SHORT DESCRIPTION

Initial cue

As protagonists of the future young people should be concerned with ecological and social policy issues and be empowered to contribute to and formulate changes of direction needed now. Created in 2008, the Windhaag Future Forum was founded as a platform which enables young people to actively discuss a future worth living for and make their voices heard by politicians at all levels.

Goals

The main goals of the Windhaag Future Forum are:

• Enabling young people to engage with decisive issues of the future, and providing scope for action
• Connecting together young people who desire to participate actively in shaping the future
• Utilizing the energy that the young people draw from group dynamics and synergies, and channelling it into hands-on projects 

Sequence of events

The Windhaag Future Forum is held annually, focussing on a different topic each time. The key topics so far have been:

• 2008: Energy-Climate-Fair cost distribution

• 2009: Economy-Resources-Development

• 2010: Work-Consumption-Individual

Each annual project encompasses about 50 creative workshops (which are held at schools and youth facilities of any kind) and a weekend symposium in Windhaag near Freistadt as the main event. During the numerous creative workshops leading up to the symposium the focus is on heightening the participants‘ awareness of the main topic that year. In addition the workshops are meant to encourage many young people to participate in the annual symposium. During the symposium about 50 participants, together with experts from academia and “real life“, get to grips with the key topics and elaborate visions and demands aimed at a future worth living in. The results are enunciated as „Windhaag theses“ and discussed with invited politicians from the provincial and federal level. After the symposium has ended, theses are published in the form of papers and presented to each of the political parties as a petition which they are asked to respond to.