Kansanvalta.fi

Students from Espoo, Helsinki and Seinäjoki familiarize themselves with political decision making by ”shadowing” Members of Parliament and Local Councillors. The Shadowing-pilot commences on 8 April when upper secondary school students from Nurmo visit Helsinki. 

Aim of the Shadowing-pilot is to allow the young people to familiarize themselves with political decision making on national and local levels and strengthen their knowledge on different ways of participating and influencing in society.

Shadowing is a pilot which is executed as part of EPACE Project of the Ministry of Justice Finland. Three participating schools are Nurmo upper secondary school from Seinäjoki, Leppävaara high school from Espoo and Högstadieskolan Lönkan, a high school from Helsinki. Organising instances are the Democracy and Language Affairs Unit at the Ministry of Justice Finland, The Association for Teachers of History and Social Studies in Finland as well as Finnish Youth-Cooperation - Allianssi.

There are six to 11 students from each of the participating schools who work in pairs. Overall, 25 high school and upper secondary school students take part in the pilot.

Day one (8 April and 13 April) is reserved for students' visits in Ministerial departments and the Parliament. In addition, the students follow a Member of Parliament and a session of the Parliament. On the second day they will follow the work of a Local Councillor, session by a Local Council as well as administration of their home towns.

EPACE (Exchanging good practices for the promotion of an active citizenship in the EU) maps good European citizen participation practices. The Shadowing-pilot links with the project's democracy education theme and has features of successful Shadowing-projects from Great Britain. An extended Finnish Shadowing-project is currently under preparation.
The students report on their experiences during the pilot on Finnish Youth-Cooperation - Allianssi's webpage at www.valtikka.fi/epace.

Project EPACE receives funding from the Fundamental Rights and Citizenship Programme of the European Commission.

Read more about the EPACE: Http://www.kansanvalta.fi/Etusivu/Tutkimusjakehitys/EPACE/Home

More information:
Researcher Laura Ahokas, (Ministry of Justice), tel. 09 1606 7629
Senior Planning Officer Niklas Wilhelmsson (Ministry of Justice), tel. 09 1606 7966
The Association for Teachers of History and Social Studies in Finland, chairperson Riitta Mikkola, tel. 050 412 2711