Standing up for their own future, expressing their opinions and helping to shape society – that is what many young people want. But all too often they feel disconnected from the places and structures where decisions are made. To change this, the International Association for Education and Exchange (IBB e.V.) has joined forces with eight other partner organisations from the Generation Europe – The Academy network. Thirty-four other network organisations are involved as associated partners.
The European cooperation partnership Youth Voices Rising: Empowering Through Local and EU Advocacy is developing and testing practical methods to empower young people to represent their interests effectively – regardless of their background, their parents’ income and their previous success in the formal education system. The participating youth organisations come from Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Hungary. After the first five months of purely digital collaboration, youth work professionals from the nine partner organisations have now met for their first international project meeting at Jugendakademie Walberberg.
From Plan to Action: Results from Walberberg
At the first face-to-face meeting, the atmosphere was highly motivated and focused. The participants used the time together to plan the next steps in the central work packages, laying a solid foundation for the next two years.
Listening as a First Step: Needs Analysis
In order to develop tailored offers and solutions, the project partners need to have a clear understanding of the current situation: What do young people and youth work professionals need in order to successfully advocate for their interests? In the ‘Research and Needs Analysis’ work package, which is coordinated by EJBW (Weimar, Germany), the participants therefore completed questionnaires. The project consortium is now using these to identify the specific needs of young people, youth work professionals and organisations. To make the survey as accessible as possible, the online questionnaires are available in all languages of the project partners.
Tools for Change: Training Design
A particular goal of the project is to incorporate as many different perspectives as possible. Young people who have had less access to political participation in the past should also be empowered to raise their voices. To achieve this, the partner organisations are jointly developing training programmes that qualify young people and professionals. This will create and strengthen Europe-wide networks in which young people can learn from each other, exchange experiences and develop strategies together. The development of the training designs is being coordinated by the Subjective Values Foundation from Budapest, Hungary.
The training courses, which are scheduled to take place between January and autumn 2026, will teach very specific skills: plans include a multiplier training course for local lobbying, an international advocacy training course for young people who want to campaign for their interests in a European context, and local lobbying training courses in all participating countries. Social media advocacy training courses will also teach the tools of digital communication.
Qualität sichern, Wirkung entfalten
Ein anspruchsvolles Projekt wie dieses braucht eine gute Qualitätskontrolle. Darum haben die Partnerorganisationen auf dem Treffen in der Jugendakademie Walberberg auch intensiv darüber diskutiert, wie sie eine wirksame Qualitätssicherung umsetzen können, ohne die Organisationen mit zu viel Bürokratie zu belasten. Unter Federführung der katalanischen Parternorganisation Irenia – Jocs de Pau entsteht ein Quality Control Manual für das Konsortium, das den Rahmen für die kommenden Prozesse bilden wird.
Spreading the Message: Joint Public Relations
To ensure that the methods developed reach as many people as possible, a well-thought-out communication strategy is needed. Coordinated by IBB e.V., a comprehensive social media and dissemination strategy has been developed for the consortium. All partner organisations reaffirmed their commitment to follow the jointly developed strategy for disseminating the project results and to raise awareness of the important issues addressed by Youth Voices Rising in their countries.
A Strong Foundation
The meeting in Walberberg showed that even though the project is complex and demanding, personal encounters and intensive work have created excellent structures for successful cooperation. Further information about the cooperation partnership is available on the project website youth-voices.eu. There, experiences are documented, insights are shared and, over time, the methods and training designs developed will be made available. After all, what is created within the framework of ‘Youth Voices Rising’ should be usable for the entire Community of Practice.
Die Kooperationspartnerschaft Youth Voices Rising wird kofinanziert von der Europäischen Union. Die geäußerten Ansichten und Meinungen entsprechen ausschließlich denen der Autor*innen und spiegeln nicht zwangsläufig die der Europäischen Union oder der Europäischen Exekutivagentur für Bildung und Kultur (EACEA) wider. Weder die Europäische Union noch die EACEA können dafür verantwortlich gemacht werden.