Listen To Us - how to strengthen democracy and increase the level of engagement between children/young people and politicians/civil servants

In this project, we will investigate if, and how, countries around the North Sea work with children and young people's participation in the development of society today. The project connects two target groups, which are interdependent on each other; target group 1: children and young people under the age of 18 and target group 2: politicians and civil servants in municipalities, regions and authorities. We will compare national strategies and working methods in the area, to see what similarities and differences exist. A likely methodological approach is a mixture of transnational seminars and workshops in combination with national analysis work in working groups "at home". Each project partner will bring with them examples of how to work with children and young people's participation today and we will exchange thoughts and experiences based on these examples. The innovative core value of the project is that these examples, together with the comparative analysis of the national strategies, should serve as inspiration for methodological discussions. Here the project partners combine national experiences into a development strategy for the entire North Sea region, regarding the conditions for improving and strengthening the participation of children and young people in the development of society. The concrete result of the project will be an operational manual.

County Administrative Board of Skåne, Sweden

The Centre Social Éclaté, Saint-Martin-Boulogne, Pas-de-Calais, France

Municipalities, Regions, National authorities, Youth organisations, NGOs, Schools and Universities