Youth Participation

Young people contribute to European cohesion and play a crucial role in shaping European societies.

That is why youth and young adults are the focus of our work. As participants, trainers and multipliers, they shape our programmes. Our offers are oriented around topics and questions that are most important to them.

For us, promoting youth participation means that:

• Young participants in our programmes are equipped with the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes they need to positively shape the world around them.
• In our peer-to-peer education programmes, we provide environments for young people to learn, grow and take responsibility in a variety of roles.
• We support Europe’s young civil society by providing platforms for young people to meet and exchange, gain and share knowledge and personally develop.
• We open up opportunities for young people to learn more about active participation in society. We promote the (self-)understanding of young people as change-makers.
• We draw attention to the interests, issues and challenges of European youth by promoting critical, constructive debates on societal issues among young people.
• We create spaces for empowering young people from underrepresented and marginalised groups and communities.
• We bring young people from Europe together with decision-makers, media-makers and experts to make their voices heard.

We reach out to young people from all over Europe. By young people, we include people aged between 14 and 29, regardless of nationality, race, religion, ethnicity, gender or sexuality, socio-economic or educational background, including people with disabilities, from LGBTIQ+ communities, with refugee and migration histories, Jews, Sinti and Roma, Muslims, and BIPoC (Black, Indigenous, People of Colour).

To keep the promise of youth participation, we maintain an open and close dialogue with young people all over Europe. The youth bodies of our various networks are continuously involved so that their perspectives and feedback are incorporated into our offers, educational approaches and formats.