Over the past two days, the civic association MyPolis has been working inside three secondary schools in São Miguel—Antero de Quental, Laranjeiras, and Domingos Rebelo—with a clear and urgent purpose: to reshape how young people perceive politics and to invite them into its living practice.

Led by Cristian Briceag and Ilpo Lalli, the initiative has taken the form of immersive morning bootcamps designed not as lectures, but as laboratories of participation. The culmination will take place at the Ponta Delgada City Hall, where eight students from each school will present their proposals directly to the municipal executive—an act that transforms abstraction into agency.

At the heart of MyPolis lies a simple but radical premise: politics is not confined to election cycles. It is not something that happens every four or five years at the ballot box—it is something that unfolds daily, in neighborhoods, schools, and informal communities. Briceag describes the project as a bridge, connecting young people to their communities and to political representatives, while equipping them with the tools to identify real challenges and, crucially, to become part of their solutions.

This approach responds directly to one of the most persistent dilemmas of contemporary democracies: voter apathy. For the organizers, initiatives like this are essential in combating high levels of abstention. The problem, they argue, is not a lack of concern among youth, but a disconnect between lived experience and institutional language. Politics, in its formal expression, often speaks in dense, inaccessible terms—its rituals lengthy, its vocabulary distant, its spaces uninviting.

Young people, however, are not disengaged—they are deeply invested in social causes. What they lack is not interest, but access. The gap, as Briceag suggests, is one of language and form: a dissonance between the immediacy of everyday life and the archaic cadence of institutional discourse, which can feel, at times, like stepping back into another century.

It is precisely this gap that MyPolis seeks to bridge—not by replicating traditional democratic models, but by reimagining them. Lalli emphasizes that the project is not about simulation or imitation of adult systems, but about innovation—about creating a mode of civic engagement that speaks in the language of youth. Schools, in this vision, become more than places of instruction; they become hubs of citizenship, spaces where participation is not taught as theory but lived as practice.

This transformation, however, is not without its challenges. Among the most significant are the preconceived notions that students bring with them—beliefs shaped by family, media, and community narratives. Many young people, Lalli notes, already carry a sense of disillusionment before even reaching adulthood, having absorbed the idea that politics is inherently corrupt or ineffective.

The work, then, becomes one of careful deconstruction—not through contradiction, but through exposure to reality, through dialogue, through the reactivation of belief. MyPolis does not position youth as “the future,” a phrase that often postpones responsibility. Instead, it insists on a more immediate truth: young people are already political actors. They are not outside the system; they are within it, shaping and being shaped by it in equal measure.

In this reframing lies the project’s quiet power. By shifting the narrative from dependency to reciprocity—from asking what institutions can do for individuals to asking what individuals can do for their communities—it redefines citizenship as a shared, ongoing construction.

As the students prepare to present their ideas to local authorities, the significance of the initiative becomes clear. This is not merely an educational exercise; it is an act of civic reawakening. A reminder that democracy, to endure, must be continuously reinvented—spoken anew, practiced anew, and, above all, believed in again.

Adapted from a story by journalist Frederico Figueiredo, Correio dos Açores-Natalino Viveiros-director

Translated into English as a community outreach program by the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute (PBBI) and the Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures Department (MCLL), in collaboration with Bruma Publication and ADMA (Azores-Diaspora Media Alliance) at California State University, Fresno. PBBI thanks Luso Financial for sponsoring NOVIDADES.