During 2018 RYEurope asked the participants in our various events to prepare a text or a video on youth participation in their home countries. The idea with this was for the participants and consequently also other young people, to realise the different ways they can actively contribute to the society and to help shape it.
The Slovenian Rally team made a research about the motivation for why young people get involved in their organisation, but also shared a video about an example workshop they did with one of their clubs. The workshop introduced the concept of youth participation and gave participants skills. But first, here below you can read the findings of the research made by the team.
The Slovenian team visited different rural youth clubs, all members of Slovenian Rural Youth Association (ZSPM). We had a chance to talk to more than 30 young people members of rural youth clubs, voluntary fire brigades, scouts and other youth organisations and organisations that don’t have a focus on youth. We joint the activities organised by ZSPM to empower rural youth clubs and their members. We asked young people the following questions:
- When and why did they join youth organisations?
- What is their personal motivation to be active?
- What do they want to achieve (goals, change in the society…)?
- What can they do to make this world a better place?
The main outcomes were that they joint when they were around 15, they want to spend a quality free time and they want to give back to the society. Mostly they work on changing things in local environment since they believe that they can make the biggest impact there. Their main goal is to create a vibrant social life for local people and they want to influence local policies. A lot of young people are also firefighters. Their main focus in life is to help people. They are the ones that help people in needs the most and they are also an important part of local social life. The main motivation to keep on going are the small results they see as for example new projects in the community, new public space
Their main aim of the change in the society is that people are respected and that everyone is able to have a quality life. A lot of young people in rural areas also participate in rural tourism organisations, cultural organisations, folk dance groups, church community etc.
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We also looked at the options on how young people can participate in the local decision making. Main options are that they get elected in the municipal and local community’s council, they can join the local youth council or they use other options that vary from community to community.