West Sussex Youth CabinetNew ways for youth participation….

A little about me…• In 1998 – Founder of the Crawley Young Person’s Council• 2001 – Joined the West Sussex Youth Cabinet• 2004 – AER Summer School, Olomouc, Czech Republic (wicked!!!)• 2004 – National Sitting in Vienna to persuade big people…• 2005 – AER Summer School, Bosnia• 2006 – AER Summer School, Romania• 2007 – Worked for the AER WOOP WOOP WOOP!• 2007 – AER Summer School, Devon, UK!• 2008 – Summer School, Jamtland, Sweden • Then uni…..• I don’t really like cheese!

Cool bunch of young people• Established almost 10 years ago• Democratically elected group of young people

between the ages of 11-19• Diversity of members• Chief Executives’ Office• Direct influence to the government• UKYP/British Youth Council• Work closely with influential people – police,

politicians etc.

Wicked stuff

• Do YOU speak European?• Citizenship Forums• Electronic Elections

E-Democracy into Europe!

• Democratic Electronic elections• Italy partner country • Regions of Puglia and Calabria• Jump In and Youth Step• No elections established so far

Project timetable

September 2010 Infrastructure planning and devlelopment. Training of UK young people to build skills for programme implementationLaunch event in Lodge Hill, UK. Intensive training on setting up youth organisations

and elections.

October 2010 Weekly online support meetingsPlanning meetings with youth teams

November 2010 Weekly online support meetingsPlanning meetings with youth teams

December 2010 Weekly online support meetingsPlanning meetings with youth teams

January 2011 Pilot run of electronic electionInternational Press Release

February 2011 Analysis of pilot phase and resolution of problems/queries

March 2011 West Sussex Youth Cabinet/Milton Keynes elections. Italian parters’ shadowing exercise

April 2011 Italian elections plus newly elected young people’s training day.

May 2011 Evaluation

June 2011 Results captured and analysedResearch completed and toolkit designed

July 2011

August 2011 Dissemination of results and tool kit.

Project Timetable

The boring stuff

• The bid was 27 pages long – yuk• Support from 1 other country and 2 regions

within each country• Asked for €50,781• We must contribute 25%• Deadline 1st June• Find out soon….

New ways of Youth Participation and building a stronger Europe

• Already worked with the beautiful Justyna…• AER Regional Youth Network – key player for

dissemination/evaluation• Young people’s voices heard• Best practice• Young people to have fun – wooooo!

Please pick us because we will…• Based on the idea that young people should be supported to

become active citizens• They should be given the opportunity to be involved in the

democratic decision-making process wherever possible • To give a voice and better representation of young people• Easier methods of voting• Increase voter turnout • Increased political awareness• Promote active European Citizenship

Thank you!