Date Printed: 04/09/2009 JTS Box Number: IFES 62 Tab Number: 110 Document Title: I Vote for the first time Document Date: 2003 Document Country: Croatia Document Language: English IFES ID: CE00550 III E 4 A During this school year we have conducted - 0.11. rflDI'C,I\:IC~ ':Jc- a. .... ~ (LIC Students and teachers in Economics and Trade high school R /tUCr • ,'r~c III s( 05"'1)'(' in Dubrovnik came up with an initiative that would enable "I vote for the First time" workshops in r:",[. f\J IV" KOJ, 1:\..( ?('{0..:n'IC(I.,r, them to get free premises for the youth. Their goal is to 219 ou( of 365 high schools in the C1c""(1-'1 OBJf\.SNI I C ::'TC r.·,>.$ encourage [he Dubrovnik town head office (0 provide such Republic of Croatia. 818 workshops were "'t'f'f'h ...~ f(""~ ::; (V,4 ~'e5f'i\_", 1'3 ~~(. premises. Teachers and parents have organized thematic parent held in the first term, from October 13th """~'cll_f1 ":;(1/'1 ,'1$( C'J trtrl'{'1 meetings, a petition, meetings with town representatives and a '2.J<,{',.,H,fI ~V"::JI i" 1Iri..-U(A to December 19th, 2003. 46 trainers press conference. Over the course of their action, they conducted the workshops. More than 21 cosAo C.l~ ~'" approached GONG and asked fur legal services. The organizers 500 high school seniors attended the of this initiative based all their steps on the "Advocacy" booklet Evaluation paper 011 ~I vote for the fiNt time" workshop by [hat students got during "I vote for the first time" workshops workshops, which is 45% of the total high school smior from Glina: the workshop was very ustfol, I liked the way GONG representatives rxplailled what it meam and followed all the steps explained in the booklet. number of high school seniors in the to be 18. J have karned more about politics, &etions and my • Workshop in High schoo/ in SLwolIski Brod. Ocrober 13, 200J Republic of Croatia. rights. I will be more active hereafter. " We wish them success! ti Educational workshops for high school seniors, first-time voters FOURTH SCHOOL YEAR September 2003- December 2003 PROJECT HISTORY OVERALL RESULTS (May 2001· December 2003) @@9@@@ Q\lIlD(Q']®:m\l>;) ~~D D@U@ for the first time'9 1P>G11lJ'\to~OlP>aJit®<dl OOll ~9@@~ 1j'i7@J'cmiJTI@[0>;) GIIOll OOllit®lJ'tiIi~ito\Ve W$IJ'!k$IhJ$1P> wlllo~1hJ <dl®GII0it wottlhl it&ne sl!IIib]ecit of politica~ SYSt®1l'iI1l9 itlhJ® IJ'oglhlit$ allJ!«fl <dl1lli't019$ ${f ~iinzens9 eOe~tO$Oll Degislatiolll GIIIl'I«!I election I))roces$ Since the beginning of the project and the first workshops that were conducted around the same time as the local elections in May 2001, to this day, four rounds of the Students took all active part ill the workshop alld tbeir evaluatioll was positive, teacbers alld headmasters expressed illterest project have been carried Oll[ all around the caunn)' ill cOlltilluillg tbeir participatioll ill the project (dueing school years 2000/01, 2001/02, 2002/03, and 2003/04) and 58,000 students participated in 2,089 workshops. During GONG's monitoring ca.mpaign for 2001 local QJ1'l!':©:m» ~~/\D~ Radionica Udruge gradana GONG za maturante Out of 365 high schools in Croatia 255 of them joined elections, regional offices Zadar and Siavonski Brod the project, which makes 70% of the total number of realized that there was a need for additional education high schools in Croatia. of first-time voters, high school seniors in Croatia and "I vote for the first time" workshops supplemented the they conceived "I vote for the first time" project. The f "1r--.,"" existing curriculum, and since they are based on more ~ t ... aim of the interactive workshops was to inform students • informal methods of transferring inforftlation, students' r abom participation in elections, the right to vote, election positive evaluation was one of the most important system. poiiricaJ panies, the parry system and bodies of reasons for continuing the projec(. local and regional self-government. I 060 high-school seniors participated in 46 workshops in 35 high schools. ABOUT PROJECT The students, as well as their teachers and headmasters, showed great interest in the workshops because of their subject matter and the way they were conducted. 'ii'1hJ® GII01l1l1l ${f itlhJ® 1P>1J'$]e~it· Encouraged by the success of the project. we decided 11@@ 1j'i7@[j'i)1g:Jo@[0g to launch a national project and systematically inform young people and encourage them to take a more active part in political life and democratic processes, which is also in line with one of GONG's fundamental aims-to The principal aim of [he project in the school year inform citizens about the election process. 2003/04 was to conduct 700 interactive workshops for 21,000 high school students in their final year of study I n the end of 200 I we started the first round of "I vore all around Croatia. for the firsr time" project in all pans of the country. An Once again the project was financially supported by interactive workshop was developed which dealt with the National Endowment for Democracy (NO I), the subject of political system, the rights and duties of Swedish Olaf Palme International Centre, and, for the citizens over the age of 18, election legislation and first time, by the Ministry of Science, Education and election process. In March and April 2002 14600 high Sports. r.laturanH 4.d na GONG-ovqJ radionic! school seniors participated in 514 workshops organized Ourex representatives SSL International and Adamic in 149 high schools around the country. The project Trade Ltd, once again helped by donating 8,000 cominued in 2002/2003 school year and 711 workshops condoms. were organized in 197 high schools for more than 21 .Projekt "Prvi 'put biram" 000 high school seniors only in the first term. i usisackoj Gimnaiiji Support to the project ~IBEt~---~U,",'''''''~''''Jj-'"G;;'imnei'ij" Pre go infouP?tj"~e emjsijr 'P"p'fI znanje Posebno... SISAl(· Nev\adina nepro- davaoce Maja Thaj i Tanja ponebd tal; i zasjedanja ml je bilo zanimljivo futi Both rounds of the project were very SUCCesshl1. Students fitna udruga gradana Prpif u razgovoru s rnatu· Sabora Zanim1jivo je vi!e o zagovaranju, 0 na_ took an active pan in the workshop and their evaluation GONG u skIopu projek· ranlima 4.d razreda ista· domati kato gradani mogu na koji i nefonnalne sku­ was positive, teachers and headmasters expressed interest ta "PM put biram" odna· mule su prava i dufnosti uqecati na Vafne odIu· pine gradana mogu u~eca· in continuing their panicipation in the project. Also, va radionice 1..8 maturante koje gradanin RH dobiva ke. Odlufiti 0 tomu kome ti na zbivanja u zajednici - srednjih !kola. Projekt su stjecanjem punoljetnosti, a povjeriti svoj glas i povje· rebo je K1indif. the media followed the project and its results with great ave godine, u fetvrtoj sezo· najvi!e se govorilo 0 biraf· renje da te dobro odIuo· Prijateljice Natala Kova· interest. Constant rise in the number of schools ni provedbe, nmtano pod· kom praw i VlStam.a izbo· vati velib je odgOVOrnoSl fevit i NikoUna Rajkovif participating in the project is the best proof that positive Jil~-llli1-~irh~ AAtttbbbztftADkLUAANJoPRsstOOzz rtaIi MinistarslVO prosvjete lB te 0 zagovaranju. Matu· svamg birafa . rekIa je M. abivno su sudjelovaJe u initiati\'es are always recognized in rime. i sporta. amerifka Nacio- rantica Mirna Juratak kate lurahl radionici. nalna zaklada za demol:ra· l:al:o na predstojefim izbo· Toni K1indic je vee puno· Nil:oUna je punoljetna Both rounds of the project were financially supported clju i !vedski Institut Olaf rima neee moe birati jer Ijetan i _ da I:e na izbore i _ da te ,vabko iza· Palme. GONG·ove radio· dotad neee nawsiti 18 godi· svaI:aI:o izafl.· VeCinu stva· a na izbore u studenome. by the National Endowment for Democracy (NDl), nice provode se kao dio Da, no GONG-ow radioni­ ri 0 kojiroa se govorilo na Medina Sefit rekla je l:al:o Swedish Olof Pal me International Centre, and the nastave u sklopu predmeta cu smatra mo korisnom i radionici mao sam i prije, joj se svida natin na koji Canadian Embassy. The project was also supported by utili smo 0 tome u PoUtici je radionica provedena, jer PoUtib i gospodarstvo. edubtivnom. SSL International and Atlantic Trade ltd, who donated paYI PVT DIUII Eldpa Veeernjeg Usta bila . Pratim poUtiku, redo· i gospodarstvu, medutim su ufenici u njoj aktivno _tU.1:crD ':ffIU;I:.rII JUI:I.,Xl':: je Da jednoj ad radionica vito g1edam Dnevnik i dru- korisno je ponoviti i upo- sudjelovali. Ourex condoms. The Ministry of Science, Education and Sports and the Institute for Improvement of Educarion recommended Lexicoll For tIlt First and Every Other Time • The artick on ~I vort for the first time" workshop in Sisak, Vtctmji list, October 16, 2003 the project. (dictionary ofeltction drfinitiom) 01 ABOUT PROJECT "I vote for the first The aim of the workshop. which was to provide young their subject matter more clearly, The charts contained people with information on elections and the part that all imponant issues and definitions and they were put citizens play in the socie£y in a challenging and imeresting up on visible places around the classrooms. way, as well as the topic and the content of the workshop have for the most pan remained the same. However, After the workshop each student was since the parliamem:u), elections were to take place on November 23rd, and our workshops were being given: conducted at the same time, we included more Finally 18 brochure -wriuen in a form of a dialogue information about parliamentary elections imo the first pan of the workshop that dealt with dec dons.