The project “Eco-Volunteering 4 Rural Communities” was a youth exchange that focused on 2 main topics: rural development and eco-volunteering, targeting directly young people who come from rural areas. After all, one of the European Youth Goals for the period 2019–2027 is moving rural youth forward and this project was focused towards this goal. Young people from rural areas and facing geographical obstacles were included in the project, learned more about rural development and why it is important to improve rural life. At the same time they learned about active youth participation through Eco-volunteering. The youngsters also had the chance to explore and develop green skills, understanding the importance of adopting more sustainable practices and to see how important environmental protection is in those rural areas. The program of the project was designed to develop the activities in a local rural area (in this case, the town of Struga, in North Macedonia) and along with this improvement of the social life, to provide them an educational experience. The importance and role of young people in the development of rural communities is significant, because it serves as a good example for future generations in rural areas, gives hope and motivates these communities in general, as well as making the development of this sector more sustainable and effective. Young people contribute to bringing improvements to infrastructure facilities and promoting empowerment opportunities among the rural youth to meet better living opportunities. They also contribute to the rise and development of social life in rural areas, making them more attractive to live in. And in the era of globalization, where people migrate from rural to urban areas daily, we face cities who can't cope with the growth. The objectives of the project were: - to engage rural youth in a project about rural development, enriching their knowledge in the field and helping them understanding how they can achieve rural development in their local communities; - to exchange innovative and inspiring best practices from different countries, related to youth entrepreneurship, rural-urban linkages, communication and digitization in rural areas; - to implement practical local Eco-volunteering actions in the hosting town of Struga (cleaning action, planting trees action, building bird houses) and to acquire personal and professional competences and skills; - to design and implement a social media campaign to raise awareness on rural development, Eco-volunteering as a tool for community development in rural areas; - to promote Cultural diversity and intercultural understanding between youngsters coming from different social, cultural and religious backgrounds; - to raise visibility to the Erasmus Plus programme and its opportunities.