Training Course “Young Migrant Voices”

“Young Migrant Voices: a training course for boosting participation of young migrants in decision-making processes at local level” took place from 3rd – 9th December 2017 in in Lisbon, Portugal. It brought together 30 youth workers from ten different countries (Germany, Netherlands, Turkey, Macedonia, Finland, Malta, Romania, Italy, Slovakia and Portugal) to explore the importance and challenges of the participation of young migrants and youth with migrant background at the local level.

During the training, the participants had the chance to exchange and promote realities and good practices in terms of cooperation between local authorities and civil society organisations, for the inclusion of young migrants in decision-making processes; to enhance their skills on how to motivate and actively involve young migrants and youth with a migrant background, in the improvement of the communities where they live; how to increase the involvement of all stakeholders in the process of integration of young migrants in decision-making processes and how to support the integration of young migrants and develop among them a sense of belonging in their host communities.

As a part of the program of the training, we visited High Commissioner for Migration as well as two projects within “Choices” program , a governmental program that supports the social inclusion of vulnerable young people, in the neighbourhoods of Apelação and Quinta do Mocho in Lisbon area.

One session of the training, integrated into “Open week” in Lisbon Youth Centre where the training took place, was Round table “Cooperation for inclusive youth participation” that joined the participants of the training together with local youth activists, participants of  Boot camp on volunteering organised by Youth Coop.  The guest speakers Luisa Magnano (Choices program), Cristina Silva (Head of Youth Department of Almada Municipality), Ana Morgado (Youth worker), Nuno Loureiro (Potuguese National Youth Council) and Ludgero Teixeira presented their work reflecting on the inclusion of migrant youth and young people with migrant background and the importance of their active participation for creating a sense of belonging to the community and thus building a strong and inclusive democratic society.

This was the second edition of “Young migrant voices” training course, organised by DYPALL Network in partnership with Migrafrica with the support of Erasmus + program.