Young people are part of our communities and they are demanding to be part of the transition towards a circular economy. Their full involvement and engagement in the decision-making process can produce positive impacts, especially at local level, guiding a change of mentality all over our society. Nevertheless, young people are different from adults, so different methodologies have to be applied to facilitate the engagement.

We have asked to experts on youth engagement to share their experiences with us, in order to inspire and guide the activities of both EWWR coordinators and action developers. On 2nd July, in collaboration with the CEYOU project, we organised the event titled Putting youth at the core of circular economy.

If you missed it, don’t worry, the recording video is available here.

The event was officially opened by Marta Arosio, Project Manager at the European Association for Local Democracy (ALDA). She illustrated the engagement methods implemented by ALDA within two projects: LIFE BEWARE e FOOD WAVE.

The CEYOU partners presented the local activities they implemented to engage and empower youth in the political dialogue on the definition of circular economy strategies. You can find the presentations below:

• UCSA’s Hackathon – Mauro Bigi, UCSA
• Pontypridd’s Youth Forum – Angela Karadog, Pontydysgu Ltd
• YEN’s activities – Véronique Bertholle and Margaux Dos Santos, Youth Express Network
• CID’s Circular Economy Platform – Arta Abduli, Center for Intercultural Dialogue
• CEYOU engagement methodology – Serena Lisai, ACR+

You can find more information on these activities and a how-to-do guide about the CEYOU engagement methodology in the publication titled ESTABLISHING PERMANENT FORUMS OF DIALOGUE BETWEEN LOCAL AUTHORITIES AND YOUTH ORGANISATIONS ON CIRCULAR ECONOMY.

Note: check the ANNEX I (at the end of the publication) to find a guide in 5 steps to define which is the best engagement method for your activity.