Hear me! is all about listening. Youth’s voice will be heard and recognized for the first time and their lives will change from that time on as equal members of the community. Our goal is to break the ice among youth and show their perspective to the community, involve them in its life and strengthen their position as real life changers through gaining knowledge, youth projects implementation and building the dialogue between youth and decision makers.

Towns and rural area of Białobrzegi and Grójec Counties, Mazovian region, central Poland.

Youth in our community is treated more like an object than an equal citizen and their voice is not heard. They are not involved in decision-making processes which leads to losing their participation and engagement in life of our community. Young people feel like they don’t have the right to give their ideas, express their feelings, needs and problems as decision makers and rest of the community won't approve them and they know better than youth what is needed and right. This was strengthened in the minds of youth in our community for many years. Due to our challenge is to break the ice among youth and show their perspective to the community. To involve them in the life of community, strengthened youth position as real life changers and build the dialogue between youth and decision makers.

The project directly targets young people in small towns and rural areas of Białobrzegi and Grójec counties. In the project we will involve at least 150 young people between 14-26 years old, who will participate in workshops, develop their local projects and implement them. Moreover, we will build awareness among young people about their rights and among the rest of the community about youth’s perspective through local campaign called „Hear me!”. Local decision-makers together with young people will analyze proposed projects, carry out the discussion and vote for the winning ones. Therefore we will create a space for cooperation between decision makers and young people. Both young people and decision makers will take part in a debate at the end of the project implementation.

We will implement the project in 5 steps approaching the needs of our target group and the challenge we are facing in our community.
Step 1: we will run a local campaign called „Hear me!”. It will be a voice of young people in our community facing the problem of marginalization in decision making processes and the promotion of youth engagement in the life of the community. In the campaign we will zoom the problems of youngsters and transfer them to a campaign video, posters, leaflets and spot. It is important to use many channels of communication to reach the largest number of community members.
Step 2: We will organize workshops for 150 young people in the project implementation area. Each group of 15 young people will participate in 4-hour workshop about their rights, functioning of local governments, approach to decision makers and building the dialogue.
Step 3: We will open a call for youth project proposals. A group of at least 5 youth can send a project proposal, which will have chance to be granted financially for its implementation. The committee composed of decision makers and young people will choose the best ideas for financial support.
Step 4: 5 youth projects will be granted and implemented in the local community. The youth will have te possibility to take real actions to make positive changes.
Step 5: Final debate between decision makers and young people.

-1 campaign called „Hear me!” using different channels of communication
-150 young people participating in workshops thanks to the project
- Up to 15 project ideas proposed
- Up to 5 youth projects implemented in small towns and rural areas of 2 neighboring counties
- 1 youth-decision makers debate
The most valuable effect of the project is the fact that youth’s voice is going to be heard for the first time in our community! Thanks to the project we will change the perception of young people as equal and worthy members of the community. Youth will have knowledge about their rights and possibility to show their involvement in positive changes. Youth will have motivation to take action in the life of community. There will be created space and dialogue between youth and decision makers.

The project gives the voice to young people in our community, which at present is not heard, and marginalized by the rest of the community and decision makers. Firstly, youth can express their feelings, needs and perspective. Which results in improvement of their life. The knowledge gained in the project and involvement of the decision makers give them tools to make positive changes in the community. Due to the project they will know how operates local governments, looks the decision process in the local structures and their rights in participating. They will propose their ideas of local youth projects and take part together with decision makers discuss the ideas and choose projects for implementation. Finally everything will end with the debate between youth and decision makers.

Our Foundation is well known in the community. It was created in 2004 and continuously works for improvement of quality of life. We believe that the cohesion is all about community building. The problem is that youth in our community is marginalized, they feel excluded and not important as a member. Our experience show that youth brings totally different view of problems and needs, which brings new and fresh air in everyone’s life. In our team we have a person who took part in building YoutBank model for Poland, have higher education and many years back have been a part of youth volunteer group in the counties. Unfortunately that time passed and most of youth spend time as you can see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_al-WRQvbk&t=15s We want to give youth the same possibilities we had.

Cost of creating, materials and running the campaign „Hear me!” through various channels= 8000 euro
Implementation of youth projects: 1200 euro * 5 projects = 6000 euro
Office expenses= 500 euro
Advertising and public relations= 2000 euro
Cost of orginizing the debate = 1000 euro
Travel costs= 500 euro
Personnel costs (coordinator, communication specialist, financial oficer, office help, trainers)= 19000 euro

We would love to hear about your experience in working with youth in your communities. Perhaps, you have some great ideas for engaging youth in active citizenship.