Youth Civic Grant (MGO)

Under the Youth Civic Grant, young people, and in the case of Kindergarten Civic Grant, parents of pre-schoolers – decide about spending the funds allocated to individual institutions. Young people are the authors of projects. The next stage is to promote projects, the last stage is to encourage them to vote. The directors of individual […]

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Project data
Map

Description

Preparation

The main goal of the project is to involve young people in changing their local - school environment. The project also has an educational value, which is to teach young people the principles of co-deciding and democracy. The whole MGO/PGO procedure has been implemented for over a 1.5 year and the process at the school/pre-school takes about 3 months. It is determined by the following schedule:

information and education campaign - from 2nd September,

submission of projects by young people to the MGO - from 20th September to 18th October,
verification of projects completed with the publication of positively evaluated projects – by 4th November , carried out by a committee (composed of representatives of the student government, the youth city council and teachers).
presentation and promotion of the submitted projects carried out by students - from 4th November,
students' voting on the projects - from 12th to 22nd November,
announcing which projects will be implemented - by 2nd December.

The winning projects shall be implemented in the following calendar year. The entire MGO/PGO procedure takes place on the premises of educational institutions. The whole procedure is facilitated by the regulations developed together with principals and teachers of schools and kindergartens, including: rules, deadlines and project application forms. Additionally, a special tab has been created at www.obywatelski.sosnowiec.pl, where information materials can be downloaded. Each year the City Hall prints and distributes posters and leaflets concerning MGO and PGO to schools and kindergartens.

Implementation

At the general level:

The first stage was to develop the rules of MGO and PGO regulations. Teachers and students of educational institutions in Sosnowiec were invited to participate in this stage. After the preparation and adoption of the rules, an educational and informational campaign took place several months, during which the employees of the Municipal Office visited several dozen schools and kindergartens. During the meetings, the first stage was to present the process and the binding rules and to write projects together. After the training, the whole project selection procedure was officially launched in the new school year, according to the prepared schedule. Teachers from schools and kindergartens in Sosnowiec were and are particularly involved. As the part of the promotion, posters, leaflets were prepared, materials were published on websites and social networking sites. The funds available for one school amounted to PLN 5000.

The particular example - IX High School in Sosnowiec

The process starts with announcing the desire to participate in the Youth Civic Grant to the city hall. At the beginning, the local government supervisor, acting as the school MGO coordinator, will convene the meeting of the student government, (i.e. representatives of each class, at least one person (class president), during which he or she provides information about the MGO, in particular about the schedule. An initial discussion takes place in the form of a brainstorming session about the needs of students. Then each class, e.g. during weekly class meetings, considers what they need and presents an idea in the application form. Each project has to be supported by a minimum of 20 students, so it requires additional activity of students to get their signatures. In the 2019 edition, 10 projects were submitted taking into account 17 classes.

A committee consisting of representatives of the student government, the youth city council and teachers checks whether the submitted application forms comply with the requirements specified in the regulations.

Afterwards, during a weekly class meeting, students present their projects in front of other classes and promote them also through posters, spontaneous presentations. They use, among other things, posters and leaflets prepared by the municipal office.

Voting shall take place on a single designated day.

An election committee is appointed and consists of students. Its work is supervised by the tutor of the local government, who prepares models of documents - ballot papers, lists of names, protocols. Voting at school looks like the general election.

Pupils count votes. The correctness of counting is verified several times. Pupils prepare a protocol, which is sent to the city hall. About 80% of students usually vote.

The Parents' council is involved at the stage of purchases and it ultimately chooses the equipment (depending on which project wins), based on previous indications and specifications prepared by the students in the application form. Information about the winning project is posted on the school's website.

Ways of engaging young people

At the general level:

Youth representatives participated in the development of principles of the youth budget. Young people submit projects themselves directly in schools, they are responsible for their promotion and actively participate in the voting process.

The particular example - High School no. IX in Sosnowiec

Pupils are involved in the whole decision-making process from the beginning to the end. They write projects and promote them with a little help of teachers, they teach other students. They also carry out the voting procedure. Pupil collaboration mainly takes place at class level, but collaboration between classes is sometimes required (during collecting signatures of support, presenting projects).

"Students are glad to be able to decide. They choose the things they really need. School lockers, water dispensers which they're very happy with and other schools envy it."

Role of young people

Participants
Beneficiaries
Helpers
Organizers
Managers to deliver the process

Positive aspects of the project/process

At the general level:

The unique aspect of this project was to give young people rights to decide about spending funds. Encouraging them to co-decide and change their immediate environment was also an important issue.

The particular example - High School no. IX in Sosnowiec

Information and educational activities are very effective at school. At the beginning of the process, the meeting for representatives of each class forming the school self-government is organised, where the tutor of local government tutor provides information about the most important issues concerning MGO. Each pupil can consult the project with the tutor and the school chairperson on how to write the description of the project and how to prepare a good cost estimation. Key information is published on the school information board and on the school's Facebook. There is also a closed group of the school's Facebook community, where young people exchange information in the first place. In the case of more complicated matters, the tutor of the school self-government (teacher) helps to answer questions. Thanks to this, a significant part of the school community is aware of what they participate in.

The second distinctive feature of the process in High School no. IX is how the voting takes place. The school hall, which is a polling station, looks like during the real general election – there are the commission table with a cloth, ballot boxes, and screens to make the voting secret. That’s why students treat elections in a responsible way.

Main obstacles to the project/process

At the general level:

From the point of view of the city hall, it is very difficult to reach out directly to the groups of young people in order to pass knowledge about the participatory budget. The first edition of the youth civic budget was preceded by the organisation of workshops for students led by officials in all schools in the city (over 80 schools). This required a major commitment from officials and it is not possible to conduct such an action every year.

The particular example - High School no. IX in Sosnowiec

Not every pupil can fill out a project form. Pupils who went through the process once do much better.

Knowledge of how to write a project/complete an application is not always passed by representatives of the school council to other students.

Opinion after implementation

At the general level:

There is no evaluation of participatory budget processes at the city level and for this reason it is difficult to determine the conclusions precisely. On the basis of the available data it can be said that the involvement of youth is greater year by year. They can see that the projects for which they voted are actually implemented and the students can benefit from their results.

The particular example - High School no. IX in Sosnowiec

Thanks to the implementation of MGO, students:

- learn how to decide what to do at school
- learn how to describe ideas well, how to prepare the budget of actions well,
- actively participate in the social life of the school.
- establish contacts with each other (e.g. during collecting signatures of support).
- undertake other activities in the school community (e.g. they organise the Letter Writing Marathon with Amnesty International at school)

Accountability of resources

The funds come from the municipal budget. After the process has been carried out, the institutions send the report to the municipal office with information which projects won in the voting and thus which ones are to be implemented. On this basis, funds are secured in the city budget. After the task is completed, institutions send the report to the municipal office.

1-3 tips (advices, warnings) from organizers or participants

The advice of a local government representative:

87 educational institutions took part in the MBO/PBO in 2019. In the local governments implementing the project for the first time, we recommend to carry out a pilot action in a smaller number of institutions or to involve NGOs in launching a broad information and education campaign.

The advice from the school coordinator and students:

The role of the school coordinator is very important to implement the process successfully at school. School coordinators involve the students in the process, take care of the preparation of informational and educational activities and watch over the proper course of all works.