The civil action “CITY, I CAN DO FOR YOU…”
On the 11th of October students of Šiauliai University who spread the ray of citizenship were wearing T-shirts with notes expressing ideas that represent citizens, music was playing, and one of Šiauliai city representative symbol Sun invited and encouraged the citizens to participate in the civil action.
The theme of this year’s week of Local Self-Government is Democracy in Local Self-Government, so the most of this week events (the civil action, “The Battle of Brains”, the scientific-practical conference) were connected to the development of Self-Government. The civil action “CITY, I CAN DO FOR YOU…” was a form of expression of participation in Local Self-Government and gave the opportunities to activate citizens to participate, engage in various activities, encouraged to be more proactive while discussing the positive and negative issues of City development and making decisions. The action showed that people had what to say and did it willingly, so that means that a meaningful dialogue with society is necessary.
Within a few hours citizens of Šiauliai gave 400 initiatives that could be realized by them to enhance the City’s beauty. Most of citizens would like to see their nice city decorated with flowers. They could participate in City cleaning campaigns, give flowers, use public transport or ride a bike more often in order to decrease the air pollution in the City. There have been separate but very meaningful initiatives to create a song for Šiauliai, to conduct free lessons, take care of homeless people, help old people, donate fiction books to the library, etc.
The voice of citizens must be heard, expressed initiatives are analyzed and results are presented publicly. First of all the stands were exhibited at the scientific-practical conference “Democracy in Local Self-Government” that took place in October 14th. There participated not only scholars but representatives of Association of Lithuanian Local Self-Government, mayors of the municipalities of Šiauliai region, employees of administrations. Later it is planned do a more detail analysis of these initiatives and give the society and Administration of Šiauliai City municipality the results.
The activeness of students during such actions is an integral part of the education system that positive impact would be felt in future. The head of the Department of Public Administration Prof. Dr. D. Šaparnienė appreciates the students’ participation and intelligence.
