07 April 2010

During the period 4-10 August 2010, Balkan Assist will be holding an international training on Direct Democracy in youth activities. The initiative will be implemented with financial support of the Youth in Action Programme. The project involves non-governmental organizations from 5 countries. Young people from Italy, Romania, Turkey, Czech Republic and Bulgaria will discuss how to implement forms of direct democracy in youth projects and ways to stimulate the interest of young people into civil society initiatives.
Specific objectives of the Project are:

- Familiarization of the participants with the trends in youth policies of the European Union and fostering of pan-European debate - through discussion, role games and other methods of informal education, participants will focus their attention on the Lisbon Treaty and the European Youth Pact.

- Promotion of the forms of direct democracy and the so-called "Participatory democracy" among the young people - apart from pure theoretical principles and for the purpose of distinguishing individual concepts, examples of working practices in Bulgaria and other EU countries will be presented.

- Promotion of common values and fostering work in multicultural environment - participation of people from different countries in the project will foster the partnership between them and will emphasize on the advantages of the differences.

- Promoting voluntary service (in the context of the national priorities of the Youth in Action Programme) – activities of implementation of forms of direct democracy are generally considered as personal philosophy of the life of members of organizations and require extra time and proper motivation. The very specifics of the methodology reflects on the tutoring of the participants - they become proactive, overcome their prejudices and fears, their desire to work towards long-term positive change in society is stimulated.