Testimonies from participants of DYPALL Network’s activities Sara Shabana (Youth worker / Palestine) Participant of Partnership-building activity “Building bridges to enhance youth participation at local level in Mediterranean countries” “By enhancing international relations while also learning about youth participation in decision making, DYPALL project was a great experience that brought a lot to me as a Palestinian participant. A case in point, it gave me the opportunity to know more about youth participation in various countries and to learn about other participants experience in youth field which helped me in both; building partnerships with different organizations and municipalities, and also as taking new ideas that I brought back to my local community in order to encourage youth to be more involved and to actively participate in decision making process. Together at DYPALL we had the chance not only to learn how to perfectly write a project proposal but to find out how to develop these projects as well. After sharing realities about our countries, we came up with many youth projects based on the countries common needs and we are planning to implement these projects during next year. Additionally, DYPALL gave me the possibility to get connected with other people from all over the world, who are following the same ideas of changing and developing in their home countries regardless their language, culture, religion or ethnicity. Different points of view from other cultures helped me to think about different ways for handling Palestinian youth challenges and improving different fields to meet their needs. last but not least, it really was a great opportunity to be a part of such a project and to partake in its valuable sessions, I hope everybody can have the chance to participate in DYPALL’s activities.” Jānis Šaudiņš (Rezekne Municipality officer / Latvia) Participant of Study visit to Denmark: Youth Participation in Rural Areas “During the period from 9 to 12th October the representatives of youth area of the Rezekne municipalities from the municipality and non-governmental organizations participated in a study visit “Youth Participation in rural areas”, that was carried out in Denmark, Egedal municipality that was organized by DYPALL Network . During the study visit, representatives of the Rezekne municipality as well as youth workers, representatives of municipalities and non-governmental organizations from Denmark, Macedonia, Portugal and Italy shared their experience and elaborated a number of solutions for implementing more active participation of young people in public and political processes in rural areas of different countries. The results were based on the need to promote greater cooperation between local youth and decision-makers on issues related to leisure opportunities for young people, transport and infrastructure provision, employment and start-up opportunities. Within the framework of the program, there were organized a visit to a local youth house and a meeting with a coordinator of spare time school of Egedal Municipality, where it was concluded that youth work in the Egedal municipality is developed at a high level and is based, in large part, on a wide range of interest education programs that are mostly implemented after school time in cultural houses (sounding, lighting, cooking, theater, etc.), youth centers (cooking, e-sports, table tennis, etc.), gyms and stadiums (team and individual sports), where it should be noted, that spare time school system in Denmark was established and is implemented since 1942.”