This year, Ministry of Education’s Youth Development Administration (YDA) has collaborated with Non-profit organizations and social enterprises that are continuously working on community development in order to support local industries has held nine sessions of 「Localism & Youth Forum」. Through this series of events the YDA is aiming to promote the core idea of Localism and gather all the creative thoughts of young people to bring more opportunities for local community development.
The second session of the forum was held in 「soulxfamily」 in Miaoli, and was attended by the Digital Minister of the Executive Yuan, Audrey Tang, in order to listen to the ideas and expectations of young people in Miaoli. During the event, Huang Ding Yao, the CEO of Gracefulfarmer and Xu Chieng Chi, the founder of Shiherliao Free Shop shared their experiences on understanding the value of the local community. Both of them stated “People” are the key factor in the whole process, they said that Localism is not only about public infrastructure construction but also transforming the thinking and ideas of people regarding their living environment. The main goal of the forum is to encourage and develop this idea.
As well as listening to these inspiring talks, the young people were grouped via Open Space Technology (OST) to brainstorm on the topic “Imagining and Creating the future of Miaoli”. After reviewing the current resources of Miaoli, the young people came up with four sub-topics to focus on 1. “How to build a disability-friendly environment”. 2. “Regenerate the Shopping area around Miaoli Train Station and Northern Miaoli”. 3. “Discover the unique natural features of Miaoli and explore the the possibility of developing sustainable life styles”. And 4. “The imagination of Art and Culture industry development in Miaoli”.
Instead of using traditional presentation methods, the young people presented their action plans and visions through drama and singing. The youth also organized a line group named “Miaoli Chat” to carry out their action plans in the future.
The Director General of the Youth Development Administration Lo Ching-Shui stated that as Miaoli was his hometown he was really pleased to see so many talented young people from all walks of life gathered together and providing so many creative ideas. He believes that this forum is just a start and in the future there will be more young people joining Localism. The future of Taiwan is on our hands. For more information on「Localism & Youth Forum」, please visit the website (http://107ypu-letstalk.yda.gov.tw).