The Dutch Centre for Political Participation (IPP) has several successful running projects, with the aim to involve youth in local, national and international politics. University students are trained to mentor groups of high school students for a project in the City Hall, to learn them everything about national politics in The Hague or to be a guest lecturer on Europe.
'Find your way in local government' ('Wegwijs op het Gemeentehuis') is a project that has been running since 1990 and originated in the USA. For one day young people (age 14-19) are in charge of the city hall. In groups they prepare a plan for their local community, at the end of the day they present and discuss the plans, and finally they vote for the winning plan. The winning project will actually be carried out with money from the municipality. Each year around 1200 students participate in this project in the Netherlands, and numbers are increasing. Due to this success, the project has been exported to other European countries, for example to Romania and Kosovo. On 5th October 2007 the second Action Day was held in Rijeka, Croatia as well, organised by Politeia partner organisation GONG .
On the national level it is the second year that 'The Hague Gallery' ('De Haagse Tribune') is running. High school students from across the country come to the political capital of the Netherlands for the day, and follow a historical or political programme. They learn about the political system, visit the parliament, interview a parliamentarian, visit the Hague Historical Museum while answering questions and optionally visit the Senate or the old Knight's Hall. IPP's aim is to have each high school student visit The Hague at least once in their school career.
Looking beyond our national borders, IPP sends university students as a guest lecturers to high schools to talk about Europe. What is Europe? What is the EU? Do you feel European? What do you think about the new European Treaty? Should Turkey join the EU? With the help of volunteers IPP hopes to interest and educate young people on European issues.
Interested in learning more about these projects? Contact Suzanne Jansen, email: s.jansen@politeia.net.
Suzanne Jansen, IPP (Dutch Centre for Political Participation)