How our members are joining forces for youth participation in Eastern Europe

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By Lize Mogel

Like much of the world, in Eastern Europe, young people are too often disconnected from civic and political life. Participatory budgeting in schools is an innovative new way for students to learn democracy by practicing democracy to become active and informed citizens. People Powered members recently joined forces to expand school participatory budgeting in Eastern Europe through an innovative international collaboration.

Visegrad Youth Participates is a recent project to research and promote best practices for participatory budgeting (PB) in schools in three Eastern European countries: Czech Republic, Poland, and Hungary. This collaboration between Participation Factory, Alternative Communities Association, and Field of Dialogue Foundation shows how People Powered and its members are mobilizing to make democracy more inclusive. 

In 2021, several People Powered members in Eastern Europe said they were interested in expanding participatory budgeting in schools, so we convened a series of meetings to develop joint funding proposals. One result of these discussions was a new grant from the Visegrad Fund, for an international collaboration.

The project aims to mainstream PB in schools, to increase local or even national government support for youth participation, and to provide the scaffolding for schools across the region to do PB with rigor and success. While PB is practiced unevenly across the three countries, Visegrad Youth Participates is an important step for schools and municipalities to learn best practices gleaned from each other's experiences.

The project started with a site visit to the city of Kutna Hora in the Czech Republic, which has a progressive approach to student engagement. 

Schools in Kutna Hora had already been doing PB when the local government decided to pilot a city-wide process. The city turned to the experts to help them — the students who were involved in their school PB. Participation Factory supported a team of four students who led the city’s PB pilot. The students gained valuable skills and experience along the way and contributed to a greater culture of collaboration and trust between local government, youth, and the community at large.   

The Kutna Hora case study exemplifies some of the conditions needed to grow PB in schools: the connection between school and city-wide PB, institutional support for student leadership, and openness to new ideas in civic engagement. 

Next, the project team further researched school PB programs in the Visegrad countries, including Slovakia, to understand the opportunities and challenges for participatory democracy that could be applied to the unique Visegrad context: 

  • School PB was first piloted in the Czech Republic in 2016, and since then has expanded rapidly. Individual municipalities and schools are doing PB, some with impressive local backing, but the quality of the process is uneven across the country. 

  • In Poland, where city-wide PB has been happening since 2011 and school PB since 2015, the systemic approach is gaining traction. While educational standards are nationalized, local governments control school budgets, so there are many opportunities for school PB, including participation from students, teachers, staff, and parents. 

  • In Slovakia, School PB is nationalized and managed by the Ministry of the Interior through the regional governments. Schools have access to a standardized methodology, but they need more autonomy to expand or deepen the PB process and impacts. 

  • Hungary has the most challenging context. National commitment to democratic values is low, civics is not taught in schools, and there are limited opportunities for youth engagement. School budgets are also tightly controlled by the government. In 2021, the Alternative Community Association and K-Monitor piloted the first “Student Budget” in Debrecen, with funding from the US Embassy and support from People Powered’s mentorship program. 

For the third phase of Visegrad Youth Participates, the project team conducted workshops with local decision-makers and stakeholders. It piloted a youth PB process in one school or municipality in three countries. In Hungary, the workshop explored the potential for PB at a systemic level, and the pilot carved out a space for PB in a restricted school budget. In the Czech Republic, the workshop covered best practices for school PB, and the pilot simultaneously organized PB in a primary school and a municipal process focused on youth. In Poland, a pilot PB in the town of Lublin aimed to build support for mainstream school PB within the local government. You can read more about these outcomes in the project report. 

Visegrad Youth Participates has made important inroads into expanding PB in schools in Eastern Europe, and moving local governments towards incorporating it as a public engagement priority. While the success of implementing or mainstreaming school PB can depend on the particular political climate within each country, PB remains an essential gateway to developing more expansive democratic practices. School PB is especially effective in empowering youth to understand how being civically engaged can make a tangible difference in their communities and that they can build a culture of democracy together. 

People Powered is continuing to support international collaboration on school PB and youth participation beyond the Visegrad Youth Participates project. Stay tuned for a new book release, online courses, and accelerator program that we’re planning with our members and partners.

Do you want to learn more about Visegrad Youth Participates and piloting PB in schools? Here’s what you can do:

Do you want support with planning, collaboration, or fundraising for school PB, or other kinds of participation? People Powered can help you: