In Norway and in Portugal we have youth councils in both municipalities and counties. It varies how well-functioning they are. Also, both countries have a lot of rural areas, where de-population is an increasing challenge. Young people are moving away from the rural areas to get an education, and they don't return when they graduate. How to make rural areas attractive to young people, and how to involve young people in local development and local policy making is a crucial factor to turn this development. We feel the need to equip our organisations and involved youth workers with up-to-date (efficient and effective) strategies to counter this. Our vision for carrying out this project is to provide youth workers with some tools to enable young people to see themselves as equal and important participants in our democratic societies and to give young people a better democratic understanding. We wish to strengthen youth participation in the partner organisations and the partner countries, and to have a better understanding of the importance of values and non formal learning methods in youth work. There are five objectives in this project: 1. To strengthen our knowledge about and competence in non-formal learning methods 2. To learn from each other about youth work and youth involvement in rural and urban areas 3. To focus on values in youth work - to be aware of our own values in our meeting with different (young) people, and to be able to adress the issue of values in our work with young people 4. To share experiences on structural youth participation at a local and regional level 5. To increase the visibility and recognition of our both organisations as contributing stakeholders in youth work and in the youthfield in general, this at local and regional level, but also with national dimension.