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The 5th Municipalities4Democracy training course
The Democracy Reloading Partnership organised its flagship training module Municipalities4Democracy (M4DEM) for the 5th time in Braga, Portugal in July 2024. The program, the content and the methods were gradually improved, based on previous editions. The methods were still improved significantly as compared to previous editions (Budapest 2021, Braga 2022, Oslo 2022, Brussels 2023). However the specific objectives have not changed much since the very first edition taking place in Budapest in 2021.
Objectives of this training course
- to share experience of the participants regarding local youth participation in decision-making,
- to understand the content and potentials of the DR Reference Framework and other tools of the Partnership, and the prepare the participants for further independent use,
- to identify ways and ideas for your municipality to further develop the local youth participation,
- to understand the potential for municipalities to use the Erasmus+ Youth programme and its funding opportunities to achieve this
The call was targeting a clear participant profile, municipal youth policy officers and local political representatives focusing on youth policy and participation of young citizens, and in few cases we accepted youth workers / social workers who support youth participation on municipal level. There were nearly 300 applicants in SALTO, about 120 of them were eligible (nationality and field of work), and about 60 of them actually fit the expected profile (municipal youth policy officers, elected politicians, or youth workers supporting youth councils). 27 people were selected in cooperation with the sending Erasmus+ national agencies, and 12 were put on the waiting list. Due to some cancellations we invited 6 people from the waiting list, and we started the preparations in Braga on 7th July for 26 participants. Two of them cancelled in the last minutes so we implemented the activity with 24 fantastic youth policy practitioners from 21 municipalities and two national organisations.
You can read here some inspiring conclusions participants wrote about their learning highlights:
- ‘I understood that we have the same challenges no matter where we work.’
- ‘I found the sessions on strategy and structure and competence framework very useful.’
- ‘It was very inspiring and gave me lots of motivation to go on.’
- ‘The Hart Ladder of participation has put our work in context.’
- ‘I learned that we still can do many things to improve youth participation, it’s a long process.’
- ‘It was a great upgrade of things that I already know, but from other perspectives.’
- ‘I realised how important it is to have a clear policy, strategy, especially for transparency and long term sustainability.’
And the Alfa City simulation exercise was mentioned by many participants as the best element of the course.
It was a special edition from another perspective. The team of three trainers and the coordinator were producing a Workbook for the participants of future editions of M4DEM training module. So the participants of the next M4DEM activity taking place in Mons, Belgium in November will already receive this Workbook at the beginning of the course. The M4DEM Workbook contains exercises that mirror or support the learning process of the participants in each session of the four days. This will also be the test of the Workbook.
In 2025 the Democracy Reloading Partnership is planning about three editions of M4DEM, so if you are interested, or you want to suggest the course to a colleague or you know a youth policy practitioner in another municipality, please recommend it to them too. You can find here the call for our next M4DEM course, it will be a pilot variation as municipality officers are invited to come with a youth representative: