Child Participation in Early Years: A case study from the Child Citizens Project in Hungary

A blog post written by Mária Herczog (Family Child Youth Association) and Fanni Mátyók (Józsefváros Municipality) sharing reflections from their experience presenting the Child Citizens Projectat the Eurochild Convention in Malta, July 2024.

At the Eurochild Convention 2024, we showcased how this project is driving child participation and empowerment in our local communities in Budapest’s Józsefváros district. We were joined by Nicoletta Errichiello from the Eurochild/Albero della Vita Foundation's DAY Project.

How? In the project’s first year, we have already engaged with more than 450 children and 100 professionals.

We are empowering children, parents, and professionals by involving children as active partners in decisions and programmes that affect them at the local level! By focusing on very young children (ages 3-6), our project works with local kindergartens in the district, an area with a high concentration of Roma, immigrant families, and low-income neighbourhoods.

Professionals have benefited from workshops led by consortium partners Family Child Youth Association and Partners Hungary, to improve soft skills, restorative techniques, and conflict resolution, and involve children in decision-making through play-based approaches. Our work is part of the Municipality’s innovative participatory governance, including its child-friendly policy framework and a Community Participation Office.

• Innovative Tools for Child Participation

An exciting outcome of the project is the creation of a large district map, designed by a Hungarian artist, featuring input from local children. Launched on International Children’s Rights Day in 2023, the map has been used to engage over 200 children between ages 4-16, encouraging them to explore their neighbourhood and mark areas where they feel safe or believe improvements are needed.

• Creating Inclusive Spaces: "Let’s Meet at the Square!"

Another major development presented at the workshop was the launch of Let’s Meet at the Square!, a new participatory programme in Józsefváros. This initiative creates an inclusive outdoor community space where children and youth can socialise, play, and contribute to the programme’s development. This initiative has been recognised as a best practice by the Europe Goes Local initiative and was showcased during the Belgian EU Presidency in 2024.

• Challenges and Solutions

The workshop also provided space for participants to discuss common challenges in child participation at local level, such as low motivation among public officials, capacity limitations, and misunderstandings around the core values of child participation. Attendees from diverse sectors such as child protection and municipal governance collaborated to share best practices and creative solutions, such as involving children as facilitators, creating intergenerational spaces and building trust in non-formative ways.

• Looking Forward: New Initiatives

Through community-building initiatives, the Child Citizens Project is fostering inclusivity and a stronger sense of community and belonging in Józsefváros. We returned from the Eurochild Convention with new ideas to inform the final year of the project. Already, this autumn, we will launch three new innovative participatory mechanisms:

• The first Child and Youth Forums, giving children aged 5-18 a direct voice in local decisions.
• A Child Participatory Budget, piloted in two kindergartens and two youth centres in Józsefváros.
• With Eurochild, we are planning a transnational exchange workshop on child participation in Budapest with other practices across the Eurochild network.

Interested in learning more?

• Follow developments for the Child Citizens Project on Facebook.
• Reach us directly at: Mária Herczog and Fanni Mátyók.
• To learn more about Eurochild’s work in this project, visit our project page, or contact Laure Pailleau, Child Participation and Policy Officer at the Eurochild Secretariat.