EuropEdges – Democratisation and youth empowerment in the Edges of Europe

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or EACEA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

Project context

The EU young generation is particularly affected by the restrictions and limitations of the Covid-19 pandemic and in the recent day by the fear of a conflict inside the EU, therefore strengthening the importance of building a generation of youth aware of their role and potential in reshaping European society.

About the project

EuropEdges aims at fostering youth engagement and enabling them to play a key role in their community. The project creates an international network of youth people where they can meet, discuss and participate in European democratic life cultivating a European dimension of the partner associations. EuropEdges designs a framework for young people that uses human-centred design principles, a solution-based approach to solving problems based on an iterative process of empathising, redefining, prototyping, and testing ideas using hands-on methods. The project includes blended learning training for young done on-site and online to engage with their peers from abroad, learn from and inspire each other. The knowledge gained during the training is quickly implemented when participants, connected by mutual interest, work on their proposals for transnational youth initiatives. The best proposals are implemented in the following months with the support of experienced youth workers who monitor and evaluate the learning process. The training curriculum will be a platform to empower young people to speak up for themselves through encounters with youth policy experts and the “Youth voice” conference. They learn how to lobby for the youth on the local and European levels. It uses human-centred design principles, a solution-based approach to solving problems based on an iterative process of empathising, redefining, prototyping, and testing ideas using hands-on methods.

The platform for disseminating the project results is a youth e-magazine, “Edges”, written and edited by the participants. The project envisages boosting the participation of young people in democratic processes at the local and European level and improving the capacity of the youth sector to internationalise their activities, especially in remote areas and including youth with fewer opportunities.

Our role

Ikaros Foundation for Active Youth is mainly responsible for developing the training curriculum for the international training of the youth workers who will further support the young people in implementing community-based project ideas. The training curriculum is available here.

Also, Ikaros Foundation for Active Youth is being responsible for coordinating the international youth initiatives and for organizing the “Youth voice” conference.

For more information please access the project’s website here


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