Why should children and adolescents participate in the decisions of cities? How can they do it? On Thursday 11 May we present the DecidimKids module which allows, for the first time, the full participation of children aged 8 to 13 on the Decidim platform.
Today, new dynamics of citizen participation are emerging where the collective takes center stage. An active and aware citizenry is very important to generate solutions to common problems and to open bridges between municipality and community. These processes and dynamics also involve promoting a city model that allows citizens to exercise their right to take sides in public decisions.
Guaranteeing the participation of children in city matters is a fundamental challenge for public institutions that cannot leave us indifferent, because the city of Barcelona is an Educating City. In 1990 he promoted the creation of the Educating Cities Movement, from which he expressed "the need to turn the city into an educational agent and space". In this sense, the children and adolescents of Barcelona have a lot to say and including them in the city's decisions is a recognition of their rights, of their citizenship and of their ability to build the future. But how to facilitate their digital participation?
On Thursday, May 11, from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., we will celebrate the Decidim Laboratory workshop with people who are experts in children's participation. During the session, we will present the DecidimKids module which allows, for the first time, the full participation of children and teenagers between 8 and 13 years old on the Decidim platform. Participatory experiences lived in childhood treat children as true citizens, including their views and promoting a new way of educating for citizenship. In addition, we will work on how a digital participatory process aimed at children and adolescents should be.
We will have Elisenda Ortega from the Directorate of Democratic Innovation, Nil Homedes, Head of Decidim for the Organizations, (F. Ferrer and Guard), Ana Novella, Head of the European Child Participation Project IMCITIZEN (CERV-2022-CHILD) University of Barcelona and Sandra Gómez, Co-author of the PARTICIPATIC study (Fund. Ferrer i Guàrdia). The dinamitzation will be carried out by Colectic.
