According to the research from the Public Opinion Research Center, Polish youth has lower sense of agency than the Polish adults. 45% believes they have no way of influencing their municipality. Different research conducted in the town of Zgierz (Łódzkie Voivodeship) showed that most young people believe that civic engagement has political character and is aimed at achieving political goals. Only 13% of the surveyed youth declared they wanted to live in Zgierz in the future. According to the city townhall’s research, main problems of Zgierz are lacking educational programs for its residents and a low sense of attachment to the place among the young people.
In order to address these issues, we have established collaboration with local student councils from five schools. Together, we have designed plans for their growth and development, and have organized a series of workshops for participants aged 16-20 from Zgierz. We have trained them in team management, strategic planning, and have developed their interpersonal and leadership skills. Based on our interviews with the participants we see that they have developed their knowledge and skills, useful in organizing civic, cultural and volunteering events. We have conducted 40 workshops at the participating schools, talking to students about their local government and how it operates, opportunities to get involved in the life of their town, as well as about what does their town has to offer to young people. Questions we have received, we passed along to the townhall and sporting and culture centers. We took all the survey responses and created an online database, which will work as the source of crucial information for the youth in our town. Lastly, we have supported young people between 14 and 18 years old to design and implement 10 grassroots initiatives that aimed at improving an area important to that particular group, kickstarting an across-sector collaboration, as well as showing a variety of different civic engagement opportunities.
Thanks to the workshops we were able to touch on subjects important to the Zgierz’ youth. We were able to activate the youth, which resulted in their engagement in an election campaign ahead of the elections for the Youth Council of the town of Zgierz. Thanks to the implemented initiatives, we were able to strengthen the voice of the youth at schools, as well as generate new opportunities in town, such as amateur volleyball league, self-defense classes, and sex-ed workshops.