Discovering how public data disclosure by public authorities and institutions works and what are the basic elements of a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request
Collaborating and learning how to gather the best elements and practices to achieve a common goal
AGE OF PARTICIPANTS
15 years old
METHODS
Brainstorming, collective discussion, teamwork
EQUIPEMENT
Guidelines for youth worker (with indications for creating a FOIA request), paper sheet with the chart, paperboard, markers, pens, A4 papers
For an immersive experience of this topic, check out our Escape Game!
Instructions
Make a collective brainstorming around the concept of ’access to information’: write it in the centre of a paperboard and ask participants to express all the ideas, words, and characteristics connected to it, in their opinion (10 min)
Discuss with the whole group, starting from what has emerged, about what public data is, why it is important to ask for it to the public authorities and institutions and what is a FOIA request and its 5 general characteristics (‘See Materials’) (20 min)
Deciding on which area or field you want to request public data, such as environmental issues, public budget or spending, public contracting, public health, transport, and infrastructure, etc. and identify which kind of information you want to ask, for example:
For environmental issues: analysis of the level of water contamination / Amount of investment in securing the banks of the river / Amount of the public contract for cleaning the banks of the river and name of the awarded company, etc.
For public health: Total amount invested by the government in public health, and percentage of the total public budget it represents / Top 10 companies winning the most public health contracts (10 min)
Divide participants into smaller groups and ask them to search on the web the necessary information to write a consistent FOIA request including the 5 characteristics (10 min).
NB: Help participants to identify the competent public authority or institution that should have this information, taking into account if the information should be published at the national, local, or municipal level according to the different competencies.
Ask the groups to write a FOIA request taking into account the 5 general characteristics/elements (20-30 min)
Each group presents the FOIA request to the whole group (5 min each group), in particular stating: what information they requested, why they believe this information should be public, to which authority they would submit the request and why (10-25 min according to the number of groups). Take notes on the paper sheet with the chart, checking if the specific group reaches the 5 characteristics/elements (See ‘Materials’)
Open a collective discussion with all the participants about the FOIA requests presented by all the groups, trying to understand how the groups addressed (or not) the 5 characteristics/elements, which challenges they faced, and which goals they reached (30 min)
Some questions that may guide the final collective discussion:
What were the difficulties in deciding/choosing what information to request?
What were the difficulties in knowing whether the information the group wanted to ask about was considered public?
What were the difficulties in identifying the competent public authority and finding the right address?
What were the difficulties in writing the request? Which were the easiest parts?
Which were the FOIA requests that reached best their target according to the necessary characteristics?
POSSIBILE VARIATION
If the number of participants is small, they can implement the activity collectively in one big group
DIGITAL TOOLS
If you are working online use a video conferencing tool like Zoom, or any other platform that supports online meetings, but also breakout rooms.
Online collaborative whiteboard platforms like Miro or Canva can be used for the initial
brainstorming around the concept of “access to information”.
Use Google drive,Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive or any other cloud service for sharing documents for the tables in a digital way in any format (word, excel, ppt), which allows users to insert data, information, and develop the FIOA.
