Young people (14-25 years old) tend to leave peripheral Alpine regions due to the lack of personal and professional fulfilment, in particular regarding education and job opportunities as well as social integration. The majority of decision- and policy-makers lack awareness of the needs of young people as well as tools to better integrate them in urban and rural societies.

During the first period of the GaYA project (Governance and Youth in the Alps), ALPARC and the project consortium collected data on democratic and participatory processes across the Alps which particularly focus on youth. The aim is to highlight the best practices of youth participation in a comparative study, which is led by Eurac Research. The results will be officially presented at the international workshop “Democratic Participation in Political Decision-Making: The Involvement of Young Adults in the Alpine Region”, to be held on June 29th 2017 (9.30 am -5.00pm) at Eurac Research in Bolzano (IT).

Regarding the pilot stage following this preliminary study, the pilot site selection process is about to conclude. Overall, the project will implement trainings and pilot actions in 12 pilot sites, i.e. cities, municipalities and regions, in order to spread and exchange knowledge and encourage participation by the younger generations in democratic processes. ALPARC is work package leader in the pilot stage (End 2017-2018).

GaYA runs from November 2016 to February 2019 and is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund through the Interreg Alpine Space programme (Total budget: 1.092.748 € - 928.836€ ERDF grant).
 
For further information, please visit the GaYA website.