29 May | Online Kickoff Meeting #GEOYOUTH2020
& Meet the Trainers
On May 29, our new project #GEOYOUTH2020 was finally launched officially with an initial meeting of all trainers contributing to the conceptualisation and organisation of youth summits around Georgia. Polis180 with our partner organisation Georgian Institute of Politics (GIP) have once again joined forces in order to boost political participation of young people in political processes. This time, the focus is on the exchange of best practices between the partners, which is why we have invited four trainers from Germany to develop a workshop format together with their Georgian counterparts. Their workshops will then be taken to different regions and bring together young people around the country. Collectively, they will work on a Manifesto that will put on paper the demands of young people to political parties prior to the 2020 general elections scheduled for October.
Like many other organisations, the CoViD-19 crisis has forced us to modify our plans. This kickoff was originally scheduled as a personal meeting in Tbilisi, but when travelling was no longer an option, we decided to hold the meeting online and plan the exchange in a series of webinars designed to facilitate the preparation of the workshops. Recruitment for the youth summits has already started and will take place in June, which gives the trainers enough time to work on the concept and gather for a final meeting before taking it into the field, which will be digital as well.
While these are no minor challenges, we have found excellent support in our trainers who during the meeting shared their experiences of how to conduct meetings and workshops online, how to facilitate them remotely, and which tools to use for communication and drafting the Manifesto together. For this, they draw from their extensive and various experience in working with youth and international NGOs, provide lessons learned and best practices and exchanged ideas with their Georgian counterparts.
One of the biggest challenges in remote working is to build a connection and trust between the participants despite the physical distance. This project is an opportunity for young people to create new networks and thereby enable them to take ownership of their demands, to organise and get active outside and beyond the project, and to learn to rely on themselves and their peers to make their voices heard by decision makers.
In addition an intense and very fruitful discussion, we also had a lot of fun during the meeting and look forward to working together in the coming weeks and months! We will make sure to keep you updated on our progress.
Meet our Trainers
Cristina Bacalso, Youth Policy Consultant
Cristina is an independent research consultant, with a specialisation in public policies for adolescent and youth development. She has over 14 years of experience in policy, research, and advocacy. Her experience includes providing evidence-based strategic and policy advice on adolescents and youth for UN agencies, international NGOs, and national governments. She was the project lead for Youth Policy Fact Sheets, and the project and research lead for „Age Matters!“, selected as a top 10 project for the Best of UNICEF Research Award 2019. These are her tips to make participatory events meaningful and inclusive.
Esther Kern, Polis180
Esther is a research fellow at the Brandenburg Institute for Society and Security. She holds a M.A. in North-American Studies from the Freie Universität Berlin and a B.A. in political science and history from the University of Freiburg. Since fall 2016, Esther has been an active member of Polis180 and since August 2017 she is the program lead of The America(n)s. Here, she has been actively involved in the planning, managing and moderating of numerous events over time. Find her tips for structuring events for meaningful youth participation here!
Eric Klausch, Power On
Florian Vitello, Digital Consultant
Florian is a journalist and digital consultant who specialises in advising activists and non-governmental organisations on the topic of digitisation. This includes the selection and skillful use of the right communication channels and digital tools. But also the question how to save resources?In addition, after eight years of living between the global south and north, Florian brings intercultural sensitivity and experience for media work in an international context to the table.
Project term
01 March- 31 December 2020
Our supporters
The project is funded by the German Federal Foreign Office in the framework of the programme “Expanding Cooperation with Civil Society in the Eastern Partnership Countries and Russia”.
