The second online meeting brought together 36 members representing 19 associations and informal groups of children and youth from 16 local communities involved in the implementation of the project „Connecting the Dots 2.0 – Advancing Child Participation in Decision Making for Enhanced Child Rights and Democracy in Bosnia and Herzegovina“ funded by the European Union.
In the first part of the workshop, participants learned about public advocacy—what it is, why it is important especially for children and youth, how to prepare a campaign, how to identify a problem, how to define the topic and goals of a campaign, the importance and role of the media, and how to involve citizens in the campaign process.
Addressing this topic is very important in helping children and young people understand their advocacy potential, and to enable them to work in the future in a meaningful and comprehensive way to improve their position in society.
Some of the participants’ comments included:
Participants’ messages:
“These are very important insights, not only for the projects and initiatives we’ll develop, but also for our personal growth and development.”— Ilma, young activist from Sarajevo
“As someone who has already gone through similar training a few times, I still found this session very interesting. Regardless of how many trainings I’ve attended, each new one brings something fresh, and it’s always useful to get new ideas on how to approach the whole process. That’s exactly how it was for me today—I picked up some helpful, practical tips I can definitely use.”
— Jelena, Petrovo
In the second part of the workshop, participants were presented with the results, best practices, and lessons learned from two initiatives implemented by the associations “Romska djevojka – Romani Cej” from Prnjavor and “Naša djeca” from Sarajevo, as part of the project “Connecting the Dots – Advancing Child Rights in BiH.”
The knowledge gained will support participants in designing new initiatives during the implementation of “Connecting the Dots 2.0”, aligned with the needs of vulnerable groups in their respective communities.
