During October we got to participate in the European Week of Regions and Cities in Brussels. The annual conference aims to connect decision-makers and professionals from across Europe, in order to collaborate and discuss local good practices and challenges. At this year’s event, Eurochild co-hosted a panel titled ’Beyond Pseudo-Participation: Empowering Youth Voices and Creating Child-Friendly Municipalities’. Eurochild is an international network connecting organizations working to protect child’s rights and well-being. Hintalovon Foundation has been a member organization for over five years. In the spirit of child participation, the roundtable was co-moderated by Mór, one of Hintalovon’s Kid Colleagues and former member of the Eurochild Children’s Council, and Ciaran O’Donnell, Eurochild’s partnerships and programmes coordinator.
The co-moderation was a good example of child participation in practice. A panel about empowering youth voices wouldn’t have been complete without a young person involved in the conversation – in this case, in the position to moderate and ask questions from the professionals about their work in child participation, a role we scarcely see entrusted to children. The co-moderators prepared together before the session, and proposed their questions in turn.
To ensure our Kid Colleague’s safe participation, one of the mentors from the Child Participation Program supported Mór throughout the process. From preparations and travel, to the actual panel participation they accompanied him and payed attention that the principles of safeguarding and meaningful participation were fully realized. Here you can read more about the activities of our Kid Colleagues, and how we work with them.
Who participated and what was the subject of the panel?
The roundtable brought together four panelists, all professionals working with child participation. Fanni Mátyók, from Child Citizen Project and Józsefváros Municipality in Budapest, Hungary; Gry Jensen, from the Helsingør YES Office, in Denmark; Julia Eikeland, from the Norwegian Labour Party Youth Movement, in Stavanger, Norway; and Lukáš Hrošovský, Chairman of NGO ZIPCeM – the umbrella NGO of all youth information centres in Slovakia, from Trnava.The two moderators’ questions led the roundtable participants to share their experiences with child participation. From good practices and highlights of meaningful involvement, to some challenges they’ve faced along the way. You can read Eurochild’s account of the event here.
The discussion had over fifty in-person participants, from thirty different European countries. The participants also asked questions, and were keen to collaborate and learn more about ways to involve children in their local work.
Mór’s reflection on the conference:
“I really enjoyed the event, as all of the speakers were truly accomplished. I was very impressed with their speeches and inputs on the questions posed by us and the audience. I left the event happily knowing that there are people who are fighting the good fight outside the people I know.”
After the roundtable we were also invited to Eurochild’s offices in Brussels, which was a meaningful way to strengthen Hintalovon Foundation’s connection with the organization, as well as to get to know others working with and for children on both international and local levels.
