Youth councils for democracy and climate

• Project kick-off conference

In March 2022, we organised a remote project launch conference. The conference was attended by representatives of the project teams and invited guests from 6 local authorities. There were speeches by experts and a debate ‘Climate - a youth issue?’ with the participation of experts representing the Civis Polonus Foundation, BoMiasto Association, Climate Reality Project, United Nation Association Poland, Youth Climate Council.

• Academy of Young Leaders - training for youth councillors 

Project participants took part in two training sessions, during which they developed competences in areas such as leadership, climate challenges, ways to counteract the negative effects of climate change, methods of civic engagement. We also prepared young people for the implementation of the next stages of the project: school climate audits, a municipal climate council and a resolution initiative.

• School Climate Agendas

Together with the youth councillors, we invited schools in the municipalities to work together. Together with students and teachers, we conducted school climate audits, i.e. surveys of the environmental impact of schools. The youth councils conducted a total of 25 climate audits.
The next step was to organise, in cooperation with the student councils, school climate meetings in 25 schools. These resulted in the development of recommendations for environmentally friendly solutions for each school. The meetings were attended by 512 people.
The implementation of the audits contributed to raising students‘ and teachers’ awareness of climate change at school level and gave young people a sense of real influence in making changes to their environment.

• Community climate meetings

The youth councils organised meetings with local residents to discuss key challenges on local climate issues. The consultations were organised in cooperation with local government officials and climate experts, and the meetings were intergenerational.
The youth councils were keen to hear the voices of residents of different ages. The collected proposals concern the lack of green areas, recreation areas, bus lanes, sufficient cycle paths, as well as problems such as littered forests, smog and low environmental awareness among residents.
The jointly developed proposals formed the basis for the youth councils' resolution initiatives, which were drafted and submitted in 2023. The meetings were attended by 247 people.

• Website

In addition, the project has created a website https://www.mlodziezowarada.pl/, which is a collection of information and inspiration for members of youth councils and their supervisors, as well as local authorities running youth councils or planning to set them up.

• Publication ‘Good practices of youth councils’

As part of the project, we created a publication containing 15 examples of activities that youth councils can undertake for their local communities. The publication also includes examples of environmental activities.

• The closing conference of the project ‘Youth councils for climate. Proven ways to green change.’

On 17 April 2023, we organised a project closing conference in Michalowice. During the presentation and panel discussion, invited experts told what challenges we have to face in areas such as energy, water, raw materials, food, what climate policies are in force in the European Union and in Poland and what pro-climate solutions should be introduced at the local level by municipalities. In the workshop part of the event, we shared the tried and tested methods used by the youth councillors in the project.