countries around the Baltic sea have neither sufficient opportunities nor concrete measures for the youth to more actively participate in pan-Baltic networks to discuss critical issues, be them environmental, social, and educational, etc. due to eg. some government representatives as well as young people themselves are not well aware of the potential benefits of youth involvement and participation and long lasting effects of participation on both individuals and larger communities. The partners’ experience and some national-level survey results show that majority of local actors have not seriously considered yet that participation on international or cross-border levels could benefit individuals, governments and the societies in general. Numerous surveys also report that young people feel poorly integrated in their societies, ignored or unprepared to compete in the labour market, they either show little interest in or lack concrete tools for overcoming their social or economic alienation. The future project would undertake to fill-in the gap by building capacity of various local actors in the partner countries, and increasing their interest and commitment in greater networking for more efficient and transparent public policy and youth policy on both national and pan-Baltic or international levels. The Seed money is needed to facilitate partner exchanges and development of a project concept and a future project for financing by the South Baltic Programme not only for Poland and Lithuania, but also for at least three-four other countries around the Baltic sea. It would complement some analysis, round-table discussions involving participants from various sectors, various government levels, NGO representatives, and individuals.

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