During the summer period of the project, one of our most important professional activities continued: the collection of the opinions and experiences of young people in the three participating partner municipalities. The research process played a key role in the Twinning Together project, as one of the fundamental objectives of the initiative was to ensure that the voice of young people appears in a real, tangible form in local decision-making, as well as in the development of town-twinning cooperation.
The data collection was carried out based on the questionnaire developed during an earlier phase of the project, which was jointly compiled by the participants during workshops and working group consultations. The aim of the questionnaire was to map young people’s opinions on, among others, the following topics:
• local youth opportunities and programmes,
• the level of young people’s community participation,
• the significance of town-twinning relationships,
• the question of staying locally or migration,
• as well as the development needs of youth infrastructure and services.
The implementation of the questionnaire-based research took place through a combination of several methods. Some of the young people completed the questionnaire online, while others participated in the survey during personal meetings, community events, youth programmes, and discussions organised in schools or community spaces. This combined method helped ensure that responses were received from the widest possible range of participants, and that young people from different backgrounds could also express their views.