More and more Rotterdam civil servants want to involve young people in policy that affects them, but they don’t always know how and where to start. What do policy advisors need to not only talk about youth participation, but also to ‘just do it’?

Today, Betsie Loeffen graduated from Delft University of Technology, with a master’s degree in Design for Interaction. Her graduation project is linked to the Healthy Start ambition ‘Youth participation and involvement’ and the postdoc project of Irene Fierloos, and translates social science insights into a design approach.

In her graduation project, Betsie developed a personal learning process for policy advisors at the municipality of Rotterdam. The aim of this is to create space for policy advisors to learn to think and act on the basis of the needs of young people. Through small experiments, she stimulates them to set small goals and take action within a few weeks, which yields surprising and meaningful insights.

The learning process is supported by a facilitator’s manual and a set of experiment cards. Are you interested in further application and development? Please contact Betsie Loeffen, betsieloeffen@gmail.com, or Irene Fierloos, fierloos@essb.eur.nl.

With thanks to the policy advisors of the Municipality of Rotterdam who contributed to the development of the learning approach, and the collaboration with Yentl Lieuwma, Jose Soorsma and Saida Labraimi, the advisory group of Actieplan Vastpakken en niet loslaten, Irene Fierloos, Susanna Osinga, Milene Gonçalves, Ingrid Mulder, Lysanne te Brinke and Arwin Van Buuren.