European Youth Week Supported Young People in Active Participation in Society

A week of workshops, presentations, and meet-ups for the youth of Czechia brought to a symbolic end at a conference in Prague.

The theme of the European Youth Week 2021 Our Future In Our Hands was also reflected in the spirit of the closing conference The Czech National Agency for International Education and Research (DZS) organized in Prague in collaboration with the EUTIS, o.p.s. organization.  
The program followed a series of regional workshops that had participants presenting their proposals on how to solve local problems.  Nine teams consisting of around 60 people put forward their project suggestions. They encompassed a wide range of topics from setting up a student government in schools or at a local government level, to restoring the forests of Beskydy or eliminating food waste in their school canteen.   

Each presentation and project was evaluated by an expert committee: Lukáš Borovička, Šimon Presser and Soňa Hoigerová of DZS, Zuzana Wildová of Czech Council of Children and Youth (ČRDM) and Viktor Vágner, of European Commission Representation in the Czech Republic. Together they chose the three best projects, and their authors were subsequently awarded material prices. The project Educating Seniors in Karlovy Vary, presented by Dominik Černý from the Můj Projekt Mánesova school in Sokolov came in third, second place went to the project The Best Meal is an Ecological One aiming to reduce food waste in a school canteen of the Gymnáziu Dašická school in Pardubice. The project Community Garden in Letovice by Šlanhofová, Anežka Zezulová a Natálie Ehrenbergerová from Masarykova střední škola in Letovice emerged victorious.

Apart from awarding student projects, the Prague conference also aimed to share with them practical tips and information. Markéta Čapková, DZS ambassador who spent time volunteering in Georgia, shared her experiences with the European Solidarity Corps programme. Zdeněk Stejskal, an actor in a theatre company Horácké divadlo in Jihlava, offered the participants feedback on their presentations and tops on improving their non-verbal communication.