Politiske ungdomslejre inspirerer unge ledere til at kræve deres plads
Political Youth Camp in Denmark inspires and motivates youth to actively play a role in politics in their countries
At the youth camp participants came up with fictional political parties. Each party came up with a logo, ideological stance and made a political campaign
Young political leaders fight hard to claim their space. They are up against senior politicians, who have been in the game for a lifetime. They are up against structures in the political parties they belong to, where youth does not always have a voice. They are up against cultures, where seniority is a main way to gain influence in and of itself. A political youth camp is a new way of bringing young leaders together to discuss their challenges and be exposed to new ideas and ways of claiming their space.
Fostering inspiration and new ideas
A Political Youth Camp gathers young leaders from across the political spectrum and across different countries to learn that youth, regardless of political stance and geographical location struggle with the same issues in their fight for political influence.
As a result of the camp, young leaders gain confidence and new energy to make a change. Participants are inspired and exchange ideas on how to involve youth in politics in new and funnier ways. A Political Youth Camp is no traditional workshop, but instead an inspirational journey through creative learning.
DIPD arranged and evaluated a Political Youth Camp to explore this new way of thinking exchange activities for young politicians. 60 young political leaders met on a one-week camp in Denmark in 2019. The overarching idea was to provide a space for young politicians meet and share ideas and experiences across the political spectrum.
One of the activities was visiting the Danish Youth Democracy Festival where participants experienced how Danish youth engage face to face with political parties and other important actors in society in a festive way. The Youth Democracy Festival is an annual event in Copenhagen.
The youth leaders sailed to an island where only youth is allowed. On this special island, participants formed fictive political parties including developing policies, deciding on ideology and making campaigns. The day on the island ended with an election where the fictive parties competed against each other and held mini rallies. The role-play enabled participants to reflect on where they are ideologically, how to communicate political programs effectively and most importantly it was a fun way for participants to get to know each other.
Participants also experienced another alternative way of learning about serious issues through playing with Lego. Through a session with Serious Lego, participants reflected on and then built their challenges in Lego. Then participants built a solution in their respective groups. This was a good way of visualizing otherwise abstract issues.
Throughout the camp, participants met with Danish youth politicians which fostered conversations between the participants and comparisons between countries. In Denmark, youth wings are independent from their mother parties and have strong ideological stances. This was a big inspiration to the participants and contributed to a stronger belief that young people have a role to play in politics and decision-making.
Collaboration between many parties
The Political Youth Camp was a multiparty collaboration between the Danish Social democratic Party, the Conservative People’s Party, the Social Liberal Party and the Liberal Party. It is the first time in the history of DIPD, that this many parties worked together implementing an activity of this caliber. The four parties took turns in organizing the different days with support of DIPD. We also believe this helps build political tolerance.
The youth leaders participating in the 2019 edition came from Kenya, Burkina Faso, Myanmar, eSwatini, Tanzania, Nepal and Philippines.
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