News from the Youth Participation Seminar

Young people and participation… in social and political life of their own local communities, countries and in Europe. This was the main topic of the seminar held in Berlin from the 9-13 April. The seminar, organized by both the Europe Region WAGGGS and the WOSM - European Region was funded by the European Youth Foundation of the Council of Europe, hosted by Verband Christlicher Pfadfinderinnen und Pfadfinder and attended by 14 guides and scouts coming from 8 European countries.

The seminar examined how youth participation can be developed through Guiding and Scouting to ensure that young people are active citizens at all levels of society.  During the seminar, the participants discussed the general meaning of youth participation on different levels (local, regional and European), to understand how Guides and Scouts can participate within and outside both movements, and finally put the definitions, sharing of tools and analysis of the previous days into practice through the construction of different projects to foster and improve youth participation in or through their Guide and Scout associations. A number of interesting projects were developed:  for example, one participant is planning to organise a national seminar on intercultural integration;  other projects are concerned with developing new ways of involving young people into the organizations governance and new ideas of encouraging and supporting young peoples’ participation within the national organizations’ structure and programmes.

The projects drafted by the participants will be improved and their implementation followed up by the team of trainers within the next month and by a system of mutual sharing and evaluation between the participants themselves. Youth participation and active citizenship will continue to be an important topic for both Regions and more activities on this issue are planned as part of our joint work in the coming years.

The participants also had the chance to meet and discuss with Ms Anna Lührmann, one of the youngest members of the German Federal Parliament who kindly answered to all participants’ questions about effective policies for fostering youth involvement.