ActJust Policy Hackathon Austria

From 23 – 24 November the Austrian ActJust Policy Hackathon on Climate Justice took place in the House of EU in Vienna. In total, 46 people attended the hackathon (18 youth, 8 mentors, 4 policy makers, 5 media staff, 8 organizational staff, 3 representatives from the House of EU).

The hackathon participants worked in 4 teams on challenges related to energy (one team), food (two teams) and mobility (one team). They were extensively supported by eight mentors over the two days. In the first day in the morning there was a workshop on how to make a pitch which helped the teams to prepare the presentation of their idea in front of the jury on the second day. Sigrid Koloo, a professional moderator with hackathon experience, guided the participants through the two days.

Partly due to the intensive mentoring the four teams received, the hackathon participants came up with solid ideas on how to tackle climate justice. The jury consisted of one member of the national parliament (and spokesperson on mobility in his parliamentary club), two members of the parliament of Upper Austria (one of the nine federal states in Austria) and one member of a district government of Vienna. After each pitch the jury discussed the proposed idea with the teams on eye level. The jury reported that it was very valuable for them to hear the ideas of youth and they were amazed by the high level of knowledge of the hackathon participants. On the other hand the hackathon participants were enthusiastic and motivated that high level politicians listened to their ideas and discussed these ideas with them.

More information can be found under: https://www.suedwind.at/actjust/policy-hackathon/

ActJust Policy Hackathon Denmark

The national hackathon called ‘Climate Action Lab’ was held from the 24. – 25. November 2022 in Copenhagen.

Young people in the age 18 – 25 years were invited as the main target group.

Invitations were distributed through social media campaigns, newsletters to high schools and personal contacts. 63 participants signed up for the event, however only half of the participants showed up.

Throughout the two-day event the participants took part in an innovation process building on the framework ‘Design for Change’. Marie Sandvad, who is one of the leading people in getting the framework to Denmark, facilitated and guided the participants through the program. The program included four different phases: Feel (observe and identify any situation that bothers them), Imagine (brainstorm a way to make it better), Do (work in teams to implement their solution) and Share (their solution of change with the world). The outcome of the process was a 15-minute presentation including an optional product. The presentations were held for a jury consisting of different stakeholders working in the areas of climate, climate justice and innovation.

A winner was chosen between the 6 presentations.

Furthermore, a Q&A was held with Mathias Lund from Danish Technological Institute. Here the participants got inspiration on how to move from ideas to execution when finding solution to Climate justice.

ActJust Policy Hackathon Greece

ΑΑΗ with the support of YMCA, organized on Thursday 1st and Friday 2nd of December 2022 the “SKG in Action for Climate Justice”, a two-day hackathon event for the mobilization of young people and the creation of climate policy proposals.

The 38 young people who participated in the action “SKG in Action for Climate Justice” collaborated and formulated political proposals for the climate, with the support of two coordinators, four speakers and twelve mentors. Each and every one had the opportunity to present to a four-member committee, their own proposal for dealing with climate change in the fields of energy, food and education.

The two days event started with a presentation from the ActJust Youth Group on what a Policy Brief is and what it takes to create one. The participants had to choose one of the three thematic categories (energy, food, education) that interested them, create groups and start preparing their proposals, under the guidance of different mentors. The first day was focused on mentoring sessions and the young people had the opportunity to follow the mentors and receive new information and knowledge in the three thematic areas.

During the second day, the participants continued to work in groups and participate in 2 mentoring sessions regarding public speaking and semiology. These sessions supported the groups to prepare their presentations and pitches for the jury. The teams presented their ideas in front of the Jury and in front of policy makers of the city of Thessaloniki.

ActJust Policy Hackathon Lithuania

The aim of the Lithuanian ActJust Policy Hackathon was to look for innovative solutions related to ensuring the principles of climate justice.

The teams of youth worked on challenges in 5 fields:

1. ENERGY. Ensuring equity in the implementation of renewable energy solutions.

2. TRANSPORTATION. Ensuring equity in the transition to sustainable mobility solutions

3. HEALTH CARE. Ensuring equity in access to health services.

4. FOOD AND AGRICULTURE. Ensuring equity in creating more sustainable food production chains.

5. EDUCATION, AWARENESS, CONSUMPTION. Ensuring equity in the transition to a greener lifestyle

In total, there were six teams consisting of 5 – 6 people. Two teams worked on energy, one team on health, one team on transportation, and two teams on education.

More information can be found under: https://actjust4lithuania.com/

ActJust Policy Hackathon Italy

The Italian national hackathon took place in Milan on 14-15 January 2023. Young people aged 18-30 were invited to the event throughout a public call, AAIT network of activists and personal contacts. The morning of the first day was dedicated to get to know the participants, share with them the agenda, the general problem statement and the policy brief elaborated by the editing team and present the mentors. We also had three contributions, one from Giulia Capodieci from AAIT on how to prepare the perfect pitch, another one from Arianna Petrotta of Recup organization and the last one from Spartaco Albertarelli, game designer who explained to the participants how to design a game with an educational aim. In the afternoon the teams started working on their ideas depending on the subtopic they chose (food or education). The morning of the second day was entirely dedicated to working on the teams’ ideas with the help of the mentors. In the afternoon, afer the presentation of the jury, each team had its 3-5 minutes pitch, followed by a round of questions by the jury. After all the presentations, the jury discussed and evaluated the ideas, and then chose the winner. We had a winning celebration and then closed the event.

ActJust Policy Hackathon Serbia

The national hackathon in Serbia organised by Youth Network Manifest (YNM) from 10 – 11 December 2022 in Nis. In this policy hackathon 35 youth between 18-30 years participated. They formed 7 teams (each team with 5 participants). The promotion was made over the YNM website, social media networks and private contacts. YNM was in contact with high schools in the Serbian south region and all universities in Serbia. There were a lot of questions from different faculties and students where the YNM youth mentors work with a lot of youth who never participated in the ActJust project and never did volunteering. Initially there were 8 teams out of which only one team wanted to work on food. In the end there were 7 teams with 5 participants each working on energy and mobility.

There were six professional mentors from different faculties and fields of interests. They came from Belgrade, Vranje and Nis and they work at different faculties. All of them are specialists for different topics: transport, mechanic, environmental protection, economic and engineering.

Additionally, YNM organize a short training on energy and transport conducted by experts. One energy consultant from “LDK Consultants” company from Belgrade provided input on energy. A professor from Faculty of Transportation from Belgrade lectured about transport.

The ActJust policy hackathon participants had 2 working days. At the first day YNM presented them topics, how to create ideas, how to present it, how their ideas will be assessed, how the jury is composed (but they have not been told the names of jury members) and introduced the mentors. Then there was an online training. After this, youth start to develop their ideas with the support of mentors.

At the second day, the youth met the jury and continued to work with their ideas. The jury got further involved in the work of the teams and went through all the teams to hear their ideas and gave them additional guidance on how to form a great idea. At the end of the final day, 7 ideas were presented followed by a Q&A session with jury members who evaluated the ideas according to different criteria. There were two winning teams, one is a mix of participants from the start of the ActJust project and the second one an external team.

ActJust Policy Hackathon Spain

The Spanish ActJust policy hackathon was organised in the framework of an Alianza volunteering activity, at the Annual Volunteering Meeting. It took place on 5 and 6 November 2023 in Toledo and 70 young people took part plus the jury, mentors and organisers.

The young people were working on their own ideas for two days with the help of the mentors in case they wanted their support. Young people from almost all parts of Spain participated, of very different ages and with different experiences in participation and activism. This helped the ideas presented to be very different and varied.

At the end of the event, the young people were very motivated to have participated in such a big activity and to have brought people together to fight and work for the same goal. It motivated them and gave them strength to keep fighting and to believe that change is possible.

International Policy Hackathon

The international ActJust policy hackathon took place from 19-20 February 2023 in Vienna. The second day was organised in the United Nations. In total, 108 people participated in the event.

The 72 participants worked in 15 teams (three teams from Austria, two teams from Denmark, two teams from Greece, two teams from Lithuania, two teams from Italy, two teams from Serbia and two teams from Spain) on the topics of food, energy, mobility, migration and education.

They were supported during the two days by 17 mentors who helped the teams with the development of their ideas, provided information about relevant laws, research and facts and guided them with their pitches. Sigrid Koloo, a professional moderator with hackathon experience, guided the participants through the two days.

In the afternoon of the second day, all 15 teams made their pitches at the United Nations in Vienna in front of a jury consisting of six policy makers from Lithuania, Greece, Denmark, Spain, Serbia and Austria. The pitches can be watched under https://www.suedwind.at/actjust/policy-hackathon/.