Participatory Processes for Teenage and Youth Citizens of Barcelona
The Participatory Process of the Adolescent Citizenship of Barcelona, during two consecutive academic years, offers teenagers and educational centers a project where they can approach the participatory culture of their municipality. They can express what worries or bothers them about the city and district where they live, and propose actions that, from their point of view, would improve coexistence.
The City Council supports this project in order to expand communication channels towards this group, through which they can listen, explain the actions that are already taking place in the city and that respond to some of their concerns, and receive first-hand the needs and proposals that this group considers, which are often forgotten in the planning of cities and neighborhoods.
Thus, a space is offered where adolescent citizens can exchange points of view and concerns about their city and the district where they live, finding common ground and stimulating teamwork to build a set of proposals that improve their experience as adolescents in Barcelona or the respective district.
This process has been carried out through high schools, combining face-to-face sessions in the schools themselves or municipal spaces, and online sessions that offered greater flexibility in attendance and participation.
As an added value, throughout the process, the technical and political team works to listen to the work done by the adolescents, providing them with feedback: informing them of existing initiatives or explaining why they would not be viable, as well as committing to making some of the proposals presented a reality.
Some of the results that have been achieved with this process, in its two editions, include improving communication between the City Council (both at the city and district level) and adolescent citizens, seeking the best channel through which to convey the improvements that they already promote, as well as informing participants of existing formal spaces (assemblies, etc.) in which they could already participate.
In this line, the way has also been opened for political and technical representatives of the district to be closer to the reality of secondary schools, thus improving the resolution of specific needs or collaborations.
Some improvements have also been proposed and executed in the city, such as the installation of sports practice elements in open courtyards that respond to the current needs of the participants, or the creation of a map of existing public sports facilities in the district, with the location and type of resources available.
In conclusion, the adolescent citizenship involved in the process, in both editions, valued the experience very positively, as it allowed them to make political figures a little more real and to understand first-hand how they could participate in the political and social life of their city and district.
Place
Barcelona
[1,620,343 inhabitants]
Escala
Municipal
Type of project
Citizen cooperation
Duration
1st edition (2020-2021)
2nd edition (curs 2021-2022)
Impulsores
Municipality of Barcelona,
Institut Municipal d’Educació
de Barcelona and Direcció de
Serveis de Democràcia Activa
Team
*estel (Arnau Boix i Pla, Oriol
Serra Ureta, Roser García
Piqué, Konstantina
Chrysostomou, Alba
Dominguez Ferrer, Marc Deu i
Ferrer)
Descoberta
Espai Coneix
Nadal Villena
Collaborators
Adolescent and teenage
citizens and educators linked
to the Escola Sant Felip Neri,
Escola Pia Nostra Senyora,
Escolàpies Llúria, Institut
XXVena Olimpíada, Escola
Joan Pelegrí, Escola Paideia,
Institut Les Corts, Institut
Santa Teresa de Lisieux,
Institut Menéndez i Pelayo,
Escola Pia Balmes, Institut
Gravi, Institut Vila de Gràcia,
Escola Vida Montserrat,
Escola Regina Carmeli,
Escola Especial Mare de Déu
de Montserrat, Escola Virolai,
Institut Escola Trinitat Nova,
Institut Escola El Til·ler,
Institut Príncep de Viana,
Escola Gavina, Escola FEDAC
Sant Andreu, Institut Infanta
Isabel d’Aragó i Institut Barri
Besòs.
Presentation
Watch the presentation at
Press
Read more about the project
at instagram and the
plataform decidim.barcelona