On May 6-7, nine member children and adult national representatives from across Europe came together in Ireland in the Platform's first study visit. To see and experience how children are involved in decision-making locally and nationally and to work together on actionable projects to be taken back home.
And why did we go to Ireland? Because Ireland is a leader in child participation and have been working on this for over twenty years.
Ireland has lots of child councils and child-focused initiatives and the adults are ensuring that their voices are part of decision-making processes at all levels.
To better understand and experience how this works, we visited a government department, a children's cultural centre and a school. During the visit we were also joined by children from the Bremore ETSS school and UNICEF Ireland. All these organisations are members of the Platform.
Day 1: Learning and play
The study visit began with a half-day workshop at the Department for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth's offices. Ireland has a dedicated group called the 'Hub na nÓg' a national centre of excellence and coordination in children and young people’s participation in decision making. Here we heard about how they are working, and had informal discussions with the children who participate at different levels from local through to EU-level.
It was great to hear from the children about their own experiences in local councils and national assemblies, and how things are organised and run. Which gave lots of good ideas for everyone! There was even had a surprise presentation about EU-level participation from Charlie and Iggy who are part of the Platform's communication co-creation team.
In the afternoon (after a pizza lunch for the children!), the national representatives stayed with 'Hub na nÓg' and the children's group moved to The Ark, which is a cultural centre for children to discover and love art.
This was a chance for the children's group to be more active and get to know each other through drama and creativity. There was a creative workshop about children's rights, as The Ark and strongly supports children's learning about their rights. And then a session with the Irish Ombudsman for Children’s Office.
It was a very busy day, which ended back together with the adults on a Viking Tour of Dublin (road and river!) and dinner.
Day 2: Implementation and inspiration
On the second day, we were all welcomed back to The Ark in the morning. After an artistic and active icebreaker, we kicked off with a fun (and quite competitive) child right's quiz run by Professor Laura Lundy, and Blaze and Maria from UNICEF Ireland.
The adults and children from each country then worked together to assess how child rights and participation was working in their countries and come up with some ideas to help things progress. Each country will take recommendations home, continue the work with children and then report back on what's happened.
We then had a relaxing bus ride out of Dublin to Balbriggan and the Bremore Educate Together Secondary School (ETSS). We were welcomed by the very dynamic Student Council and a wonderful lunch, which included cupcakes iced with designs of the Platform and the EU.
At least 10 members of the Student Council shared all the work they are doing to amplify student voice - which was very impressive! From improving hygiene, working with teachers to share best practice in lessons, child-friendly school policies, and participation in initiatives with other schools, nationally and within Europe. They also led a workshop about making information accessible for children.
Of course, adults were there in the background for support, but the children were so confident in their explanations and commitment and were really leading the way.
Seeing these innovative, responsible and implicated children further confirms the importance of providing the structures and opportunities for children to have a say in their own lives and the policies that adults build around them.
A huge thank you to all the Irish organisations and children for welcoming us and sharing their knowledge and experiences.
You can read more on the outcomes and key learnings in a report to be published soon.