Samokov, 28-29 July 2014
What infact is children and youth participation, how is it regulated, whether, where and how successfully is it implemented; how to attract the local community in implementing ideas elaborated by the young people for the benefit of the city; how to resolve a specific problem; why do we “go with the flow” and hold parent-teacher meetings without the children present; how to include intergenerational education…
Some questions remained unsolved but also a lot of ideas were elaborated.
It is good that even in the small town interesting things can happen as long as there is someone to set off a spark. The basement of the Youth Center turned out to be the motivational space and a gathering point for youth where they meet, where they feel good to be together and be creative, artistic, talented, energetic and intellectual…. And it all began to happen after the initial impulse given by Deyan Petrov. Deyan came to the town to teach for two years for the “Together in class” project and after working 12 hours a day in order to become a good educator and a Teacher, he managed to earn the trust of the young people and develop a small mentorship system in which he and 4 other mentors take part, so that the students can express themselves and yet still have support when they 
need it. During the meet he shared that he feels exhausted and the high expectations towards him are worrying him but despite or maybe because of them he continues mentoring.
An expression of the young people’s search for answers and solutions is the film “Get Updated – Samokov” made by students from the town which was aired nationally and which exposes some of the problems of the educational system. Reactions were predictable – the film was appraised on a national level while the locals were disgruntled by this shedding of light on the problems that causes a conflict between the generations. But it is a good reason to strike up a conversation and a small step towards change – of a person, of a group of people, of a town….
