Participation, Engagement and Impact Lab for Multicultural Youth

Discover how to boost young people’s participation and strengthen the impact of youth civic initiatives by making them more inclusive, visible, and closely connected to their communities!

This is designed for: 

It is intended for organisations that work with multicultural youth or wish to strengthen diversity and inclusion within their activities and engage a broader range of young participants. Participants must be 18 years old or older.

The Training course brings together youth workers, young volunteers, and active young people involved in youth organisations and community initiatives.

Participants must be 18 years old or older.

This training supports youth organizations and young people in creating more accessible opportunities for participation and in strengthening young people’s voices in civic action. Participants will share ideas, network, and gain practical tools to develop their work with young people.

The course explores how to increase the societal impact of youth civic initiatives, from engaging diverse participants and building dialogue within communities to strengthening outreach and advocacy towards the wider public and decision-makers.

The training course will use a variety of non-formal education methods throughout the training and encourage active participation, including sharing experiences, asking questions, and engaging fully in all sessions.

We encourage each organisation to participate with two representatives, ideally a staff member together with a young volunteer or an active young participant. This participation model supports shared learning, meaningful youth involvement, and the transfer of knowledge and practices into the organisations’ everyday work after the workshop. NOTE: Each applicant must fill out their own application form, where they write that they apply together. 

Main Themes of the Training Course:

Strengthening engagement of young people in civic participation

Exploring how to involve diverse groups of young people, including those with migrant backgrounds

Ensuring activities are inclusive, accessible and welcoming

Identifying ways to sustain motivation and long-term engagement

Building meaningful dialogue and collaboration

Elements for strengthening dialogue between young people, communities and stakeholders

Exploring how youth organisations can work through networks and partnerships

Increasing visibility and societal influence through advocacy

Developing approaches to make youth-led initiatives more visible

Strengthening advocacy towards the wider public and decision-makers

Learning objectives:

By participating in this training course, you will:

Strengthen your capacity to engage and retain young people in civic participation, with a particular focus on inclusive and meaningful involvement of diverse groups, including young people with migrant backgrounds

Gain a deeper understanding of meaningful dialogue and collaboration, and learn the importance of the networks and partnerships to strengthen the impact of youth initiatives.

Strengthen advocacy competences to increase the visibility and societal impact of youth-led initiatives, and explore ways to influence wider audiences, public debate, and decision-making processes.

Understand the possibilities that Erasmus+ and Europan Solidary Corps has to offer for youth civic engagement and participation.

Gain a platform to share good practices and access networking opportunities.

Training format:

Online preparatory meeting, (28th October, at 14.00 - 15.30 CET)

Residential training, 9th - 13th November 2026

Practicalities:

We will stay and work at the Youth centre Ankkapurha in Kouvola, southeastern Finland, about 140 km from Helsinki. The venue is around 1.5–2 hours from Helsinki city centre and about 2 hours from the airport.

A shared bus transfer will be organised from Helsinki city centre to the venue on arrival, with a stop at Helsinki Airport, as well as a return transfer after the training. Participants may join the shared transfer or arrive independently.

The training course starts on 9 November (arrival day), with participants expected to arrive before dinner at 19:00. Departure is on 13 November after breakfast. Selected participants will receive an info pack with detailed information on travel, accommodation, and the programme.

Safety, accessibility and sustainability

In this event, we follow the principles of a safe space. We strive to ensure that everyone is met as their own self and that no one has to fear discrimination or harassment. We expect you to respect the same principle.

Our activities are accessible to people with different abilities. If you need an accessible room, an accessible transport, to bring a personal assistant with you or other kind of support, we will provide it for you. Please tell us about your individual needs beforehand, so we can support you in your participation.

We take sustainability in consideration wherever we can. Since most of the participants have to fly over the sea to Finland, we encourage you to travel on land within Finland. We also encourage you to contact your own National Agency to find out how they support low emission travelling to activities abroad.

We provide plant-based meals, or use locally grown and produced foods, as much as possible. We also respect the diets and food allergies of all participants.