In the narrow sense, we define policy as the guidance of civil society. It is of great importance that young people also take part in this guidance of civil society. The "Active and Responsible" is a program, with which we want to show that young people, with their active participation, can present their ideas, take the initiative in any changes and take responsibility for their actions. This program is distinguished by its dynamics in the preparatory and implementation phase.

Eastern Cohesion Region, Slovenia

One of the indicators of our idea is the data on the statistics of participation in the last parliamentary elections. This decreases with almost every election. With more than 86 percent in the first elections after Slovenia's independence, it slipped to more than half in the last elections in 2018. At the same time, interest in the conventional participation of young people in politics is declining every year. The primary fact for such a percentage is the announcement and ignorance of young people about the functioning of the political system in Slovenia. Policy makers, authorities and officials will be directly involved in the project, as we will use their behavior to educate a group of “young animators” who will prepare workshops for their peers.

The "Active and Responsible" Project is intended for young people. First of all, the group of “young animators" who will be the driving force of the project and, as such, will be equipped with a broad knowledge of political processes at local and national levels. They will transfer this knowledge to peer groups at local level, which will be taking place in Salesian youth centres and institutions. At the end, the project’s conclusions and the initiatives developed will be presented to decision-makers at various levels and also to a wider audience, so the content will therefore also be intended for the wider population of Slovenia. Amongst those participating, we want to include young people who are considered to have fewer opportunities in various youth centres in Slovenia.

First phase: Formation of a "group of young animators"

Second phase: Preparation, implementation and analysis of a survey on young people's interest in political participation

Third phase: Activities for the group of “young animators" - getting to know the institutional structures, acquiring knowledge in the field mentioned - training of the group of “young animators" - With the help of external experts, e.g. lawyers, politicians, political scientists and experts in social sciences, we will educate and equip this "group of young animators" with knowledge in the field of political processes and motivate them to take an active role in political participation (where they learn about petitions, constitutional initiatives and constitutional complaint-writing processes etc.) and at the same time place more emphasis on the importance of understanding conscientious objection and taking responsibility for their own actions.

Fourth phase: Preparation of materials and content for workshops in Salesian youth centres and institutions

Fifth phase: Preparation and implementation of the main event with the presentation of the entire program and a presentation of the initiatives formed and young peoples’ ideas

Sixth phase: Publication and project evaluation

ALL THE TIME: Promotion of the project

The final result of the project will come in the form of a prepared publication, which will include a presentation on the progress of the project and its main findings, as well as material on the prepared and formulated youth initiatives, which will all be presented at the final project stage. We want to present these initiatives to decision-makers at various levels of decision-making and also to a wider audience. Young people have a strong sense of belonging to a local, national and European community. Due to the knowledge acquired, they will be able to participate more confidently in decision-making processes and draw attention to the importance of their response to social change.

Because we have recognised the challenges that young people are facing within their local communities, we feel a responsibility to make an effort and change something in this area.We are aware that our project will not change the mentality of all young people in Slovenia,but we are convinced that we will be successful in influencing at least some of those who attend our workshops,lectures and round tables. This will have an even greater impact on the group of "young animators" who will prepare the content.With this project, we want to restructure the mentality of young people in the sense that there will be more and more people who end up replacing the aspect of unconventional political participation with the conventional one. Idea is based on the principle of "working from the bottom up".

As a non-governmental organization in the field of public interest and in the field of education, the Don Bosco Foundation has a development office manager who manages and works most of the projects. She has experience in implementing various different projects. Occasionally, other collaborators who are experts in their fields also participate in various projects. We have already worked with various lawyers, experts in social sciences and politicians. The lecture of the gynecologist on the topic of of understanding conscientious objection was interesting. For the training of the animation group, which would later prepare workshops for youth centers, people would be called again and together we would prepare trainings and round tables on topics where there are experts.

Staff costs - 25000 Eur
Support for the implementation of workshops for a group of young animators (compensation for the work of experts) - 2000 Eur
PR and communications - 2000 Eur
Travel expenses - 1500 Eur
Graphic design of all materials and printing - 1000 Eur
Hall rental for the final event and audio equipment - 1500 Eur
Compensation for work for a group of young animators - 2000 Eur (depending on the number of young people who will be on this team)

Thank you for all the feedback, if any of you have ever implemented projects on the topic of education on political participation in a way that you first educated individuals (young people) about it, who then passed the knowledge on to their peers.