Gabrovo Youth Centre participated in a national conference dedicated to more active involvement of young people in local governance and encouraging them to share their opinions and work on important community issues.
The conference "Youth Participation" was held in Sofia on 9-11 May and was attended by over 60 young people from the country, experts from the administrations and various youth organizations from over 20 municipalities. The conference was organized by the National Youth Forum.
The event was mainly aimed at young people, explaining how a municipality functions, what are the opportunities for young people to participate and encouraging them to be more active. At the conference, they had the opportunity to present their point of view - recommendations on how to better involve them in local life and decision-making, as well as to discuss what should be the competences of a young person to participate fully and qualitatively in decision-making. The role of representatives of municipalities, youth organisations and youth centres was to support this process with advice, clarification and sharing of experiences and good practices. At the end of the conference, young people had the opportunity to present their ideas to some of the members of the Education and Sport Committee in the National Assembly.
During the conference were presented the results of a survey on the available tools for youth participation in Bulgarian municipalities.
The conference organisers will incorporate the young people's recommendations in a report to be submitted to Parliament's Committee on Children, Youth and Sport. A Handbook on Local Youth Participation will also be produced for national dissemination and piloted in five municipalities.
