The project ‘Im Dialog für meine Stadt’ has set itself the goal of making a sustainable contribution to democratic, non-formal educational processes for young people. Political-democratic education, which represents the social, ecological and political values of the EU, should not take place in the project context through mere theoretical mediation, but should be made possible through active democratic participation. In this way, we wanted to counteract the negative correlation between socio-economic status and real experiences of participation. In particular, the project did not restrict the concept of participation to institutional and formal participation formats, as these are rarely utilised by young people. The aim of the project was to recognise young people as equal subjects and democrats. A number of qualitative studies indicate that democratic education processes take place specifically through these experiences. The project thus familiarises young people with democratic structures through experiences of self-efficacy in their social space and motivates them to participate in shaping the future of society.