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Meeting of EU Youth Ministers – Dolinschek: Creating basic conditions for youth to meet their needs

“Young people have many opportunities in today’s world, but they also face new kinds of social and economic burdens and risks. Because of the increased demands, it is necessary to support precisely those young people who, for various reasons, are unable to achieve social integration and are in danger of being marginalised”, State Secretary for Social Security, Generations, and Consumer Protection Sigisbert Dolinschek said in his speech at the working session of Youth Ministers in Bad Ischl

“An Austrian pilot project is aimed at encouraging integration of underprivileged youth into society. An important component of the project is the Job Bank that offers low-requirement employment opportunities for young people and thus contributes to long-term improvement of their living conditions. Target groups are unemployed young people, young immigrants and school dropouts with no income or making restitution for offences through social work”, Dolinschek said.

To encourage the participation of young people at local level, policy and administration must provide young people with the basic conditions for meeting their needs. “It is precisely at local level that specific projects can be initiated. The possibility for direct and immediate input can be seen, for instance, in the comprehensive participatory project “Children’s City Mini-Salzburg”, according to Dolinschek.

Mini-Salzburg is a model city developed and organised by adults in which children find structures and events they are familiar with from city life, but from which they are normally excluded: city government and elections, job market service, a bank, a university, or workshops. Implementation of the children’s city is a step towards giving children a part in cultural, political and economic events, finding out what their ideas and wishes are, and translating them into reality. The experience of having made something possible through participation nurtures children’s interest in policy and their identification with the democratic life of the community.

“Young people must be included in decision-making and related structures. Discussions alone are far from sufficient. The opinions and attitudes of young people are not only channelled into the national reports to the European Commission; they also constitute a point of departure for the further development of national policy”, concluded Dolinschek.