Our democracy must be developed in collaboration with those who live and participate in it. That’s why the new project “Young_Influence – Democracy for the future”, supported by the Tuborg Foundation, has brought together 5 municipalities spread across the country, all of which are concerned with strengthening youth participation and influence. Young_Influence aims to ensure that young people themselves have the opportunity to define how they should be involved in decisions that affect them and their everyday lives.
Young people know best
In the project, 60 representative young people between the ages of 15 and 24 will gather in a young citizens’ assembly. Here, the 60 young people will work together across their differences and life experiences to develop concrete recommendations for what good democracy looks like for young people. T he young people in the citizens’ assembly have been put together to reflect their diversity. The recommendations show what young people want regardless of whether they live in the city or the countryside or attend high school or vocational school. Young people must define the democracy they want to be active in themselves. If others do it for them, young people lose ownership. The project will therefore create recommendations for better youth involvement, but also develop new ways of involvement that all the country’s municipalities and civil society organizations can use to bring young people’s perspectives into play.
5 Municipalities lead the way
The municipalities of Greve, Guldborgsund, Herning, Vejle and Nyborg are all extremely keen to strengthen the involvement and participation of young people in schools, municipal politics and associations, but find it a difficult task. Today, it’s often the same young people who participate and are heard in a municipal context, and this is a challenge that the five municipalities have taken on. In all the municipalities, both central officials and elected politicians are closely involved in the project.
By becoming partner municipalities in Youth_Influence, the five municipalities make it clear that they want more and better youth democracy.
“At a time when we see that democracy is under pressure in many places, we very much need local democracy. That’s why it’s encouraging that five municipalities from all over Denmark want to work on what the future of youth democracy should look like. This is how we strengthen democracy. We must ask questions, be curious and brave. At the Tuborg Foundation, we look forward to seeing how the five municipalities can strengthen their work with young people through Young_Influence.”Says Mathias Findalen, Program Manager at the Tuborg Foundation.
All five municipalities have committed to continue working with the young people’s recommendations. The Youth Citizens’ Assembly thus complies with the OECD’s principles for citizens’ assemblies. The young people will meet in the fall of 2025 to work on their recommendations. The recommendations will be presented in 2026.
For more information, please contact
We Do Democracy:
Kolja Dahlin
Email:kolja@wedodemocracy.dk
Phone: +45 22 40 67 68
Tuborgfondet:
Mathias Findalen
Email:mfb@tuborgfondet.dk
Phone: +45 60 73 43 47 47