Young people often face significant challenges in finding mobility opportunities to express their creativity, engage in international collaborations, and address pressing sociopolitical and environmental issues through artistic means. As an association, we recognize the need to continuously expand our international network to provide these young individuals with spaces to develop their artistic voices, exchange ideas, and work collectively towards meaningful social change. Our association’s core intent has always been to create opportunities for young artists to implement their ideas and expertise through various artistic formats, focusing on the exploration of relevant contemporary concerns, such as socio-political topics, and fostering diversity-inclusive open democratic societies To sustain this vision, we aim for long-term development of our international exchange programs, ensuring that collaborative creation connected to socio-political issues remains a fundamental characteristic of our work. Our local activities such as the iJuLa-project (2020 to 24) play a crucial role in this framework, connecting local communities with international exchange. Our strength lies in the high-quality implementation of international encounters, where participants can engage in transnational cooperation, develop their ideas, and articulate their perspectives through artistic expression. We believe that in an era marked by new crises that challenge the future of young people, providing such opportunities is essential in fostering active European citizenship, democratic societies and creative empowerment. A long-term objective of our association is to establish new partnerships, particularly with countries where we have lost previous network partners, as well as with Erasmus+ program countries where we had not yet developed strong connections. This budget year included first preparatory steps in that direction. We wanted to continue and expand the quality development processes for international artistic and cultural youth work that were initiated in the OASES project. Drawing from the experiences of our local initiative “iJuLa”, where young people engaged intensively with topics such as queerness, intersectionality, awareness, and safer spaces, we sought to extend these principles into our international activities. Another crucial aspect was enhancing the participation of young people in decision-making processes, ensuring that they play an active role in shaping the themes and core ideas of artistic exchanges. Furthermore, we aimed to explore and refine the political, cultural, and social orientations of our projects to align them more effectively with our overarching mission. To achieve these objectives, we committed to hosting 2+ multilateral youth exchanges per year, and planned to coordinate at least one abroad. With a solid foundation for regular international exchange work, we sought to shift resources from formal administrative processes toward the further development of content and quality standards. This included continuing the initiatives set in motion by the OASES project, particularly in supporting long-standing partners in countries where civil society organisations face significant barriers to securing Erasmus+ funding. Above all, we wanted to provide young people from Cologne and across Europe with opportunities to participate in intensive multilateral youth exchanges, where they could engage in peer-education, empowerment, and artistic expression on sociopolitical issues that affect them. These experiences aimed to support them in articulating their wishes, fears, and demands through artistic means. Due to past challenges within our network, we recognized the importance of rebuilding and strengthening our international partnerships. The OASES project (2020-1-DE04-KA227-YOU-020841) was a pivotal step in this direction. Through OASES, we established quality criteria, guidelines, and tools for international youth encounters with artistic approaches. Furthermore, initiatives such as “Relaunch: Cultural Youth Work for Inclusion” (2019-3-LT02-KA105-006651), contributed to the re-establishment of the ROOTS & ROUTES International Association (RRIA) as an association under German law; which had become necessary after former Dutch network member Stichting ROOTS & ROUTES Nederland, who had hosted the RRIA headquarters in their offices, had disbanded in 2019/20. Lastly, we sought to strengthen our internal network by bringing together staff, volunteers, and freelance professionals from our partner organisations to exchange knowledge, develop joint visions, and engage in collaborative team-building efforts. These efforts were designed not only to create new opportunities for young people but also to enhance the effectiveness and sustainability of our work in artistic mobility and cultural youth engagement.