The carelessness summer days have passed, and it’s time for lessons and studying, for getting active and better organized. To smooth the transition from vacation to school, before the beginning of the school year, in partnership with SEED foundation in Samokov, HESED organized a youth camp in Borovets. 28 Roma and Bulgarian young people aged 14-17 participated in it.

Besides fulfilled expectations, emotions and new friendships, the participants also received useful practical experience and new skills through the training on the three modules of the DigiPAC (Module A, Module B and Module C). They exchanged opinions and knowledge on how to differentiate between fake and objective news and how to recognize disinformation online. Examples and discussions taught them to be more critical of information sources.

The tasks they completed, gave the students more clarity and a deeper understanding of digital citizenship, democracy, and basic civic principles. They were divided into four groups, each tasked with discovering and naming the five main functions of government, non-governmental organizations, the media, and citizens.

Playing different games, the young people got to know the essence of child and youth participation and the forms in which it takes place. To do this, each group had to come up with a story reflecting one of the steps of the Ladder of Participation developed by Roger Hart, then act it out in a skit, and the participants in the other groups had to guess which level it represents.

In the last part of the training, the students were introduced to the F.I.R.E application and the OPIN platform. They brainstormed on the topic “What do I want to change in my hometown?” and came up with four ideas for small youth participation projects to improve the environment, for example by organizing cultural and sport spaces in the city.

For us at HESED, the topic of youth participation, especially in mixed groups, is an ambition, a priority, and a huge challenge. Our goal is common, we aimed for it together. It’s time to see the results.