As the YoReC (Young People for Resilient Communities) project reaches its final stage of implementation, we at Cooperative City Budapest are reflecting on a journey that transformed local high schoolers into confident civic leaders. Over the past ten months, our piloting process has demonstrated that when it comes to democratic education, the most effective classroom isn’t a room at all—it’s the community itself.
Learning by Doing: From Theory to Action
Democratic learning is often treated as a series of facts to memorize, but the Katalizátor and YoReC philosophy is different. We believe in learning-by-doing. Our pilot, overseen by Cooperative City’s and Katalzátor Program’s Lukács Hayes, was structured to move students from passive observation to active responsibility.
The process began in July 2025 with a creative spark: a video competition. High schoolers produced one-minute stories about socio-political issues, forcing them to look at their neighborhoods through a critical lens. From this group, four exceptional students were selected for a transformative experience in Athens. There, they weren’t just attendees; they were trained as Youth Leaders, equipped with international methodologies to bring back to Hungary.
Empowering Youth Leadership
The real work started upon their return. These four Youth Leaders took the helm of the Budapest pilot, managing their own cohorts of peers. Between January and March 2026, they didn’t just participate in workshops—they developed and realized five major public events, leading groups of Katalizátor students, respectively.
The students coordinated a Media Literacy Roundtable, organized a high-energy Public Life “Jeopardy” Quiz, and managed a Civic Speed-Dating event that brought teenagers face-to-face with local activists, politicians and media personalities. They even hosted a Fake News Hunt and a sophisticated Campaign Simulation, where they designed political platforms and held mock press debates. By putting high schoolers in the driver’s seat, we saw a dramatic shift in their “action competence”—their ability to identify a problem and organize a collective solution.
Why Democratic Learning Matters Now
With the 2026 elections on the horizon, this pilot was more than just a school project. It was an exercise in building democratic resilience. In a world of digital misinformation, our students learned to hunt for facts and leading up to the elections. By taking ownership of these events, they discovered that democracy isn’t something that happens to you—it’s something you build.
As we wrap up this final project phase, we are incredibly proud of the growth we’ve witnessed among Hungarian youth. This success was a collective effort.
We would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to our YoReC project partners from Italy, Germany, Portugal, and Greece for their invaluable collaboration and shared vision. Finally, special thanks go to the Municipality of Újbuda’s B29 Youth Centre for providing the space and support necessary for our students to flourish.
Together, we aren’t just teaching democracy; we are practicing it.
