NEWS
Using OPIN for 30th Children’s Parliament in Slovenia
- 11. June 2020
- Posted by: Ingrida Jotkaite
- Category: News
Due to the current pandemic situation, the Slovenian Association of Friends of Youth (SAFY) moved the 30th Children’s Parliament to the online eParticipation platform OPIN (which is now beeing improved throuhg e-learning materials, a community and better user navigation in the DIGY project).
At the beginning of April, SAFY had planned to discuss young people’s professional futures with representatives of children from all over Slovenia at the 30th National Children’s Parliament offline in the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia. The Children’s Parliaments have been operating successfully under the auspices of SAFY since 1990. Due to COVID-19, the offline event had to be cancelled. But because SAFY wanted to keep in touch with children, mentors and regional coordinators and give young people’s opinions a stage, they the chose to use the online platform OPIN.
Children and young people involved in the Children’s Parliament were able to give their opinion on the topic “My Professional Future”, which they chose at last year’s Children’s Parliament and contains four sub-themes:
- My profession: worries, expectations, knowledge and skills
- Paths to my profession
- Professions of the present and professions of the future
- Slovenia, Europe, the world – positive, negative, interesting.
In doing so, SAFY created a new opportunity for the active participation of children and young people who want their opinions to count and their voices to be heard. The contributions in the virtual discussion will be used to draw conclusions, and all comments and suggestions will be carefully reviewed and recorded in the report on the Children’s Parliament. The project is supported by the media Časoris (online newspaper for children), Izodrom (children’s TV show) and Hudo (Radio Prvi).
SAFY started using OPIN in 2017 when they were successful in the OPIN call in EUth project “Tools and tips for mobile and digital participation of young people across Europe”. Youth organizations had the opportunity to receive funding for the implementation of eParticipation projects. SAFY has also joined the OPIN Community, which is a great opportunity for mutual exchange, co-creation of platform improvements on OPIN and European integration.
It is very inspiring to see the work of SAFY: the Slovenian Association of Friends of the Youth is successfully running its project online, motivating young people and encouraging the use of the OPIN platform. Motivation and promotion are definitely the hardest nuts to crack, but when young people get active and are finally heard, we can see wonderful results.
Take a look at the video below to get more insights:
Listen to young people, they have great ideas!
Anita Molka, Development Centre of the Heart of Slovenia
Source: Slovenian Association of Friends of Youth