From the Ground Up – Building youth participation in local communities

This training course offers youth workers and youth leaders the opportunity to deepen their understanding of youth participation in democratic decision-making and to strengthen their capacity to design and facilitate meaningful participation processes for and with young people. Through non-formal education and experiential learning approaches, participants will explore key concepts related to youth participation, including the principles of participation, the ladder of participation, power dynamics, digital and virtual youth spaces, and the role of rights in participatory practice, while gaining insight into practical tools and methods that promote youth engagement across local, national and European levels.

The course places strong emphasis on the role of youth workers as enablers of youth participation in their local communities. Participants will examine how non-formal education activities can be designed and facilitated in an engaging and empowering way, with particular attention to building young people's agency, encouraging civic engagement, supporting youth organisations in navigating decision-making spaces, and connecting participatory competences to real-life youth work contexts. By combining theoretical input with structured reflection and peer exchange, the training supports participants in critically analysing the participatory realities of their home countries, mapping local practices, and identifying where youth work can make a difference.

Going beyond theory, the training course is highly participatory and practice-oriented. Participants will engage in interactive workshops, small-group design sessions, intercultural exchange, and hands-on activities - including a simulation of cooperation between youth organisations and local authorities, and a self-organised exploration of local realities. Special focus will be placed on developing concrete local follow-up activities and personal and professional commitment plans that integrate participatory approaches into everyday youth work practice. Participants will also learn how Erasmus+ and Youthpass connect to and support youth participation. By the end of the course, participants will have strengthened their facilitation competences, developed practical activity concepts, and gained tools and strategies to foster youth participation, civic engagement, and young people's meaningful involvement in shaping the decisions and spaces that affect their lives.

The training course is developed in line with Youth Goal 9: Space and Participation for All, and contributes to:

Ensuring young people can adequately influence all areas of society and all parts of the decision-making processes, from agenda setting to implementation, monitoring and evaluation through youth-friendly and accessible mechanisms and structures, ensuring that policies respond to the needs of young people.

Ensuring equal access to everyday decision making for all young people from different backgrounds

The training course is grounded in non-formal education principles and experiential learning approaches. The programme is designed to equip participants with the knowledge, skills, and practical tools needed to understand youth participation in democratic decision-making, apply its core principles in youth work contexts, and design and facilitate participatory activities for and with young people in their local communities.

The initial phase of the training focuses on building a safe and supportive learning environment, fostering trust among participants, and creating a strong sense of group cohesion. During the first days, participants will engage in teambuilding activities that explore similarities and differences, shared expectations, and group dynamics. They will be introduced to the foundations of non-formal education and youth participation, gaining insight into local practices and realities of participating countries. This phase also includes an introduction to the Erasmus+ and Youthpass frameworks as tools for recognition and professional development, and an exploration of how these programmes connect to and support youth participation in practice.

As the training progresses, participants will deepen their understanding of core concepts in youth participation, including the principles of participation, the ladder of participation, power dynamics, rights-based approaches, and the evolving landscape of digital and virtual youth participation. Through practical workshops and reflective exercises, they will strengthen their facilitation competences and explore non-formal education as a tool for empowering youth participation in local communities. Particular attention is given to building young people's agency, supporting youth organisations in navigating decision-making spaces, and integrating participatory approaches into everyday youth work practice.

In the later stages of the programme, participants will focus on applying their learning through local-level activity design and experiential learning cycles. Working in teams, they will develop concrete educational activities rooted in youth participation principles and adapted to their local contexts. Through a simulation of cooperation between youth organisations and local authorities, peer feedback, and structured reflection, 

they will refine their activity concepts and personal commitment plans for follow-up action at home. The training concludes with a Youthpass ceremony, celebrating each participant's individual learning journey and recognising their competence development throughout the course.