August 26-31, 2020, Aghveran
“Free Citizen” Civic Initiatives Support Center, summarizing 18 workshops and webinars, taking place in all regions of Armenia in the framework of the project “V4 for Youth engagement in self-governance”, organized a five-day Summer School for 23 selected youngsters from all parts of Armenia.
The program is carried out with the support of the International Visegrad Fund. It aimed to strengthen young civic activists’ capacities on engagement with local self-governance, as well as raise awareness among participants about the European Union, Council of Europe, Eastern Partnership, and Visegrad 4 format. In total 433 young citizens, aged 18-30, mainly female, including those from the rural areas, participated in the events. From that number 295 participated in the offline workshops, and 138 – in the webinars.
The Summer School was held in the Arthurs Aghveran Resort on 26-31 August this year and aimed to develop participants’ capacity in the LSG field. Jan Plešinger, Deputy Head of Mission Embassy of the Czech Republic in Yerevan, addressed the participants with a greeting speech (online) and shared with them the Czech experience in the sphere of Youth engagement in self-governance.
Panel Discussion “Local Democracy Development Perspectives in Armenia” took place during the Summer School. Discussants were: Emin Yeritsyan, Communities Association of Armenia President, Council of Europe Congress of Local and Regional Authorities Vice-President, Ashot Guloyan, Ministry of Territorial Administration, Head of the Local Self-Government department, Vahagn Gevorgyan, Mayor of Abovyan (Kotayk province), Ara Sukiasyan, Nor Kyank village head (Shirak province), Vahagn Petrosyan, CoE expert on LSG issues. Participants had the opportunity to ask questions to the panelists.
The Agenda of the event you can see here.
Some Presentations of the Summer School you can see here.
Certificates award ceremony and the closing of the event you can watch in this video.
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“Free Citizen” SICS NGO partners in the Project are:
- Communities Association of Armenia,
- “Strategic Analysis” Think Tank, Slovakia,
- SALTO Eastern Europe and Caucasus Resource Center
- AGORA Central Europe, Czech Republic,
- Budapest Institute for Policy Analysis․
