One of the most challenging political issues regarding democracy worldwide is local empowerment and participation. People often feel isolated and excluded from their own local communities, and thus from political action. This phenomenon, as we view it, can be explained by two main factors, interconnected by a causal relationship: the lack of accessibility to an attainable system of community decision-making, and the absence of motivation to participate that naturally follows. Nevertheless, we believe that this political apathy, the widespread social exclusion, the sense of isolation, the feeling of non-belonging, as well as the more and more often general mistrust and suspicion towards the democratic institutions and politics must be faced head-on and urgently.

From the moment we are born, we already belong to one or more existing communities. Those communities can look very different, depending on our location and social status. Some, like your local neighborhood, might not feel like a “real” community at first, while others, like a church we regularly go to, give us a much clearer sense of belonging. Since our goal is to empower as many communities as possible, we had to find a way to reach people from very different backgrounds.

After the community areas and fields the program is going to work with are established, and the needs and difficulties that they are facing are identified, the plan is to create a European knowledge platform. The platform will aim to offer trustworthy information on funding, project management, general inspiration, projects done by other communities, and many more. The goal is to empower people in their existing local communities to tackle ideas and problems they already identified but needed encouragement or knowledge to start.

In stage 3 and beyond the goal is to expand on the support offered. This is going to be the most difficult to achieve and means finding ways to reach people and communities without access to the internet, or who live in countries where community activism is strongly discouraged by the local authorities. In addition, the aim is to reach people who don’t feel like they belong to or have lost the sense of being part of their local community.
To achieve those goals a variety of methods should be considered. Marketing and advertising through different media outlets like radio stations, local TV stations, and newspapers will create more visibility. Promotional events with partner NGOs in cities and towns create opportunities for different communities to learn from one another. Events are also a great place to show other people, who are not yet motivated to take action, how fun and easy it can be to bring change to your local area and how much this influences their day-to-day life. Influential figures like Greta Thunberg have been shown to inspire many people to take action even in countries without previous engagement due to the political landscape. Young activists in Uganda and other countries of the global south are a living testimony to that.