JOIN, FIND THE SOLUTION – ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE BEST IDEAS

The best pupils’ ideas within the second round of the “Join, Find the Solution” project have been officially announced at the City Hall of Novi Sad.

“The City of Novi Sad and City Management for Culture support young pupils of high-schools. Two rewards were given to each school today. We, as the City of Novi Sad, support the project because young people should join and find the solutions. They have got the chance to change the world and do something nice for their school and their environment”, Dragan Aleksić, the chief of the City Management for Culture says.

European Youth Capital Novi Sad 2019, in partnership with European Capital of Culture Novi Sad 2021, decided to finance two pupils’ ideas from two different categories with a larger budget and to include eleven high-schools, unlike last year.

“Each school gets two rewards. One from OPENS and other from European Capital of Culture. I think that all ideas are very interesting. What is very important is to continuously support this project, to constantly encourage young people and that they accept that as some kind of habit. Through continuity, ideas can only get better”, Milica Rašković says before the “Novi Sad 2021 – European Capital of Culture” project.

The pupils of high-schools of Novi Sad voted for the best proposed ideas in the field of activism and culture and creativity, which will help improve their environments, i.e. high-schools.

“Through this project, the pupils told us what they really want and we have seen what they need. Ideas are very different and they have come from the pupils themselves and they respond to their particular needs. They mostly strive towards making their space and time they spend at school more comfortable and more interesting”, the assistant of Dobrila Marković, Program Coordinator says before OPENS.

One of the winning ideas comes from “7. April” Medical School. The pupils have proposed the restoration of curtains at the cabinets and organisation of peer education about sexually transmitted diseases.

“I think the projects of this kind are very important and this might be the most important project related to pupils of high-schools. This money we get is an excellent motivation for pupils. Facilitation has also been important within this process, because young people should learn how to work on projects like this”, Velibor Maksimov, a pupil of the Medical School says.

The programs like Participative Budgeting are the right way to include young people in political processes and to teach them to be responsible citizens.