The Baltic Youth Exchange “Balticipation” invites young people from around the Baltic Sea to an intercultural exchange and to discuss and work on youth participation in Europe and the Baltic Sea Region. At the same time, we would like to work with and introduce different participation tools, in order to strengthen the participant´s ability to get (more) involved. In cooperation with our member organization the Kreisjugendring Herzogtum Lauenburg, we invite about 50 young people from all over the Baltic region to Haus Rothfos in Mözen. The purpose of the project to learn more about youth participation in the participating countries as well as best practices for youth participation and providing young people with tools for youth participation. We believe that youth participation is an essential part in all European countries and should be strengthened further on local, regional, national and European level. Youth participation adds a new perspective and adds new information on political processes and should be included (more) in decision making processes. In addition it is important to involve young people in decisions that affect their future. In addition, intercultural exchange is a focus of the Baltic Youth Exchange. The Baltic Youth Exchange gives the participants the opportunity to discuss and work on youth participation, the situation regarding youth participation in their home countries regarding youth participation and their own projects and initiatives in this area. This should help to improve their knowledge about youth participation in the Baltic Sea Region and Europe. Furthermore the exchange should give the participants a chance to work and discuss different aspects of youth participation, also in a European context, and how they can use it in their community. This should promote active citizenship. This should lead to empowerment of the participants and support them in developing a sense of initiative and better awareness of political processes. Ultimately this is important to strengthen European democracy. Taking into account that the voter turnout in European elections among young people below 30 decreased steadily and was always below 50% since 1999 shows that youth participation is absolutely necessary to show young people that they are needed and can change democracies The Baltic Youth Exchange should also strengthen the international capacity of the participating organizations. By cooperating with different organizations from different countries we hope to support cultural diversity and tolerance which eventually will promote anti-racist thinking. Anti-radical thinking is further strengthened by different phases during the program where topics like discrimination and prejudices will be adressed which should help to prevent radicalization. The exchange also aims to promote a good networking of different youth organizations and other NGOs in the Baltic region and strengthen youth work in the Baltic region generally. The European Union Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region works as groundwork for our exchange. The Baltic Youth Exchange is carried out in English, giving the participants the opportunity to improve their language skills. This is also achieved by voice animation in the different languages during the country presentations that we encourage the participants to do. In previous exchanges we discovered that the participants enjoyed learning bits in other languages and that also broadens their horizon. Another purpose of the country presentations is to enhance intercultural awareness and we hope that participants will realize that there are a lot more things in Europe that unite us than things that set us apart. Ultimately the project tackles the 3 main aspects of the new EU Youth Strategy: Engage, Connect, Empower