GivEUvoice: Materializing Youth Voices Across European Spaces

ongoing

The GivEUspace project aims to empower young people living in peri-urban, semi-rural, and rural areas across Europe by creating youth spaces that amplify their voices in collaboration with local municipalities. Inspired by President-elect Ursula von der Leyen's call for revitalizing European democracy, the project seeks to address the disconnect young people in peripheral regions often feel from European and local policies, compared to urban centers, leading many young people to migrate to cities. To combat this trend, GivEUspace aims to establish physical and digital youth spaces in peripheral areas, fostering political engagement, cultural development, and sustainability initiatives. By partnering with local municipalities and youth organizations that share EU values, the project aims to integrate European principles into local youth development efforts. Grounded in the belief that youth participation is essential for vibrant democracies, the project aligns with EU strategies to empower young citizens and bridge the core-periphery divide. The project begins with online training sessions on European citizenship, followed by local consultation meetings across participating countries. These meetings bring together young individuals from local areas, in partnership with local municipalities to gather inputs for the development of a European Youth Network. The second year focuses on exploring the political, cultural, and cooperative dimensions of physical youth spaces for democratic engagement that will be in a roadmap, along with policy recommendations addressing on institutional support for youth initiatives. The year concludes with local and European conferences aimed at driving social change in youth-led initiatives and fostering cooperation with local municipalities. Using a bottom-up approach, the project ensures that youth engagement remains central, starting from grassroots initiatives and expanding into a broader European framework.