Townhall in School

forthcoming

We are proposing the Townhall in School project with the intention to improve the political participation and communication between politics and the youth. Therefore, we develop seminars that give youngsters - the space to reflect upon the most important socio-economic challenges in their direct environment – their home region, - give them the voice to articulate these challenges, - create direct encounters with political decision-makers addressing their questions to people with actual political power, and - set up a feedback-loop for showing how their questions are dealt with in the political arena. Therewith, the seminar structure is following the Laura Lundy Model of Youth Participation. The events will take place in secondary schools in Germany, France, Croatia, and Poland and are accentuated by the involvement of local media outlets who are motivated to cover these events. They understand that these are not merely just another project day in a random school but democratic participation events where youngsters discuss actual challenges of their home region and hold politicians accountable for why these challenges are not tackled appropriately. Hence, they take rather the form of Townhall events where the audience – youngsters – are properly prepared for the political discussion. The Townhall in School events are accompanied by Teacher Trainings that disseminate this approach to citizenship education among teachers and their schools and a concluding European conference dedicated to topics of political participation of the youth and political communication in challenging political times.