Study visit to Vila Nova de Gaia “Boosting youth participation at local level 3”

The study visit “Boosting youth participation at local level 3”, took place from the 21st – 26th of November 2022 in Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal.

Its main aim was to get to know some local realities that allowed youth workers and municipality officers to work together and observe specific projects on the involvement of youngsters in decision-making processes at local level. The participants involved were youth workers and municipality officers from Romania, North Macedonia, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Latvia, Netherlands and Turkey.

The main objectives of the Study visit that we had the opportunity to reach together were:

• To explore, experience and understand the specific challenges in youth participation in low-density and geographically isolated areas;
• To visit examples of good practices based upon interaction with the project organizations and to filter out elements to transfer to own reality;
• To offer possibilities for long-term partnership building among organizations active in the field of youth participation at the local level for future projects;
• To create a collection of best practices of participation of youth participation in geographically isolated/low-density areas.

The Study visit is the first of the two activities of the project “Boosting youth participation at local level 3” preceding the Study visit to Eindhoven, The Netherlands, that will take place in spring 2023. The activity was organized by DYPALL Network in cooperation with ADYNE Netherland and the Municipality of Vila Nova de Gaia, funded by the Dutch National Agency of the Erasmus + Programme.