Weingarten Youth Council

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Weingarten Youth Council
founding 1985
Number of members 44
Electoral process Primary choice
Eligible to vote 8th grade
Homepage of the youth council

The youth council in Weingarten (Württemberg) was the first in Germany and was founded by the then mayor Rolf Gerich in 1985.

Youth council in Weingarten

history

The youth council was founded in 1985, but before the founding of the youth council, Weingarten tried to arouse the interest of young people in their city. There were question and answer sessions in the municipal council meetings especially for young people . In consultation with the rectors of the Weingärtner schools (with the exception of elementary schools ), Rolf Gerich founded the first youth council in the International Year of Youth . At that time, cities and municipalities showed great interest beyond the national borders. Since the first elections , the youth council has successfully completed a number of large projects. For example, the construction of the Weingarten skater park, a water dispenser in the city park, a project for the 2017 federal election , the beach volleyball tournament , basketball tournament , open-air cinema , various parties and much more. The electoral process has been changed several times in recent years .

Electoral process

Every year, elections for the youth council take place in the 8th grade at the Weingärtner schools ( special needs school , secondary school , secondary school and grammar school ). Each school has seats on the youth council according to the number of students. Every student has the opportunity to stand up. Youth councilors are elected for 3 years and can extend their term of office by 3 years. In the voting process with ballot papers , the pupils with the most votes are then elected to the youth council, even pupils without a German passport are entitled to vote . At the beginning of 2018, however, the rules of procedure were changed so that motivated and interested young people can still get involved after 8th grade, but only up to the age of 20. Interested stragglers will then be invited to the panel for an audition . Then a vote is taken on the admission of the person concerned.

Work of the youth council

As in the municipal council, there are also meetings in the youth council. The young people themselves set the agenda . The mayor is also present at each meeting as chairman of the youth council. The youth council holds 4–5 meetings per year, which are always prepared with a working group meeting 1–2 weeks in advance. In the subsequent regular meetings, current topics are addressed such as youth, sports and leisure facilities , local public transport , the state of youth culture, or the cycle path situation. The youth council takes a leading role in local political debates. Weingarten's political factions turn to the youth council in many cases in order to gain a direct world of experiences and ideas among young people. In order to be able to put some problems or ideas into practice better, internal committees are formed (transport committee, etc.). These committees then deal more closely with the respective tasks. In order to be able to enforce the results better, the Weingarten youth community council has a right to be heard in the community council. Furthermore, the Weingarten youth council maintains good contact with the city ​​administration and individual parliamentary groups . In addition to the youth councils, 1 member of the local council group is invited to the meeting. This is intended to promote exchange and close cooperation with the political groups. In principle, however, the municipal youth council has an independence obligation in order to guarantee the exchange of youth policy better and without external influences. The youth council is also represented in social media on Instagram and Facebook . Current projects and information are regularly shared with the public there. The youth community council has become an integral part of Weingarten society due to its long time and proven work .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ulrich Eith, Beate Rosenzweig: Youth and Politics: Inventory, Evaluations and Consequences. Newsreel, Schwalbach / Ts. 2005., ISBN 978-3-89974-187-2 , p. 128
  2. ↑ Ursula Winklhofer, Claudia Zinser: Participation as a basic principle of social and political learning. In: Joachim Faulde (Ed.): Understanding, promoting, protecting children and young people. Juventa, Weinheim 2003., ISBN 978-3-7799-1714-4 , p. 146
  3. ↑ Heinz Sünker, Thomas Swiderek: children policy and children policy. In: Heinz-Hermann Krüger (Ed.): Handbook Childhood and Youth Research. Leske & Budrich, 2002., ISBN 978-3-8100-3292-8 , p. 710
  4. ↑ Thomas Swiderek: Participation of Children - A Contribution to Democratization. In: Friedhelm Güthoff, Heinz Sünker (ed.): Handbook Children's Rights: Participation, Children's Policy , Children's Culture. Juventa, Weinheim 2003., ISBN 978-3-7799-1822-6 , p. 130