What interests young people?
At the ‘betterLÄND’ youth forum, randomly selected young people from the German state of Baden-Württemberg are developing ideas and suggestions since 8 November 2024 on how the Ministry of the Environment can better involve and represent young people.
To ensure that many different perspectives come together, around 10,000 young people between the ages of 16 and 25 were randomly selected and invited by post. By 9 October 2024, 649 interested parties had responded. From all the responses, 50 young people were selected according to various characteristics (sex, age, educational background and migration background) so that a group as diverse as possible would come together.
Five sessions
The young participants will meet five times in total. The venues are Sinsheim on 8 November, Stuttgart on 23 November and 30 January. The Youth Forum will then end in Stuttgart. Two online sessions will take place in between.
Participants can take time off from school, training or work. Since the journey to the event locations in Sinsheim and Stuttgart is long for some, shuttles will be organised or, in addition to train costs, travel costs by car will also be covered. The members of the youth forum will have the opportunity to stay in a youth hostel and have breakfast at the expense of the organisers on all three on-site dates. The young people will also receive an expense allowance of €200 for their participation.
Proposals go to environment ministry
The betterLÄND results will be received by Environment Minister Walker. Many people at the Ministry are also working on projects such as a sustainability programme for sports clubs, the Voluntary Ecological Year (FÖJ) and many other topics. The Ministry's staff have formulated questions in advance and are also looking forward to the answers. In addition, the Young Platform of the Baden-Württemberg Sustainability Strategy is using the results to improve its work.