EYCE Training on Democracy in Tallinn, Estonia

[Natallia Vasilevich]

EYCE's upcoming training course "Democracy for All!" is fostering inter-generational dialogue. It is aiming at youth leaders and will take place from April 18 to 25 in Tallin, Estonia.

Today, when there are numerous changes and major decisions needed in many societies, there is also a need to question, who are those who make the decisions and shape the changes. Is there a certain group in the society, with whom the power concentrates? What are the differences in values and needs for this group? Are there possibilities to make a change in those decision making processes? Is there a possibility to bring in the values, which would bring more justice, responsibility and equality to decision making on behalf of others? Nowadays so often used word "crisis" from its Greek root is strongly connected to â₏Şdecisionâ₏œ â₏‵ so crisis needs decisions, but at the same time it creates the space for those decisions. Those decisions in their impact will have the biggest effect on the generations who are now not able to affect these decisions, because they are too young or not even born or too old and not taken into account any more. In this respect, it is clear that responsible decision taking is a social responsibility to be taken up by everybody in order to ensure fairness, equality and justice. As young Christians, the members of EYCE can take this opportunity and fill this space for decision making, by active participation and filling it with values. With this training course EYCE wants to tackle this complex system of inter-generational responsibility in democratic societies.

Aims and objectives The main aim of the training course will be to train young Christians to actively participate in responsible and democratic decision making process and equipping them with tools in lobbying, advocacy and campaigning. This training course should also provide young people with practical skills and information to contribute with ideas for concrete activities regarding the issue on a local, regional and national level. In order to achieve the above stated aim, the following thematic objectives have been identified: to reach overview on importance of active participation; to analyse the difference of generational needs with regards to active participation to all levels of democratic societies; to identify common and different sets of values affecting decision making process; to develop ideas how young people can contribute to fostering responsible decision making and inter-generational solidarity to empower young Christians to make a difference and be inclusive in their work with generational imbalances to provide participants with concrete tools and methods for active participation in inter-generational dialogue; to develop projects that are easy to implement and would increase generational equality and social responsibility.

Profile of the participants The target group for this event are young people (18 to 30 years of age) and youth leaders from various backgrounds, who have interest and minimum experience in youth participation and engaging into democratic processes. They should be willing to commit themselves to an open and respectful dialogue. They should also be able to actively contribute to the programme of the training course and have the capacity to act as multipliers on issues of youth participation in their respective countries. We aim at a good age, gender, denominational and regional balance.

APPLICATION FORM AT THE WEBSITE: http://www.eyce.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=PagEd&file=index&topic_id=13&page_id=893