Streets for the Youth – study visit day 2 – workshops on how to conduct youth consultations

The Erasmus+ Streets for the Youth project – Living Cities and Streets for Youth – the second day of workshops with foreign delegations from France, Belgium, and Portugal was devoted to the topic “When and how to include youth consultations in planning processes?”

This time, we had the opportunity to work in the industrial spaces of the City Culture Institute in Gdańsk, where we discussed how to conduct youth consultations in a realistic, rather than just formal, manner and how to effectively involve young people in the planning and design of public spaces.
The first part of the day focused on when and how to involve young people in planning processes.
The Vital Cities team presented practical approaches to consultation, and participants learned about good practices from Poland, Portugal, France, and Belgium. We then worked in workshops, applying a 9-step method to a selected case of public space and discussing possible solutions.
Representatives of institutions, local governments, and organizations then participated in meetings devoted to urban consultations, engaging young people in projects, and cooperation with the education sector.

At the same time, young participants took part in a co-creation workshop entitled “City of Tomorrow.” The young people worked in groups on their visions of future urban spaces, sharing ideas, needs, and challenges they see in the cities where they live. The results of this work were then presented in the form of posters, sketches, and simple digital visualizations, which helped translate the ideas into concrete concepts. The workshop ended with a joint reflection, during which participants and facilitators considered what the presented ideas teach us about effectively engaging Generation Z and how to better design participatory processes with young people in mind.