Digital Civic Participation – D.C.P 2 v2.0 is a funded project by the program Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values of the European Union (CERV-2021-CITIZENS-TOWN) which aims at, innovating the civic education process resulting in increased participation of young people in their communities.
As part of this innovation, a user-friendly manual will be developed, which will gather and present a collection of known e-participation tools, with practical examples to enhance civic participation. In conclusion, the project attempts to assess whether investing in digital tools to enhance participation during COVID-19 is appropriate.
One consideration is whether their use, post- pandemic, will maintain or extend audience participation. Additionally, activities that increase participants’ access to and interaction with planning processes, and the knowledge and data they provide, might also have positive long-term impacts on other stakeholders, such as local communities. However, we need to keep in mind that digital technologies are not neutral and should not be used blindly. As a part of the participation palette, however, they can potentially help projects to reach a larger number of stakeholders.
AIMS OF THE PROJECT
- Inform, train, and empower the target group to address the challenges in civic participation of the post-COVID-19 era.
- Focus on sustainable solutions for selected cities and their local communities.
- Build an innovative and fruitful collaboration with local authorities, with the potential to spread at the EU level.
- Identify and exchange European good practices in the field of e-participation between European municipalities.
- Identify common local issues and challenges and work together on common solutions.
- Boost online engagement and eventually increase levels of participation of EU citizens.
- Reflecting on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the local communities: to reflect on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the life within and the functioning of local communities as well as on the forms that civic participation takes under the COVID-19 crisis.
