Werkstadt Junges Wien (Young Vienna Workshop)

Status
ongoing
50%
City

Vienna

Main actors

City Government, Community / Citizen Group, Public Utility, Research Institutes / Universities

Project area

Whole City/Administrative Region

Duration

Ongoing since 2019

A participative process to develop a Children and Youth Strategy for Vienna.

The largest participation project with children and young people in the City of Vienna’s history involved more than 22,000 young residents. The main objective being to create a cross-sectoral strategy based on the expertise and experiences of children and young people. Everyone between 4 and 19 years of age living in Vienna was invited to attend the workshops and participants were truly free to set the agenda and decide on priorities. Only after the participants made their choices experts were invited to share their knowledge.

Data gathered throughout the participation process was analysed by academics at a social science institute and helped identify the nine most relevant topics effecting children and young people. On 24th June 2020, the first cross-sectoral Children and Youth Strategy was adopted by the Vienna City Council.

Sustainable Development Goals

Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all agesEnsure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for allReduce inequality within and among countriesMake cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainablePromote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels
City
Vienna, Austria
Size and population development
According to Province of Vienna 2020 statistics the Population of Vienna was recorded at 1,911,191. Since 2010 this represents the average annual growth at 1.1% The city covers an area: 414.9 km2 of which 50% are green spaces and bodies of water. The population density is 4,607 people per km2.
Population composition
The population of the city is comprised of 51.2% females and 48.8% males. The life expectancy for females is 83.4 years and males 78.6 years. The 0-14 age group is recorded at 14.6%, 15-64 at 68.9% and 65+ at 16.5%. The median age of all people is 41 years. Vienne is home to people from 184 different nationalities. Population by nationality Is comprised of Austria 69.2%, EU 13.4%, Other 17.4%. Top 5 nationalities are Serbia 4.1%, Germany 2.6%, Turkey 2.4%, Poland 2.3%, and Romania 1.9% Vienna is the second-largest German-speaking city after Berlin. The most practiced religions are Catholic 34%, unaffiliated 30%, Muslim 15%, Orthodox 10%, Protestant 4% and 6% other religions.
Main functions
The city of Vienna is located in north-eastern Austria and is the cultural, economic and political centre of the country. Vienna is host to many major international organisations, including the United Nations, OPEC and the OSCE. In 2001, the city center was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In July 2017 it was moved to the list of World Heritage in Danger.
Main industries / business
Vienna is characterised by a strong economy that draws its strengths from high productivity and a highly qualified workforce in combination with low wage costs per unit of output. The city is home to over 200 multinational corporation headquarters. The most important business sectors are trade, scientific and technological services, real estate and housing activities as well as manufacturing of goods.
Sources for city budget
Political structure
Vienna is one of Austria's federal provinces, as well as the federal capital city and the largest municipality of the Republic of Austria.
Administrative structure
The 100 members of the Vienne City Council are at the same time members of the Vienna Provincial Parliament. The members of the City Council are elected by the people for a legislative period of 5 years, as provided for in the Regulations on Municipal Elections in Vienna. Elections are held based on universal, equal, secret and direct proportional representation. The City Council's function is to safeguard the interests of all members of the municipality. Its tasks include general supervision of the municipality, electing the mayor, the deputy mayors and the city councillors. The City Council adopts the municipal budget plan (i.e., the annual budget), approves staffing plans, and adopts the final balance. The Mayor is elected by the City Council, with a term of office equivalent to the City Council’s legislative period. The Mayor remains in office until a successor has been elected. The Mayor need not be a member of the City Council but must be eligible for it.
Website
http://www.wien.gv.at/english/

Over the past 50 years, Vienna has developed from a shrinking and ageing city into a young and growing one.  In 2019, 29.5% of the voting age population were not allowed to vote due to lack of Austrian citizenship and 1 in every 5 citizens was under 19 years old. Therefore, it became crucial for the City to create meaningful participation opportunities for everyone.

Enabling children and young people to experience democracy in a positive, hands-on way by showing them that their opinions and ideas matter, creates a feeling of self-efficacy. Small-scale participation opportunities, such as micro-budgets for specific projects or local re-design processes of a playground, exist in Vienna. However, with Werkstadt Junges Wien, the city is aiming for a more structural, long-term, and large-scale approach. The key objective is to prioritize the inclusion of all children and young people in Vienna at the heart of policymaking and city administration.

The consultation process was launched in February 2019 after holding extensive stakeholder interviews. A workshop concept was designed to ensure a child- and youth-friendly approach. All materials needed for the Werkstadt Junges Wien workshops were compiled in a toolbox which also contained a facilitator’s guide. The toolbox was provided to schools, kindergartens, after-school care clubs, socio-educational group homes, adult education facilities, youth organizations and other associations working with and for children and young people in Vienna.

Through Werkstadt Junges Wien, a strategy with 193 specific measures in nine thematic areas, based on the expressed wishes, suggestions and priorities of children and young people has been developed. This strategy was agreed upon by the Vienna City Council and thus is a binding commitment for the whole city.

It provides a clear road map for improvements to be made in the coming 5 years. The process brought about a new awareness for the interests of children and young people in all parts of the city’s administration.

The City is in the process of implementing a monitoring system for the 193 measures described in the strategy, which will allow politicians, children and young people to track their progress. The   diverse array of indicators includes providing a number of new water fountains in public spaces to a more participatory culture in schools. The project coordination team will collect all relevant data and make it accessible in a child- and youth-friendly way.

In addition to the monitoring system, a children and youth parliament is being established that will share the task of monitoring the implementation of the strategy with the city’s independent office of child and youth advocacy. Among the defined measures are some strategic instruments that foster the continuous involvement of children and young people via youth mainstreaming, youth budgeting or youth advisory board systems for city departments.

The City Council provided the budget for the development of facilitation material, the analysis of results and the production of strategy documents. Additionally, there was a large number of working hours invested by partners, who helped to promote the process, facilitate workshops, report results, collect measures for all nine topics and many other actions that supported the project. 

  • 1,309 workshops with 22,581 children and young people (51.7% male, 48.2% female, 0.1% other)
  • 56 workshops for children and youth with disabilities
  • 1,000 educators (youth and social workers, teachers and volunteers) participated actively as workshop facilitators
  • 70 departments and enterprises of the City were involved.


The innovative process enabled children and young people of all age groups and backgrounds to connect to the process.

All participants, their families, and their communities will benefit from the outcomes and the measures undertaken to implement the strategy.

The City of Vienna is reviewing initiatives from all policy areas, departments and enterprises of the city and aligning them with the vision of making the Vienna a better place for all children and young people. Some Departments need to learn and gain experience on how to address younger target groups.

The project demonstrates that the City administration and other adults can learn from dialogue and collaboration with young people. The workshops not only empowered children and young people they also empowered the city government and administration. At first, children and young people were asked to think about their city, but in the end, the city is now thinking about how to include children and young people in their planning and decision-making processes. There is an entirely new awareness that goes beyond the conventional ideas of democracy.

By building on existing relationships of trust, it was possible to include children and young people from diverse backgrounds in the project. This was achieved by developing partnerships with kindergartens, schools, youth workers, youth organisations, special needs interest groups and diverse departments of the City Council. 

The adopted Children and Youth Strategy contains measures that aim at the long-term sustainability of the changes such as the children and youth mainstreaming procedure. Further efforts will include the development of a child and youth budgeting initiative and preparing guidelines for reviewing all budget estimates and their relevance to children and young people.

The project team has begun to share their learnings from the project and reflect on the challenges to support other cities who are interested in entering into dialogue with their youngest residents. The strategy and educational material are available in English and can be downloaded and used for free.

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Catherine Tan

Individual | Manager, Global Partners and Programs, Guangzhou Award

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