Our organisational common priorities and concerns led to common efforts in identifying new and effective ways of fostering civic youth engagement, to help them produce the changes they are looking for in their respective communities by getting involved in public policy decision-making practices and democratic processes. In order to ensure the necessary framework for such an approach in the context of the EU parliamentary and national parliamentary elections in 2024 the two organizations aimed to achieve the following objectives: O1. Building capacity of the partner organisations to mobilise and engage young people in the electoral process O2.Increasing the participation rate in the electoral process among the young people in Romania and Lithuania O3. Enhancing the capacity of partner organisations to independently carry out oversight and advocacy activities O4. Increasing the capacity of non-partner organisations to engage young people in the electoral process
Our motivation for this project stems from three key priorities that both partner organizations were deeply committed to. The first was empowering young people to actively participate in their communities, with a particular focus on democratic processes such as elections, advocacy campaigns, and civic engagement. The second priority was fostering international collaboration between organizations. We considered that young people often grow disillusioned with politics in their own countries due to a lack of exposure to how democratic systems function elsewhere. Through this project, participants, volunteers, and the broader community engaged in an initiative that promoted transparency and representation in elections—not just in one country, but in two. Lastly, this project aligned with both organizations’ goal of building a strong network of groups dedicated to monitoring elections and democratic processes while training the next generation to do the same. Within the project we addressed the need to enhance youth civic engagement through education, empowerment, and inclusive participation in democratic processes, while fostering knowledge-sharing among organizations.