Youth Citizen Panel
In this project we put the youth in the driverseat and give them the opportunity to influence their own community by including them in important matters.
Project goals
Norway’s first citizen panel for youths was organized in Hillevåg in the fall of 2021. The goal of the project was to give youths knowledge and insight into planning processes and how they can affect their community, get good answers on issues and give recommendations to the municipality.
The following problem statement was formulated by the project participants: How can we together create a safe and attractive neighbourhood?
Young participants
24 pupils from Kristianlyst and Ullandhaug schools participated in the project. Of the pupils that wanted to participate, a representative selection was drawn in a lottery, divided on school, age group and gender.
The youths that were chosen participated in five gatherings after school. In the first gathering, the youths unified over common values for the work ahead: justice, respect and freedom. During the next gatherings, the youths gained new knowledge about the community. They were presented hard facts about Hillevåg, got introduced to the areaplan for Hillevåg, the plans to improve Hillevåg, got input from Pådriv Stavanger, and had a visit from section chief for environment and development the city of Stavanger. The participation of the youths became visible along the way through their reflections and discussions. Towards the end of the project they agreed over concrete recommendations to solve the task they were handed.
"It`s fun to be able to decide a little, I didn`t know that was possible” says one of the participants in young citizen panel Hillevåg.
Foto: Ungt borgerpanel
Collaboration between multiple stakeholders
The project is a cooperation between the city of Stavanger, smart city Stavanger, the department of urban development and areaplan Hillevåg, SoCentral, Pådriv Stavanger, and NTNU. It was important for the project to uncover real needs and to have a recipient in the municipality who were in search for input into their their areas of work. Pådriv Stavanger is localised in Hillevåg, which made the department of arealift and areaplan in Hillevåg a good recipient.
Recommendation rapport
The results was turned into a report with recommendations, which will be handed over in January 2022 to Områdeplan and Områdeløft Hillevåg. The report show that the citizen panel method is well suited to discuss problem statements which do not have obvious answers, when tough decisions are to be made. The rapport also suggests topics for future youth panels. For example challenges related to mental health, everday life of elderly in nursing homes and challenges related to climate and environment.