Youth participatory budget for innovative education in the Orneta commune

The study visit “Youth participatory budget for innovative education in the Orneta commune” took place in Lisbon from 2nd until the 6th of December. DYPALL Network hosted a group of 4 youth workers from the Polish organization Forum Animatorów Społecznych, to visit and explore practices and models of participatory budgets on national, state, regional and local level, with a particular focus on participatory budgets in schools.

This study visit aimed to provide the Polish youth workers with extensive examples and knowledge on Portuguese models of youth participation activities, with a special focus on participatory budgets for youth and in schools. During the study visit, the participants were able to explore a wide variety of different participatory budget models. They learned about the different levels of participatory budget, different approaches towards its establishment and possible problems that can occur within the process.

On the 2nd of December, in the morning, participants were provided with the presentation on the programme of the study visit, information about the DYPALL Network, the youth initiatives in the Lisbon Youth Centre and the Portuguese Institute for Sports and Youth (IPDJ). In the afternoon, they learned about Participatory Budget worldwide, including its origin, levels, focus groups, trends, basic statistics, and law solutions.

The second day of the study visit was in Cascais, the European Youth Capital of 2018. The municipality representatives presented the process of setting up participatory budgets, both general and dedicated to youth. The day’s program was completed with a visit to Cascais Jovem – Cascais Youth Department, which is responsible for the implementation of municipalities youth policies.

On the morning of the 3rd of December, the group visited Lisbon City Hall and met the technicians responsible for setting up both general and school participatory budgets in the Lisbon municipality. The afternoon began with presentations on the national Youth Participatory Budget (by IPDJ) and one of the winning projects – “Gym4All”. It was followed by the introduction to 3 different models of local youth and school participatory budgets, implemented in the Parish of Penha de França, the Municipality of Braga and the Municipality of Vila Nova de Gaia.

On the fourth day, the group learned about another Participatory Budget at the parish level in the Parish of Agualva e Mira in Sintra. The President of the parish explained in details the process of setting up a participatory budget in schools, the lessons learned and the results within the years.
The last day of the visit was for developing Local strategies and Action plans, as well as exploring follow-up opportunities, evaluating and closing the visit.

This project is composed of two Study visits, the second one will take place in Poland. The project is supported by the PO WER (Knowledge Education Development Operational Programme) of the European Union.