Our project wants to address the problem of insufficient knowledge of civic participation among the community of Święcica’s Primary School (Chełmski District, Lubelskie Voivodeship). The is an important space for Wierzbica Municipality. It often organizes local events and engages the entire community. However, our observations suggest that the citizens would like to know more about their civic rights and duties and opportunities to engage in civic initiatives. Individuals living in the municipality told us that the available textbooks and pamphlets on civic participation and engagement are often complicated and hard to understand, which is a problem because they do find the subject interesting and important.

Answering that call, together with the community we will implement and test a school participatory budget for the Primary School in Święcica. We will organize workshops on different kinds and techniques of participation for selected students, their parents, and other interested members of the community. We will run a training session on methods for public consultations and rules for the participatory budget. Together we will design methods for voting and consulting that are meeting the needs of the children, the youth and the adults. We will create a work team and decide on the project coordinators. The participatory budget will be devised for two years in a row. Members of the municipality will be engaged in gathering and developing ideas, creating projects, and implementing and evaluation of selected initiatives. Thanks to the project the citizens of Wierzbica Municipality will develop their knowledge of the civic participation methods and, on the basis of the school participatory budget, they will learn how to employ these techniques in their community.