The main objective was the exchange about and the promotion of youth co-leadership. Both partners organisations have been working with it know organisations, who actively use youth co-leadership and youth participation. But SBS as well as UF felt, that there was a need to broaden the view nationally and internationally in order to do actually reach the state of being and ambassador for youth co-leadership. Partner organisations and their youth who were visited during the study visits already felt empowered and connected through their possibility to show what they do and how they do it. The exchange, the visits and the white paper did not only help the members of the consortium to broaden their view on Youth Participation and Co-Leadership, but also inspired their close partners in their individual missions to empower young Europeans. The white paper is meant as a starting point of a larger network of exchange of knowledge and experiences in enabling young people through participation. The outputs of this project alone are by no means meant to give a complete picture of initiatives and methods on co-leadership but merely provide a starting point, based on which the consortium can further drive the exchange of know-how.
Working with young people in uncertain times with constantly changing perceptions of the world around isn't always easy, but very necessary. Often youth workers struggle to understand their target group’s reality and to connect with them. Both partners agreed that there are best practice examples are out there on how to include young people in porcesses which which should be highlighted and spread as examples. Both partners in this project have been experimenting with youth co-leadership on different levels. The goal of this partnership was to develop a deeper understanding of the methods already known to them and to learn new approaches through connecting to organisations working with youth co-leadership. Reflecting and presenting methods to others is the first step to reflect them. Searching for organisations working with youth co-leadership or youth participation was the next essential step to get an understanding about the variety of approaches. Both partners agreed on the need of including young people in processes and offer them co-leadership. And, that there is a need and the urge to promote methods and organization who are already active in the relevant field.