International Center for Education together with partner organizations, Oriel from Italy, Asociacija TAVO Europa from Lithuania and Nevsehir ll Milli Egitim Mudurlugu from Turkey developed a research that aimed to examine, on the one hand, the perceptions of young people about participation, to determine what are their levels of involvement in various socio-civic political activities, the barriers they perceive that affect their ability to participate and engage in issues that affect them or the surrounding communities, what are the motivations for participation , as well as the benefits, on the other hand, aimed to identify views on approaches and policies regarding youth participation in formal and informal systems by collecting relevant figures on approaches, barriers to youth participation, benefits, as well as practices, the forms and instruments of youth participation in 4 countries: Romania, Italy, Lithuania and Turkey .

Results:

• Young people from the four countries are selfmotivated to participate in political and civic activities;
• Perceived absence of information on issues they can contribute to and a lack of encouragement from public and private institutions to be actively involved in the society;
• Young people believe that most institutions are not able to support them or address their problems and needs, with the majority of respondents highlighting minimal levels of involvement;
• Perceived lack of training for crucial skills and competences, and financial support, especially for those from vulnerable groups;
• Barriers identified by the surveyed organizations are: resources within the organisations that often limit their potential, lack of interest from young people to participate, lack of know-how;
• Best practices for meaningful participation involve close collaboration with young people, allowing them to choose motivations and topics they would like to tackle;
• Recognisable lack of understanding and communication between institutions and young people that seemingly contributes to issues that both parties face regarding youth participation, active citizenship and social inclusion.

The research took place within the Open to Change project, financed by the European Union through the Erasmus+ program, Strategic Partnerships in the field of Youth.

For more details about the developed research, you can access the following link:
https://www.internationaleducenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/OPEN-TO-CHANGE-STUDY.pdf