On October 28, FECE had the pleasure of hosting the multiplier event to disseminate the results of the SHINE project: Shaping the Future of Europe, titled Bright Ideas, Bold Europe. The event took place at the Municipal Youth Home – Varna in collaboration with the Youth Activities Department of the Municipality of Varna.
Guests at the event included students from Varna Marine High School “St. Nicholas”, representatives of the non-governmental sector, and trainers. Mr. Nikolay Vasilev (head of the Youth Activities Department) was a special guest speaker. He emphasized the importance of youth participation and discussed his personal experience in working with youth.
After familiarizing themselves with the educational resources developed as part of SHINE (podcast series, training toolkit and board game) and the main activities implemented during the project, the participants discussed youth participation, the challenges for young people’s civic engagement, the issues that matter to youth and how young people can be involved in decision-making at the local level, express their voices and connect with policymakers.
The young people emphasized that it is important to raise awareness of initiatives aimed at young people. They learned about forms of participation such as informal youth groups, volunteering, and participation in Erasmus+ mobility programs.
After the discussion, the event’s guests played the board game “Democracy in Play”. During the game, they defended opposing viewpoints on issues related to migration, freedom of speech, leadership, and inclusion and simulated the voting process in democratic societies. We are happy to have had the opportunity to meet our young, yet critically thinking citizens, who shared valuable experiences and diverse perspectives on the issues that concern young people.
The SHINE project is co-funded by the European Commission under the Erasmus+ Programme.
