According to Commissioner Tibor Navracsics, Why Europe matters – Youth Speak Up, Brussels, 21 March 2018 “We need to ensure we hear young people’s voices from every corner of our Union. We have built the project on what we want to achieve with the current EU Youth Strategy, and to further strengthen the link between the EU and young people through inclusive and digital tools for dialogue. We have better focused our priorities and actions and better connected young people across Europe and beyond." This project proposal has been developed together with the BIID Youth Association and our European partners in response to the growing demand from local youth organisations and youth workers to support young people from disadvantaged backgrounds (rural, NEET, Roma, minorities, unemployed, refugees, migrants or all of these) to become active citizens in their local and European communities and to involve them in shaping their own lives and futures. We therefore initiated local research in our local communities and encouraged our partners to do the same through an online survey of young people, focus group discussions with colleagues and formal community events with youth workers, youth leaders, social workers, teachers and local decision-makers. In total, nearly 3,000 young people aged between 18 and 29 participated in our online survey. On behalf of our consortium, 30 youth workers and volunteers participated in our focus group meetings, and all partners organised at least 1 or 2 community events, and nearly 5000 youth workers, youth leaders, social workers, teachers and local decision-makers shared their views and needs with us to help us formulate the project's objectives and content. The results of the local research were uploaded to our joint Dropbox and evaluated by our partnership. Our summary is very brief: 20% of young people no longer believe in the democratic process and do not believe that their voice is heard by politicians. 40% of young people would like to volunteer locally or in Europe and would like to do something good for their community. 30% of youth workers have never heard of the Commission's European Youth Strategy. 70% of youth workers would like to translate the youth objectives of the new European Youth Strategy into local youth work practice, based on the needs of their target groups. 90% of youth organisations consider it essential to familiarise themselves with the European Youth Strategy and to develop their capacities in order to support their target groups in achieving the youth objectives. Based on the results, we defined the overall objective of the project, such as to gain a deeper understanding of the new European Youth Strategy as the main direction for youth work between 2019 and 2027 at local and European level. Experienced youth workers, trainers and project leaders will share and already shared their views, experiences and practices on the strategy, its objectives and youth goals. Devise tools and projects based on the needs of their target groups along the lines of the Strategy. Objectives of the project: To train 40 youth workers and youth leaders working with disadvantaged youth groups to better understand the objectives of the new European Youth Strategy "Involving, Connecting and Empowering Young People" and to better understand the main objectives of the Strategy such as: 1. The EU and young people; 2. Gender equality; 3. Inclusive societies; 4. Information and constructive dialogue; 5. Mental health and well-being; 6. Development of young people in rural areas; 7. Quality employment for all; 8. Quality learning; 9. Space and participation for all; 10. Sustainable green Europe; 11. Youth organisations and European programmes. Developing the youth work capacity of the 10 youth organisations that are members of our consortium, in order to improve the quality of their youth work by exchanging experiences and good practices on local and international youth activities, based on the objectives and youth goals of the strategy, and by using innovative and creative non-formal learning methods to meet the needs of young people with fewer opportunities, and then discovering and identifying challenges. We have produced an online toolkit of possible tools and projects to put the strategy into practice, based on the needs of disadvantaged young people, such as rural youth, NEETs, Roma, minorities, unemployed, refugees and migrants, or a mix of these.