Change your City! The City of Geneva’s call for ideas has gone into extra time

Image

Since February, and continuing until 18 April 2021, youths and young adults have been able to submit their ideas, as part of the “Change your City!” campaign, via the  engage.ch website where participants can also like or comment on other proposals. A survey is also available to gather the opinions of young people concerning participation in their municipality. The aim of this campaign is to encourage the involvement of young people by giving them the opportunity to communicate their ideas and participate in implementing the most promising proposals.

To date, more than 60 ideas have been submitted. While people are free to choose the field and scope of the proposals submitted, topics linked to the environment and to sport and leisure would currently appear to garner the most interest from the participants, not to mention culture and soft mobility. Will this still be the case at the end of the campaign?  Check out the engage.ch website to find out!

A livetalk on the @changetaville Instagram account will be held at 7.30 p.m. on Thursday 25 March, offering participants the opportunity to discuss their projects and ask the supervisory group any questions they might have.

If the campaign has been extended for a number of weeks, it is primarily to offer participants the chance to finish in style – and in person – on Tuesday 4 May, with the closing event during which the different projects will be presented and discussed in public. On this occasion, a certain number of ideas will be selected which will then enjoy support from the City of Geneva for their implementation. Each project will have a chance, but they will not be implemented without their authors! “This campaign reminds us that we are all entitled to put forward ideas and change our city, regardless of our age. It is important to be able to make our voices heard!” stresses Jennifer, a member of the supervisory group.

The engage.ch project

Through the engage.ch project, the Swiss Federation of Youth Parliaments (FSPJ) encourages young people to become involved at the municipal level. This project reaches out to young people in their day-to-day lives and through the means of communication they use. The engage.ch online platform at the very heart of this project offers young people an easy means of submitting and presenting their wishes with regard to local issues. The municipalities and the youth parliaments can involve young people in municipal structures through different offers proposed both online and offline by engage.ch. At the same time, the nationwide “Change Switzerland” campaign is conducted every year and, thanks to a new secondary school offer (pupils aged 12 to 15) in the field of civic education, the political skills of young people are honed at municipal level.

The FSPJ in a nutshell

The Swiss Federation of Youth Parliaments (FSPJ) is an association formed by 51 youth parliaments, youth councils and other similar organisations. It is a politically neutral competence centre for the political training of youths and young adults and their participation in political life.  Through the youpa offers, the FSPJ supports and encourages the creation of youth parliaments in Switzerland and the Principality of Liechtenstein. Furthermore, thanks to the easyvote programme and the engage.ch project, it specifically strengthens the political participation and training of young people.

Through its work, the FSPJ plays a key role in encouraging the long-term succession within the Swiss political system, and in particular militancy, direct democracy and the culture of democratic discussion. The most precious asset of the FSPJ is its non-affiliation with any political party.

All youth parliaments in Switzerland and the Principality of Liechtenstein can become members of the FSPJ. The association is directed by a committee of volunteers and has offices in Bern. You can find more information on the FSPJ at www.fspj.ch.