Funding programme

Erasmus+ is the EU funding programme for education, training, youth and sport for the period 2021-2027.

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Call overview

This action supports organisations and groups of young people to carry out Youth Participation Activities, to encourage, foster and facilitate young people’s participation in Europe’s democratic life.

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Call details

Erasmus+ supports youth-driven local, national and transnational participation projects run by informal groups of young people and/or youth organisations 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 (providing 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, fake news 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 under this topic

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.

Youth Participation Activities can be either transnational (implemented in one or more participating countries and involving partners 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.

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.

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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.

• National Youth participation projects: minimum one participating organisation must be involved.  
• Transnational 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.

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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.