Advocating at local level

Testimony: Emir Basic, Youth Coach in the YEPP Local Sites of Tuzla Simin Han and Gornja Tuzla (Bosnia & Herzegovina) tells us about the challenges of advocating at local level and how the “YEPP” approach and methodology has helped to approach local policy makers and influence decision making processes at local, regional and national level.

“Dream Machine” – A project fostering advocacy skills for young people
A collection of videos featuring a training in advocacy skills in Cuneo, Italy (October 2014) and facilitated by Jan-Henning Korte.

Defining Advocacy & Creating an Advocacy Strategy

In this training session Jan Korte explains what advocacy is and why it is an element of the “Dream Machine” project. He also explains the 6 main steps to create an advocacy strategy: 1) Define the problem 2) Develop objectives 3) Identify stakeholders who can help 4) Develop a strategy and action plan 5) Implementation 6) Monitoring & evaluation

The Problem Tree & Responding to Community Needs

In this training session Jan Korte explains in detail and with great examples the exercise of creating a problem tree. From the long term vision to the goals to the objectives.

Meeting Decision Makers

In this training session Jan Korte gives useful tips and hints for (young) people when meeting politicians or decision makers. At the end of the session participants give a summary of what they have learned.

Stakeholder Mapping

Jan Korte explains, in this training session, how to map stakeholders, allies, opponents and competitors for a project. He gives great examples of campaigns he has run in Germany and engages the participants in an exercise in which they map the spectrum of allies for their own project.

Involve others in your project

Jan Korte gives advice on how to get others involved in a project and engages the participants in two exercises. In the first one, they are asked to think of 1) strategies on how to get other people involved in their projects 2) How to work effectively in a group and 3) What offers they can make to people for them to stay on board. In the second exercise participants are asked to write an engagement offer for a volunteer to join their project.

Dream Machine Project “Youth Cafeteria”

YEPP Local Site Kecerovce-Olšaava, Slovakia

Young people got the support of the mayor of Kecerovce-Olšava to set up a youth cafeteria in the community of the village

Dream Machine Project “Web Radio”
YEPP Local Site Langhe, Italy

15 young people from the YEPP Local Site Langhe set up a Web Radio, which was financially supported by the local mayor.

Dream Machine Project  “Youth Centre Albenga”
YEPP Local Site Albenga, Italy

After several years of advocacy work and efforts from the young people in Albenga, the mayor finally agreed to finance and support a youth centre in the town. This project received the award “Best Advocacy Work” at the “Dream Machine” conference in Kristinestad.

“Dream Machine” Testimonials of young people from 11 projects in 6 countries

Stura, Italy

Loano, Italy

Langhe, Italy

Kristinestad, Finland

Görlitz, Germany

Kecerovce-Olšava, Slovakia

Falchera, Italy

Cebmontan, Italy

Dublin, Ireland

Tuzla, Bosnia & Herzegovina

Albenga, Italy