DWARS through Overijssel: Raalte

From Raalte, as a young person, 24 years old, I may tell what makes the municipality of Raalte so nice for young people. I have been living in Heino (Raalte municipality) for a year and a half now, so I think I can give a good picture of this beautiful municipality. Raalte consists of nine cores, namely Raalte, Heino, Heeten, Luttenberg, Mariënheem, Broekland, Nieuw Heeten, Laag Zuthem and Lierderholthuis.

GroenLinks Raalte is represented by 1 seat in the municipal council. What makes Raalte unique in Overijssel is that we are the only municipality to have a GroenLinks mayor, namely Martijn Dadema. We are committed to young people by, for example, advocating for enough social housing. So that young people stay in the municipality and do not move to Zwolle/Deventer. We also tried to find a majority in the municipal council for a Youth Council.

Raalte has 37,000 inhabitants, more than a quarter of whom are 25 years old or younger. At youth centre TraXX, under-21s can go after school to play pool, table football, darts or gaming. As an MBO student, you can go to school at Landstede MBO. But in terms of travel time, Zwolle or Deventer can be reached quickly. From Heino you can get to Zwolle by train within eight minutes and from Raalte within fifteen minutes.

Otherwise, there are fun festivals for young people throughout the year, such as Stöppelhaene, the Pompdagen, Ribs & Blues, Luttenbergs Feest, Broekrock and, of course, Carnival.

As GroenLinks Raalte, we welcome what there is to do for young people in the municipality, although we hope that a youth council will still be started in the future.

Chris Haan

Board member Campaign & Digital Media

GroenLinks Raalte

C.haan@groenlinksraalte.nl