Project: Increase young people’s interest and impact in the municipality decision making process
Piteå Municipality and Lutsk Municipality address the issue of low youth engagement in political life and decision-making processes in Ukraine, particularly in Lutsk. Young people often lack interaction with authorities and have insufficient awareness of government responsibilities, resulting in low civic competence. The project aims to develop a Youth Dialogue Handbook for public facilitators and mentors working with education, focusing on democracy and youth involvement. The workbook will equip officials with the necessary skills and tools to better engage young people in local democracy and will be used regularly in several schools.
The objectives in Lutsk Municipality are focused around staffing and cross boundary collaboration as well as community participation through the following activities:
- Creating a Youth Dialogue Handbook that is used regularly and spread among schools.
- Organizing a survey among youths after they participated in Youth Dialogue initiatives in order to evaluate the handbook’s effectiveness.
The project focuses on peer learning methods through workshops and training sessions, covering survey techniques, youth engagement, and democratic processes to promote shared skills and insights. Partner visits between Piteå and Lutsk will allow participants to observe and exchange practices in youth influence and local governance, including interactions with youth groups, schools, youth councils, and community organizations to adapt best practices to local contexts.
The Youth Dialogue Handbook will be co-developed with contributions from both municipalities.
The partnership is part of the Democratic Resilience Network.
The Piteå-Lutsk delegation at the fourth DR Network meeting in Tallinn, November 2025