The workshop on ‘Youth for Democracy’ was designed to (re)motivate active participation and autonomy of young people by informing them how and to which decision-making bodies they can participate. A broad range of participants from all over Europe indeed came together to discuss issues around youth participation.

The workshop kicked off with some nice icebreakers which allowed the participants to get to know each other. Then the facilitators started collecting ideas on the basis for youth democracy and participation. The brainstorming in the group already generated some relevant findings: While some decisive factors for youth participation can be found on a personal level, most relevant basics are structural and societal. Whether or not a young person can democratically participate hugely depends on the context in which someone lives. In a next exchange, the workshop participants were asked to give examples for youth participation from their respective local contexts and then also to describe factors, which enable youth participation and those which are rather obstacles to youth participation. The examples given were very diverse and the experiences obviously differed. However, it became clear, that despite all differences young people do face some similar problems and obstacles all around Europe. There are certain generational issues and therefore the workshop participants stressed the need for exchange and networking among young people to mutually learn and overcome those obstacles.

After a break, Theodoros Sidiropoulos, a young municipal representative from Thessaloniki joined the workshop to talk about his experiences as active politician and representative of young age. The workshop participants actively engaged in a Q+A session with the young politician and thereby further exchanged views and experiences.

At the end of the workshop, the group drafted three maps, representing three different levels, the local, the nation and the European one, and collected by exchanging in a world-café format examples for youth participation on each of those levels. Thereby, the workshop generated an inspiring European map of democracy collectives in which young people can be involved.