Bridging the Gap: Exploring Channels for Youth Participation in Politics, 2nd July 2020

On Thursday 2^nd July, Forward Thinking hosted an online meeting with participants from the UK, West Bank, Gaza, and Tunisia. This meeting was held at the request of participants who attended a Ramadan celebration event Forward Thinking held in May 2020. At this meeting, participants from the UK and MENA region emphasised the value of sharing perspectives between countries and suggested further meetings with an international group to continue the dialogue.During the meeting, participants explored the challenges and opportunities young people face when engaging with politics. Despite a difference in contexts, participants recognised some common themes such as a feeling of exclusion from ‘traditional’ political processes as well as a perceived failure by political leaders to recognise the importance of engaging youth voices.Participants suggested that they found it useful to have the opportunity to communicate with participants from different international contexts and begin to discuss how they could collaborate to address the issues they face. Forward Thinking will be exploring ways of continuing this dialogue to develop capacity and solidarity amongst communities that we work with.