8th edition of Cascais' Youth Participatory Budget brings new features

How can young people improve the community in which they live? The students from the classes in 16 schools in the municipality who will be responsible for implementing the Youth Participatory Budget will give their answer at the Interclass Meeting that will take place soon. Over the course of four days, the young people will propose and choose up to 12 proposals, each worth 350,000 euros, to improve their street, their neighbourhood and the municipality in which they live. The big news this year is that the young people's proposals go straight to the technical analysis phase of the Cascais Participatory Budget. This saves time in future Youth PB Public Participation Sessions and gives greater responsibility and decision-making power to the ‘hard core’ of Youth PB in schools. This was one of the novelties revealed this afternoon, 27.09, at the Fort of Santo António da Barra, in São João do Estoril, during the presentation of the 8th edition of the Cascais Youth Participatory Budget. The session was attended by Carlos Carreiras, the mayor of Cascais, as well as councillors José D'Almeida, Frederico Pinho de Almeida and Frederico Nunes, who are respectively responsible for Participation, Education and Youth. "Here today, we encouraged the teachers so that more young people can join the Youth Participatory Budget and that the ideas will be even more effective in combating the needs of the municipality," said the councillor for Participation, José D'Almeida. "It gives us a sign of hope that our young people participate more than adults," emphasised Carlos Carreiras, comparing the numbers of those involved in OPJovem and the votes in the last elections in the municipality. To the teachers he left a word of appreciation: ‘Your passion in joining these initiatives gives us a lot of encouragement!’ The meeting included a guided tour of what is also known as the ‘Salazar Fort’, during which Carlos Carreiras, mayor of Cascais, took the opportunity to share with the heads of the school groups and the teachers responsible for the OPJ classes some interesting facts about the fort's history as António Salazar's residence. Stories that could serve as a motto for future visits in a school context, developing the youngsters' knowledge of the local heritage. With seven editions already completed, the Cascais Youth Participatory Budget now kicks off for another year of working with students and teachers, with a focus on developing skills in the areas of citizenship and participation, such as: Representative and Participatory Democracy, Sustainable Development Goals, Children's and Young People's Rights, Gender Equality and Financial Literacy. All these concepts will be presented to young people through non-formal education tools, with dynamics that stimulate and develop competences that will enable students to implement the project in their schools with up to 10,000 euros. This year, teachers received the PBY Agenda to enable them to better manage the schedule of the many activities planned, integrating them with the school calendar. Youth Participatory Budgeting in numbers (7 editions) - 218 Public Participation Sessions in the 16 schools that are part of the project - 13,572 students at the Public Participation Sessions - 44,179 voters - 2,339 students trained in the classroom - Training accredited by the Continuing Education Scientific Pedagogical Council - ‘Citizen Participation’ for 87 teachers - 802,500.00 of municipal investment decided by young people in proposals to improve the schools - 5,302,950.00 in investment in proposals to improve the community decided by young people