National Workshops Lithuania 11th October & 9th November 2022
At 11th October 2022 the first workshop of the project “Digital Civic Participation V2.0″ funded by the European Union Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values Program (CERV-2021-CITIZENS-TOWN ) DCP V.2.0” took place.
The main goal of the workshop were to present the DCP project’s main idea to participants, defined the definition of digital civic participation with young people, and present the questionnaire we implemented in the framework of the project. Using non-formal education methods young people mapped the participatory democracy e-tools in the city of Klaipeda, Lithuania, and also in Europe. Young people discussed what digital tools they need to engage more in civic society.
Participation in the workshop let young people get more knowledge about already existing and new participatory digital tools, express their opinion about participatory democracy tools, identified their needs.
On the 2nd workshop, which took place on the 9th of November 2022 the main goals were to present the DCP project’s main idea to new participants and to remind participants who already participated in the 1st workshop, and to analyze already existing participatory democracy e-tools. Using non-formal education methods young people had to map e-tools that they can use in their personal life stages.
More analytical,
The workshop „Digital participation“ gathered young people and young adults, who are studying in school and university in Klaipėda city, aged from 14 to 29 years old.
The workshop aimed to increase the awareness of young people on participation in civic life and also provide them with knowledge how participation and be enhanced by using digital tools.
The project “Civic digital participation DCP V2.0” was presented in the both workshops. Young people were got to know with project main aims and seeking results.
The workshop methodology was based on principles of non-formal education. Participants implemented individual and group task, worked in groups. Brainstorm, discussion methods were used. Reflection was used as integral part of the educational activities.
Here are some of the concrete methods used during the workshop. “Who decides” is a method from British council manual “Active citizens”. The method provides 20 questions about decision that a young persona has to make in his life and also question about decision making at municipal and national level that affect the life’s of young people. The participants were analyzing how decisions are made, what things need to be taken into consideration when making a decision and how digital tools can impact the process. The task was implemented in 3 stages. Individual work with the questions. Small group discussion, 4-6 participants. And discussion in the big group.
Another method uses “Mapping digital participation in everyday life”. Participants in groups were discussing and noting what decisions can be made digital in different age groups: 10 to 14 years old, 14 to 16 years old, 16 to 18 years old, above 18 years old. Participants were naming what platforms exist, disusing different platform used by different institutions like school, university, municipality. At the end of the task in the big group discussion participants discussed how digitally participatory budget initiative is implemented in Klaipeda city municipality, discussing about digital questionnaires and research the city is using to get opinions of young people. Also, interesting mention was the digital issue / problem reporting system that Klaipeda city municipality is using.
Workshop “Digital participation” second part, 9th of November 2022.
The target group of the workshop stayed the same as in the first one – young people and young adults, who are studying in school and university in Klaipėda city, aged from 14 to 29 years old.
The workshop aimed to gather ideas from young people how digital tools could enhance their participation.
The workshop had 2 parts: a) analysis of issues and challenges that young people are facing in their everyday life. The mapping exercise was implemented in small groups of 3-4 people. The results of group work were presented to the whole group. Facilitator presented additional aspects of challenges young people face based on various research about digital youth participation. This part also linked to the process and results of workshop 1 by presenting ideas and incites from first workshop.
b) Creating ideas of digital tools, that could improve the lives of young people. Participants formed 5 groups and were designing applications and other digital tools that would improve their everyday life and increase participation.
Here we present some ideas of apps developed by the young people: I) application that explains in a youth friendly way political agenda of different parties before the elections. It also should help young people to understand their political views by answering 10-15 questions. II) Another idea was the social platform where young people could discuss with their pears about mental health issues, find information on the topic. The platform should allow to meet people that face similar challenges. The young people indicated that this platform should be monitored by professional to be useful and not to cause damage. III) Third idea we want to share is an application that allow young people to find ideas for leisure time activities and how to engage in short term volunteering activities in Klaipeda city.
An integral part of both workshops was knowing each other and ice breaking activities. Participants of the workshop did not know each other from before, so introduction and creation of safe learning space was important. So, in the beginning of both workshops, we devoted up to 1 hour to create a safe learning atmosphere with help of knowing each other activities.
At the end of both workshops, we used reflection to help participants to name their personal learning outcomes. The learning outcomes were presented to the whole group.
The report for this Event is available here.
