The NGO Educo
Educo is an NGO, a member of ChildFund Alliance, one of the leading international NGO coalitions focused on child protection, working in more than 18 countries and for over 30 years for the welfare and rights of children, especially the right to receive quality education. Within its project Activate Listening, Educo has carried out multiple projects funded by the Ministry related to the promotion of child and adolescent participation. Among them are:
From Audience to Influence Project
The From Audience to Influence project, a necessary step to make effective the participation of boys and girls in defending their rights, in which the following were carried out:
The guide How to Include the Voice of Childhood and Adolescence in Decision-Making, aimed at adult decision-makers and developed with the collaboration of the “Listening Council” formed by boys and girls spokespeople from their participation groups in educational centers.
A video where boys and girls from the Listening Council meet with institutional representatives to convey their ideas, proposals, and concerns about how they believe decision-makers should listen to them and take them more into account on issues that affect them.
The infographic How to Influence the Political Decisions that Affect You, aimed at boys and girls, and designed based on ideas and proposals from the “Listening Council”. It includes tips, ideas, and proposals for boys and girls to want to, know how to, and be able to address public administrations to demand their rights.Why Don't We Do Something Together? Project
The project Why Don't We Do Something Together? where boys and girls, accompanied by their teachers and Educo's technical team, have created a board game that puts active listening at the center of the debate as a right and a tool for social transformation, such as their school and family environment, with them being the ones to tell the story.
Council of Europe Material:
In addition to offering various guides and manuals on child and adolescent participation, the Council of Europe has a website in English with videos and downloadable material on participation.
Guide for Applying the Child Participation Assessment Instrument. Child participation is their right to be heard and taken seriously.
IMCITIZEN Project
IMCITIZEN brings together various socio-educational agents with experience in child and adolescent participation at school and at local and regional levels in Spain. Composed of 10 child platforms established to promote children's rights, create platforms for child participation, and advance strategies to increase children's decision-making. The IMCITIZEN project, funded by the EU's CERV-2022-CHILD program, fosters the democratic citizenship identity of children as active and engaged members.
On its website, among multiple resources, is the book WE PARTICIPATE, we take action! as a result of the collective work with the children from several schools who have participated in the co-design of Child Participation Platforms as active and engaged citizens. It contains practical tools to facilitate this process, with resources explained by the main protagonists themselves.
Also present is the Child Citizen Participation Plan. Guide developed by boys and girls. This guide offers strategies and concrete actions to strengthen the participation of boys and girls in decision-making in their municipalities. The Strategic Plan has been designed by the participation platforms of each municipality, with support, in some cases, from municipal councils. It also includes ten strategies agreed upon by representatives of the 10 IMCITIZEN participation platforms. The guide is the result of the work of 140 children, who have been the main actors in this process.
Automatically translated with OpenAI from Spanish