EMPOWERING YOUTH VOICES ON THE CHILD GUARANTEE IN ESTONIA, LATVIA AND LITHUANIA

<< Objectives >>The ECHO project seeks to boost child participation and child-led advocacy by engaging young people up to 18y.o. in transnational and local activities to become spokespersons for their peers in discussions about the European Child Guarantee (ECG). ECHO also builds knowledge on the ECG through child-centred research on the challenges of children in conditions of social exclusion, and in so doing strengthens the partners’ capacity to organize advocacy on the topic, including at transnational level<< Implementation >>We will organize two focus groups per country to learn from children and adolescents about the issues the ECG tackles; one in-person and one remote transnational learning event with youth on the ECG; two local youth-led events per country to create more ideas about the policy; and one high-profile youth-led advocacy event per country. Child- and youth-friendly material on the ECG and three national reports with advocacy guidelines and youth recommendations will be created to support activities.<< Results >>ECHO will train a core group of youth-ambassadors, deeply involved in transnational learning and high-level advocacy on the ECG, and the empowerment of even more local children and adolescents to defend their rights and voice their concerns. NGO staff will hone its skills on the ECG and on methods to promote youth-led advocacy, producing youth-driven research on the ECG’s implementation in the Baltics, child- and youth-friendly material on the ECG, and guidelines for youth-led advocacy.