Poland grapples with the low youth involvement in active citizenship and outdated dogmas adopted by seniors. We’ll meet halfway: engage and empower youth, while making seniors aware of the changes in our society. We will provide a space for a generations’ dialogue and development of ideas. Our project program will consist of several webinars and a training camp where participants (school youth and seniors’ clubs) and will undergo a Design Thinking process and take part in the Oxford Debate.

Daleszyce, southeast Poland

Our community is very polarized. The reason for this is a political view that affects other spheres of life. Neighbors who do not share political views are reluctant to act together. The polarization of society is also visible in the behavior of young people, as presented in the previous answer. The greatest challenge of our project will be to try to influence the participants and encourage them to engage in a joint dialogue.

Our project is intended for a group of seniors over 60 years of age and for young people aged 14-19. We plan to conduct four editions (once a quarter) of the Academy per year for a total of 160 people from our commune (approx. 40 people per edition).

Main goal:
Our Project aims at:
- educating the local society about the importance of being an active citizen,
- bridging the gap between the youth and older generations of inhabitants,
- providing the local community with the tools to influence their social lives,
-preparing a list of ideas and challenges that will be presented to the municipalities and decision makers

Main educational assumptions:
We will reach our goal by providing inhabitants of our commune with specific training opportunities. We are going to use informal education methods.
The topics of webinars will cover:
- local challenges and how to face them,
- decision making processes and how to participate in it,
- how to benefit as a society from the differences between us.
The training camp will cover:
- Design Thinking process: moderators will focus on local challenges (such as polarization, gap between generations and within peers). Participants will develop their own ideas on how to enhance the quality of life and increase the level of active citizenship
- The Oxford debate - participants divided into groups will be prepared by experts during the training camp and at the end they will debate. The debate will be streamed online so other members of our commune can follow it.

Participants:
- Around 40 people for each Academy cycle (pupils, seniors, local authorities, business owners, etc

We expect two-fold results. First of all, when it comes to young people, we hope that thanks to the Academy they will get to know their place of residence better, its reality and feel they belong to it. We believe that this step will be the first to feel responsible for society and better understand the decision-making process. We want the youth graduating from the Academy to be able to boldly say: I am a resident of the Daleszyce commune, I am proud of it, and my opinion matters.
The second result we expect from the senior's perspective is breaking down barriers resulting from outdated serotypes and well-worn dogmas. We want them to look at our society from a different angle and be able to put themselves in the shoes of a neighbor who has different views.

The Academy will consist of webinars aimed at introducing dialogue between our guests (local authorities, business owners, doctors, etc.) and participants (seniors and youth). The webinars will aim to outline the newest decisions made by our guests that impact on citizens, and to share current problems. The outcome received will be used during the camp. On the first day of the Design Thinking training, participants will focus on predetermined problems, which at the end will give ideas for dealing with these problems. On the second day of the trip, an oxford debate will be held, the participants will have to support one of the parties of the conflict. This task will allow to put yourself in the place of another person for a moment and get acquainted with his arguments and way of thinking.

We are members of the Association of Rural Women of the Daleszyce Commune. We are the inhabitants of the region. Our average age is 40, and most of us have never left our place of residence. Our current home is the home of our children and grandchildren. As members of the Association, we feel responsible for leaving our community better than we found it. Our group among others includes members running small businesses and project managers. We are convinced that with our human resources we will be able to ensure the proper organization of the Academy, and the positive results of the project will affect the willingness to introduce the project to the next stages of its development.

Personel costs related to workshops: 3 000 EUR
Personel costs related to logistics, program, promotion, etc.: 4 000 EUR
Academy venue: 4 000 EUR
Travel, accommodation, food: 4 500 EUR
Website and administration: 6 000 EUR
Educational materials: 8 000 EUR
Integration activities: 3 000 EUR
Certificates, prizes, feedback materials: 2 500 EUR

The best feedback for us will be information on what to avoid when organizing such an event or whether there are any threats that we may not have noticed. Do you have ideas on how to develop our project? Do you think combining these two specific age groups into a dialogue will bring results?