By 2023, the goal of the youth participation field is to create opportunities for wider involvement of existing participatory councils in local level policy-making processes. In order to achieve this goal, functioning participatory councils and those in need of support have been mapped and empowerment and supportion have been carried out according to their situation. As a result, in 2022, there will be a heightened focus on raising the awareness of local level officials and council members in the field of participation and participatory bodies will be trained during the year on local level organization and its administrative mechanisms. For wider communication of the participation program and participatory bodies in the youth field, more attention is paid to the dissemination of information and prominence of participatory bodies.

The priorities in the field of participation and the development of participatory bodies are as follows:

Awareness-raising and training of decision makers and participatory bodies:

• development and implementation of learning methodology from one participatory council to another;

• raising a wider awareness of officials and council members at the local government level, together with participatory councils, about the field of participation and the importance of including young people;

• raising young people’s awareness of the use of public space and the design process of services;

• offering simple and convenient ways to participate in different forms and taking into account the opinion of young people and giving them feedback. Raising official’s awareness of the importance of feedback.

Raising awareness of activities and opportunities in the field of participation and developing the communication capacity of participation groups and improving the quality of communication:

• training of participatory bodies and awareness raising regarding various communication activities and opportunities, so that the activities of participatory bodies are visible both at the local and national level;

• communicating the field of participation and opportunities of participation both to direct target groups (youngsters, participatory councils, local level officials) and to the general public;

• covering the activities of participatory bodies in the blog of ENL and participatory bodies and in the media to raise awareness and share best practices.

Development of international cooperation and introduction/piloting of practices in the field of international participation:

• wider development of cooperation with foreign youth councils and umbrella organizations;

• introduction of the experience of participatory bodies in foreign countries and piloting of the practices.