“Freedom, civic engagement, active youth participation, democratic values, and democracy. Those are only some of the core topics explored during the 2-day event called ‘’LevelUp’’, that took place on the 12th and 13th of April 2024, in Brussels. In this event, more than 1.000 young people had the opportunity to travel to the European capital, meet young people from all across Europe, visit the European Parliament, and participate in various workshops, with relevant to the elections topics.
More specifically, the focal point of the “LevelUp” event was the European Elections.
The European Elections are held every five years, during a four-day period, in which us, the citizens of the European Union, are called to exercise our right to vote and elect each country’s representatives. The number of each country’s representatives differentiates, depending on the principle of degressive proportionality, having a minimum of 6 and maximum of 96 representatives per country.
In addition, “LevelUp” was a unique space for young people to become a Democracy Ambassador. The participants were offered numerous workshops, and had to take part in at least one workshop from each path. The paths were named after the specific topic they were designed for; “My Voice”, “My Vote”, “My Europe”.
“My Voice” was all about finding the right fit audience for the participant’s campaign, curating the message, and then, creating an engaged community. “My Vote’’ consisted of workshops about how to become a young candidate, how to fight against hate via a social media campaign, how to transform an idea into action, and many more. “My Europe”, the third path’s workshops, focused on getting informed about our rights and how to defend them, getting to know decision makers and having discussions about climate action, youth participation, EU institutions. The majority of the workshops required an active participation of the young Democracy Ambassadors to be, having the form of interactive and fun quizzes, games, mini debates, followed by Q&A sessions. To multiply the fun and the engagement of the participants, after each workshop or side event (some of the side events were human bingo, speed dating with decision makers, mini games and surveys about the EU) they attended, they received a cool and custom made for the event sticker. After attending at least 5 workshops, the stickers they collected revealed their unique Democracy Ambassador personality!
All in all, this particular event, combined fun and education, laughter and mindfulness, has given the opportunity to many young people from all across Europe to be a part of and become more informed about this major subject that is the European Elections. Having said this, the question that arises naturally is why should people vote in the European Elections? Especially now, with all the ongoing, difficult situations that we are experiencing, why should people care? The answer to this question is given to us exactly from these situations that we are facing. For change, for better representation, for a more inclusive, peaceful and participatory future, based on democracy and the privileges that it offers. #USEYOURVOTE.
You can find more information about the European Elections here.”
