Empowering Youth Participation: The Up 2 You(th)! Local Workshop

Reaching the objectives of the 'Up 2 You(th)!' initiative, we realised the role of interactive, grassroots engagements in supporting youth participation in local communities. We designed and conducted a structured series of Local Workshops across communities in Slovakia, North Macedonia, and Armenia. These Local Workshops, integral to our hands-on approach, were undertaken to address the needs previously identified through Up 2 You(th)! Desk research, comprehensive Surveys engaging over 800 youths, and Focus Group discussions that gathered more than 140 young people from partner communities.

Purpose and Design of the Workshops

Project partners organised these Local Workshops, ensuring they reflected the concrete needs expressed by the young people in earlier phases of the 'Up 2 You(th)!' initiative. 

Serving as a kind of "pilot activities", Local Workshops were tailored to address relevant topics and areas identified as necessary by the youth themselves. This approach ensured that each session was not just informational but also contextually relevant, fostering an environment of genuine learning and growth.

Inclusive Participation and Collaboration

Each partner organisation conducted 4-7 Local Workshops within their communities, directly engaging 353 young individuals, among which 134 were from disadvantaged backgrounds. This inclusive standpoint strengthened the initiative's commitment to enhance the participation of less active young people from less privileged environments. 

The local stakeholders and associated partners contributed to Local Workshops in various ways. They either offered their premisses, involved the young people from their community or provided professional trainers for the workshop sessions.

Outcomes and Knowledge Sharing

The conclusions of these workshops are gathered in brief Reports describing the methodologies applied so the "pilot-tested" workshops can be replicated in other communities. Reports also present evaluations of the learning progress of their participants and recommendations for the local authorities on how successful such activities were from the perspective of young people. 

Reports are gathered in .PDF format in the following space. Click

The Project is co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union. The European Commission's support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. 2020-2-SK02-KA205-002569