Drawing on the Council of Europe's intercultural inclusion approach, in the city of Botkyrka - a diverse city of about 96,000 people in eastern Sweden - the civic authorities have invented a "reversed townhall", where young people have the floor to debate the matters of the day, and politicians, media and other stakeholders attend as observers. This has given leaders a new respect for the opinions of their town's youth.
Meanwhile, members of the youth council in Bergen, Norway, are now paid a salary, which both empowers them and ensures that they are accountable. They are able to attend the main city council meetings and make proposals, and have helped come up with new ways for the city to get young people into work - a difficult area for the youth of many parts of Europe.
Diversity in decision-making and having intercultural strategies to promote this is an advantage for society as a whole, according to the Council of Europe's Intercultural cities programme. Recently, at its annual meeting of Intercultural cities coordinators at the Centre for inclusion in Bergen, the focus was specifically on getting diverse young people participating in and being heard in decision-making. To be genuinely inclusive, cities need to make sure that the varied voices of young people are considered.
Diverse problems, and diverse solutions
The meeting allowed city and regional representatives from across the globe to share their practical experience in building communities for all, backed by strong inclusion policies. There were participants from over 35 cities and organisations that worked together to produce guidance for local and regional authorities in engaging diverse young people in different aspects of intercultural and youth policy.
Some of the topics discussed in horizontal exchanges, presentations and workshops, included tokenism; that youth initiatives only work when they are backed with genuine power to effect change; and how to get non-native-speaking young people, who are sometimes embarrassed by their accent, involved in city democracy.
There was very much common ground between the participants that pursuing an approach to inclusion which brings young people in all their diversity into decision-making is challenging and requires a coherent strategy backed by fenced-off resources. There are no shortcuts.
Towards a New Democratic Pact for Europe
The meeting took place with the support of the Council of Europe's advisory council on youth and the City of Bergen itself, and the event was part of the Council of Europe's moves towards a New Democratic Pact for Europe, the collective response of European states and stakeholders to reinforce democracy in the face of the current threats to our democratic societies. Exchange of good practices, identification of innovative policies and guidelines for diverse and inclusive societies, and fostering democratic resilience at local and regional levels, including through the involvement of diverse youth in intercultural inclusion policies - core parts of the event in Bergen - fit perfectly within the Pact's pillars of Learning and practising democracy, protecting democracy, and innovating for democracy.
Strength in diversity
The Intercultural cities programme works with a network of cities, regions and other local authorities which find strength in diversity, sharing their hands-on experience with each other to build inclusive and resilient local communities for all. It has over 170 members in its network across the five continents.
Through training, capacity-building, grants given to cities to pilot innovative approaches, study visits and thematic work such as policy briefs and recommendations, the programme aims to give local and regional authorities the tools to develop and implement effective inclusion policies.
Intercultural cities programme
The Council of Europe and Botkyrka youth council
