Hi-Tech Democrats Erasmus+ Project | 14-20 September 2016 |Larnaca, Cyprus organized by Citizens in Power

I had the pleasure to be part of the Hi-Tech Democrats Erasmus Project during 14-20th of September 2016 in Larnaca, Cyprus.

Here, participants from 9 different countries (Romania, Cyprus, Estonia, Poland, Germany, Latvia, Croatia, Spain and Slovakia) have gathered to discuss ways in which we could improve the participation of young people in society in a way that improves the democratic process and tackles the democratic disconnect of EU youth.

During the training we went through a series of discussions and exercises on this topic. Even from the first day we dug deeper into theory with the Participation ladder exercise which brought up some new knowledge of the different levels of participation of young citizens. This was a framework I haven’t seen before and I really enjoyed identifying solution for getting people to the next level of participation.

Later in the first evening we got to know each other better during the intercultural night. Each country brought different food, drinks and stories from their country. This helped us work better together in the following days.

The next day was about sharing more about different technologies that help young people become more active citizens. During this session, participants have presented different online tools they know about from their countries. The ones that really stood out were the ones that have made important change during the past few years: change.org and avaaz.org.

We went on to explore, discuss and debate on topics such as e-voting, e-skills and e-petitions in order to get ready to actually come up with solutions ourselves. In small, mixed groups we had a chance to actually think of problems we can tackle and solve with an online tool. In the end we had 6 solutions that can make a difference in any of our countries. My group’s solution was the “E-Budget Platform”, a platform where city and national budget expenses are shown in a transparent manner in order for citizens and journalists to have constant access to this crucial elements of any democracy: the flow of money and they way it is spent.

In conclusion, it was a really useful project to be in and I hope to turn some of the knowledge and ideas generated during the training into reality.

Best wishes,

Team Romania