YOUTH@WEIN4TEL - Youth Participation in Weinviertel

Young people have an important role to play in a society's ability to innovate, as they can become effective through new and unfamiliar approaches to problems and creative, innovative ideas, thereby enabling the continuity and further development of our society. The active participation of young people in local and regional development is also considered to be of great importance in promoting identification with the community and region, promoting social cohesion and a sense of responsibility, as well as reducing the likelihood of young people moving away. The establishment of youth councils in Lower Austria in 2013 was an important step towards representing the group of young people and young adults at municipal level and ensuring an exchange between various youth-related organisations, associations, educational institutions and the province of Lower Austria. However, practice shows that the opportunities for young people to participate in solving social issues are limited and the existing participation programmes are often not adequate to successfully involve young people. At the same time, youth is a very short development phase during which interests and priorities change rapidly. This makes it all the more important to work with adequate methods and on topics identified jointly with young people (co-creation). This project therefore addresses the following research questions: Which location- and region-specific potentials and challenges of youth participation in the LEADER region Wein4tel Donauraum can be identified and which recommendations for action can be derived? What are the wishes and needs of young people in the Weinviertel Donauraum region and how can these be taken into account in local and regional decision-making? Which participation formats appeal to young people and how would they themselves design participation formats?