Funding programme

Erasmus+ is the EU’s funding programme for education, training, youth and sport.

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Call overview

This action supports activities outside formal education and training that encourage, foster and facilitate young people’s participation in Europe’s democratic life at local, regional, national and European level.

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Objectives

Erasmus+ supports youth-driven local, national, transnational and international participation projects encouraging youth participation in Europe's democratic life and following one or more of the following objectives:  

• provide young people with opportunities to engage and learn to participate in civic society by offering pathways of engagement for young people in their daily lives but also in democratic life, aiming for a meaningful civic, economic, social, cultural and political participation of young people from all backgrounds, with special focus on those with fewer opportunities);
• raise young people's awareness about European common values and fundamental rights and contribute to the European integration process, including through contribution to the achievement of one or more of the EU Youth Goals;
• develop young people’s digital competences and media literacy (in particular critical thinking and the ability to assess and work with information) with a view to increasing young people’s resilience to disinformation, misinformation and propaganda, as well as their capacity to participate in democratic life;
• bring together young people and decision makers at local, regional, national and transnational level and/or contribute to the EU Youth Dialogue.

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Activities to be funded

Youth Participation Activities are non-formal learning activities revolving around active participation of young people. Such activities aim to enable young people to experience exchanges, cooperation, cultural and civic action. Supported activities should help the participants strengthen their personal, social, citizenship and digital competences and become active European citizens.

This Action supports the use of alternative, innovative, smart and digital forms of youth participation, including the extension of youth participation into a variety of sectors and spaces (healthcare services, sports facilities etc., regardless of whether these are operated by the public or private sector), opening pathways to active participation for young people from all backgrounds.

Youth participation activities can be used to conduct dialogues and discussions between young people and decision-makers to promote the active participation of young people in democratic life in Europe. As a concrete result, young people are able to make their voices heard (through the formulation of positions, proposals and recommendations), especially on how youth policies should be shaped and implemented in Europe. Youth participation activities can also take the form of civic action and youth activism, allowing young people to engage in various ways to raise awareness of issues that matter to them and impose change.

Youth participation activities can be either transnational (implemented in one or more participating countries and involving informal group(s) of young people and/or organisations from several participating countries) or national (implemented at local, regional or national level and involving informal group(s) of young people and/or organisations from a single participating country). National Youth participation activities are particularly suited to testing ideas at the local level and as a tool for following-up previous initiatives to help upscale and further develop successful ideas. All Youth participation activities, regardless of the level at which they are implemented, need to have a demonstrated European dimension and/or added value and each individual supported activity must clearly contribute to reaching one or more of the Action’s objectives listed above.

Supported activities can take the form of (or a combination of): workshops, debates, role-plays, simulations, use of digital tools (e.g., digital democracy tools), awareness raising campaigns, trainings, meetings and other forms of online or offline interaction between young people and decision-makers, consultations, information and/or cultural events etc.

Some examples of activities that could be implemented within a project are:  

• face-to-face or online workshops and/or meetings, seminars or other events/processes at local, regional, national or transnational level offering space for information, debate and active participation of young people on issues relevant to their daily lives as active European citizens, ideally including, leading to or following up on interactions with decision-makers and other stakeholders concerned by such issues;  
• consultations of young people identifying topics/issues of specific relevance to them (in local, regional, national or transnational context) and identifying their needs related to participation in addressing such topics/issues;  
• awareness-raising campaigns revolving around participation of young people in democratic life;  
• facilitation of access to open, safe and accessible virtual and/or physical spaces for young people, offering effective opportunities for learning to participate in democratic life and processes;  
• simulations of the functioning of democratic institutions and the roles of decision-makers within such institutions.

Wherever relevant, it is highly encouraged to integrate digital activity formats (e.g., webinars, hackathons, various e-participation tools etc.) and/or training regarding the use of digital democracy tools in activities to be implemented within a Youth participation activities project.

Read more in the Programme Guide.

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Eligibility

A participating organisation can be:

• a non-profit organisation, association, NGO; European Youth NGO; a public body at local, regional, national level; a social enterprise; a profit-making body active in Corporate Social Responsibility;
• an informal group of young people

established in an EU Member State or third country associated to the Programme or a third country not associated to the Programme neighbouring the EU.

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Consortium

• National Youth participation projects: minimum one participating organisation must be involved.  
• Transnational and international Youth participation projects: minimum two participating organisations from different countries must be involved.  

Young people aged between 13 and 30 resident in the country of the participating organisations and decision-makers relevant to the topics addressed by the project.

Read more in the Programme Guide.

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Budget

Maximum grant awarded per project for Youth participation activities: 60.000 EUR

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Project duration

From 3 to 24 months.