Due to the epidemic, we were forced to cancel events planned for April in Glasgow on participatory budgeting, which were as the part of the “Youth PB Accelerator” project.

30 people from partner organizations from Poland, the UK and Spain, as well as Scottish representatives from public bodies, community groups, schools and youth organisations were supposed to participate in the event, but can’t because of travel restrictions.

However, we do not want to miss the opportunity to even partially implement a very extensive 4 day programme.

Therefore, we invite you to participate in three online workshop sessions on 21st and 22nd April this year.

Participatory Budgeting Youth Accelerator Knowledge Sharing Workshop ONLINE

The first, on the morning of the 21st April, is a knowledge exchange workshop, with invited participants of around 4 Scotland based PB programmes to explore in greater depth the unique features of each. We are inviting delegates from Scottish Youth PB programmes to share their learning from doing PB with young people in formal and informal settings with our invited international guests.

The online meeting will kick off with a series of short case studies and Q+A rounds. Following these knowledge sharing sessions we will work together to create ‘Big Picture’ Stories. Creating narratives of our collective “Who, What, Where, When, Why” of Youth PB to inform our toolkit and website content. Participation is limited, but if you feel have something to contribute:

Book your place at https://pb-youth-knowledge-sharing-online.eventbrite.co.uk

Participatory Budgeting Youth Accelerator Open Space ONLINE

The second workshop, on the morning of the 22nd April is an ‘Open Space’ meeting will be an opportunity to engage with a diverse cross-section of those having leadership roles behind the growth of Participatory Budgeting.

The focus will be on democratic innovation and the future of youth empowerment, especially now Covid-19 has affected society so deeply. It will seek to answer the following questions:

What has already or will need to change as a result of Covid-19?
How might existing democratic practices evolve?
How do we ensure schools, youth organisation and other stakeholders recognise and respond to the aspirations of young people through embracing participatory budgeting?
We will harvest key messages around developing Youth PB locally and at scale, in the community and in schools, based on the challenge question: ‘What would it take to go bigger, deeper and further in accelerating Youth PB in a post Covid-19 world?’. The online meeting will be recorded to create an enduring visual record and resource.

Book your place at https://pb-youth-accelerator-open-space-online.eventbrite.co.uk

PB Youth Accelerator Legislative Theatre Workshop ONLINE

Following on from the morning open space ZOOM workshop on the afternoon of the 22nd April is a session focussed on democratic deliberation, and an opportunity to learn about a innovative methodology for democratic policy development. We will be learning about Legislative Theatre, with invited young people, to creatively explore new approaches to youth participation.

Conversations will be led by Katy Rubin, founder of Theatre of the Oppressed New York, who is one of the foremost practitioners and facilitators of Legislative Theatre. Katy trained with Augusto Boal, creator of Theatre of the Oppressed in Brazil, and has facilitated Theatre of the Oppressed projects with activists and artists internationally and across the US over the past decade. We are inviting creative practitioners, youth empowerment champions and those with practical experience of running participatory budgeting projects who are seeking new, deliberative approaches to improve their work.

Book your place at https://pb-legislative-theatre-workshop-online.eventbrite.co.uk

Whilst moving online means we could have an even more widespread and inclusive participation in the activities, priority will be given to those booking from within Scotland or part of the Erasmus+ funded Youth PB Accelerator programme, and in case of over-demand we may have to manage who is able to take part in the workshops.

Due to the epidemic, we were forced to cancel the training in Glasgow on participatory budgeting, which was planned for April as the part of our “Youth PB Accelerator” project. 30 people from partner organizations from Poland, the UK and Spain, as well as Scottish representatives of public administration, social and youth organizations were supposed to participate in the event. However, we continue our project despite the obstacles. We do not want to miss the opportunity to even partially implement a very extensive training programme. Therefore, using the possibilities of the internet technology and the flexibility and readiness to change the main organizer – Shared Future CIC, we invite you to participate in three online workshop sessions on 21st-22nd April this year.

We will be running three dedicated online events, replacing face to face meetings with Scottish PB practitioners and policy makers. These were part of the original programme of learning events. The first is a knowledge exchange workshop, with invited participants of around 4 Scotland based PB programmes to explore in greater depth the unique features of each. We are inviting delegates from Scottish Youth PB programmes to share their learning from doing PB with young people in formal and informal settings with our invited international guests. The online meeting will kick off with a series of short case studies and Q+A rounds. This accelerated learning session is fast paced and designed to explore innovative features and best practice in youth participation. Following these knowledge sharing sessions we will work together to create ‘Big Picture’ Stories. Creating narratives of our collective “Who, What, Where, When, Why” of Youth PB to inform our toolkit and website content. (see link at https://pb-youth-knowledge-sharing-online.eventbrite.co.uk).

The second workshop, an ‘Open Space’ meeting will be more open to any attendees and an opportunity to engage with a diverse cross-section of those having leadership roles behind the growth of Participatory Budgeting. The focus will be on democratic innovation and the future of youth empowerment, especially now Covid-19 has affected society so deeply. It will seek to answer the following questions: What has already or will need to change as a result of Covid-19? How might existing democratic practices evolve? How do we ensure schools, youth organisation and other stakeholders recognise and respond to the aspirations of young people through embracing participatory budgeting? We will harvest key messages around developing Youth PB locally and at scale, in the community and in schools, based on the challenge question: ‘What would it take to go bigger, deeper and further in accelerating Youth PB in a post Covid-19 world?’. The online meeting will be recorded to create an enduring visual record and resource. (see link https://pb-youth-accelerator-open-space-online.eventbrite.co.uk )

Following on from the morning open space ZOOM workshop is a session focussed on democratic deliberation with an opportunity to learn about Legislative Theatre, an innovative methodology for democratic policy development. With invited young people, we will creatively explore this new approach to youth participation. Conversations will be led byKaty Rubin, founder of Theatre of the Oppressed New York, who is one of the foremost practitioners and facilitators of Legislative Theatre. Katy trained with Augusto Boal, creator of Theatre of the Oppressed in Brazil, and has facilitated Theatre of the Oppressed projects with activists and artists internationally and across the US over the past decade. We are inviting creative practitioners, youth empowerment champions and those with practical experience of running participatory budgeting projects who are seeking new, deliberative approaches to improve their work. (see https://pb-legislative-theatre-workshop-online.eventbrite.co.uk).

Alongside these sessions we are also planning to run some specific online workshops over the summer on elements of the programme that we would have covered during the LTTA, such as the web design, communication strategy and toolkit.

Because of the necessity to prevent the coronavirus from spreading in Europe and the world, we decided to cancel the organization of LTTA workshops scheduled for April in Glasgow. We have been working to adapt the project to the existing situation, we are going to introduce the necessary modifications in the schedule, the cost estimation, and think over changes in our forms of activities. We will keep you updated about introducing online meetings or expanding groups of workshop participants and recipients.

Above all, our priority at the moment is your health and safety. In connection with the coronavirus pandemic, we are appealing to you to be active in promoting the attitude of civic responsibility and stay home if you can in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

We wish you a lot of health and we express our support,
The team of Youth PB Accelerator

The first meeting of partner organizations working on the “Youth PB Accelerator” project took place during the last days of October in Warsaw. The Field of Dialogue Foundation was a host organization of these workshops.

During the meeting we had an opportunity to get to know each other and discuss the principles of cooperation. The two-day workshops included elaborating the division of responsibilities to implement project results, determining the schedule and budget changes. We also discussed the future of the project that beyond developing the tools and testing them, also assumes an international training about using participation tools in non-formal education, which will take place in Glasgow in April. In addition to employees of partner organizations, teachers, trainers and youth workers also will participate in this event. In 2020 there will be created the project website and the film promoting the ideas of participatory budgets and school participation budgets. In June 2020, we are planning to meet during the second Transnational project meeting organized by Media Lab Grenada, when we are going to work on the map collecting good practices related to youth participation.

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