An Online Orientation Workshop from August 27 to 29, gathered 80 young people from Bangkok, Hat Yai, Chiang Mai, Khon Kaen and Kanchanaburi who have been selected to join the project. Members of the facilitated the relationship and team building part and RTUS experts, as well as local partners giving inputs about youth participation in urban development and urban development perspectives in Thailand.
The workshop focused on building relationships among the participants using different activities and to engage them in discussions intended to highlight participants’ ideas and views on urban issues and the reasons they engage in making changes. The 'My Dream City' activity resulted in four collages representing participants hope and aspirations of what they want to see in Thailand.
The participants met then RTUS experts to exchange on “Youth Participation and Role in Urban Development” presented by Inthira Vittayasomboon and Tomorn Aphiwanthanakorn. Followed by “An Overview of the Urban Development and its Important Issues in Thai Society” conducted by Yossapon Boonsom.
These two input sessions intended to emphasize the valuable role of young people in sustainable urban development and the ways their actions can materialize into projects within the existing urban development conceptual frameworks.
Participants in groups presented their ideas and perspectives on the issues below and local stakeholders from the five cities joined the panels as mentors to exchange and provide guidance:
Public Spaces
Transportations
City Planning
Universal Design
Pollution
Community Identity
Going forward, the further development of the ideas from each city will be tackled to produce a showcase of the youths’ vision for each city, as well as the creation of urban youth forums for the respective cities.
