In 2024, more than half a million young people in Flanders and Brussels were allowed to vote for the first time. Belgium-wide there were 881.657 first-time-voters – almost 10% of the voting population. They had to vote for five different elections – six if you live in the District of Antwerp. Only it was not that straightforward: 16 and 17-year-olds could only vote for the European elections, not for the federal, nor the regional elections taking place the same day. For these 16 and 17-year-olds the attendance was not mandatory at first, but they had to register three months in advance in order to receive voting rights. In July 2024 this was turned around by the constitutional court: 16 and 17-y-o did not have to register anymore. Only to hear in March 2024, weeks before the election that attendance was mandatory after all. Not only the 16-17-y-o had a rollercoaster. 18+ youngsters had compulsory attendance in June for the European, federal and regional, but in October their attendance were no longer mandatory - except this was only the case for Flanders, but not Brussels and Wallonia. This combined with the findings that 57.6% of youngsters feel that politicians talk too much, but act too little and that political interest is scored on average 5 out of 10 (JOP monitor 2024), sadly made for a fruitful base for our project. A complex situation in flux, combined with little trust in politics does not make a stimulating environment to participate in elections for the first time. A lot of ideas were starting to circle early on about how this new constituency could be a gamechanger in the elections. But very little organisations or policy makers were asking youngsters directly how they wanted to be involved. And even less allowed for youngsters to take the wheel in a project to inform and connect their peers. Thus ‘t Is aan u! set out to achieve four goals: (1) make sure young people vote as informedly as possible, (2) that they know what qualitative information is about elections and know where to find it, (3) that this experience of voting and citizenship is a positive one and (4) that young people realize that their voice really does matter. We wanted to do this by putting first-time-voters in the driver’s seat and supporting them to identify the needs of their peers and how we as a group could fill those needs. From the start there was special attention towards including children and youngsters in socially vulnerable situations, so we decided to pay attention to outreaching wherever possible. The project aimed to create lasting change by building a strong network of engaged young people who continue to participate in political processes beyond the project's duration. The skills and knowledge gained through the project were intended to empower young people to remain active citizens and to inspire others to get involved.