Lessons learned

The laboratory process organized by the Zemgale Planning Region has been very interesting, and various lessons have been learned during it:

• Involving the target group is important . Our lab process involved young people working with professionals. They know their own situation and that of their peers best. By listening to young people’s perspectives, professionals can better understand the world they live in. As a result, decisions made and services offered are more targeted and help achieve better outcomes.
• Lab meetings should be planned carefully, taking into account the workload, priorities and opportunities of the parties involved . The challenge in the initial phase of our lab was to ensure the involvement of educational institutions. We achieved this only later, by building contacts over a longer period of time and also by involving representatives of the education system in the lab organizing team.
• We realized early on that in our case, the lab would be a guided process . This means that a few key people collaborate with each other to plan, organize, and analyze the lab process, and then involve a wider group of community representatives in the creative process.

At the end of the community meetings, participants admit that their greatest value was the new contacts they made . Various specialists and representatives of various organizations came together and learned to collaborate, got acquainted with new working methods, evaluated networking opportunities, and acquired skills for the active involvement of young people in the development of services for young people.

The laboratory participants admit that since their involvement in the laboratory, they have changed their approach to working with young people:

• Specialists listen more to young people, delve into their situation, and try to understand their needs.
• Specialists have wider opportunities to reach more young people with their services.
• Professionals are aware of the importance of community and are much more actively seeking opportunities for collaboration.
• The approach used in working with young people has become more holistic and inclusive.
• An understanding is being developed about youth participation and involvement in decision-making.

Laboratory participant's insight: "The higher the young person's participation in any process, the more important and meaningful the result will be for him."

In turn, the young people who participated in the laboratory admit that, thanks to these meetings:

• A more positive understanding of the services available in the municipality has developed.
• Young people personally met various specialists, which can increase motivation to turn to them if necessary. ("I met good people, I realized that some of them are very good.")
• Promoted young people's communication skills, ability to express and justify their opinions among adults.

Unfortunately, the lab's work failed to involve young people facing social problems. However, discussions between the lab's active youth and representatives of social services and the State Probation Service on how to reach at-risk youth so that they truly benefit from the lab's work were very valuable to the parties involved.

The youth in the lab share the information space (social media) and the physical environment (educational institutions, gathering places) with at-risk youth. The youth in the lab serve as ambassadors for services provided by specialists in the youth community and, at the same time, as ambassadors for the youth community in conversations with specialists. They are a valuable resource to learn from and to strengthen in order to reach those who are unreachable through conventional methods.