The Media4YOUth project was designed with a clear mission: to equip young people from Buzau and the surrounding areas with the knowledge, skills, and mindset needed to navigate today’s complex information landscape and to become active, engaged citizens in their communities and beyond. From the start, we wanted to address two pressing realities: the overwhelming flow of information – much of it misleading or false – and the low level of youth engagement in civic life. We built the project around three main objectives: (O1) to develop the media literacy competences of 32 high school students from Buzau and 5 young youth workers over a 16-month period, giving them the tools to critically analyse news and media content, distinguish fact from disinformation, and understand the broader role of journalism and civic participation; (O2) to encourage and strengthen the democratic participation of these young people by involving them in non-formal activities, campaigns, and local initiatives that fostered critical thinking, responsible citizenship, and their presence at the polls in an important election year for Romania; (O3) to promote a proactive attitude among youth by creating opportunities for dialogue with decision-makers, supporting them to produce their own media literacy materials, and giving them ownership of an online platform – the Media4Youth website – to amplify their voices and share the values of democratic participation. From its conception, the project aimed to move beyond theory and to show participants that informed citizenship is not abstract – it is practical, immediate, and necessary. Media4YOUth was built to demonstrate that civic engagement starts with informed choices: from questioning a headline, to attending a local council meeting, to organising a youth event. Throughout the project, these objectives were approached through a mix of activities: preparatory sessions (two physical and two online) to ensure all participants started from the same level of knowledge; a central mobility in Busteni (A1) that became the project’s cornerstone, where they learned, worked in teams, and experimented with non-formal education methods; and a series of youth events in Buzau, Brasov, Ploiesti and Bucharest (A2–A5) where they facilitated sessions, engaged decision-makers, and shared what they had learned with wider audiences. By the end of Media4YOUth, the objectives were not only met but exceeded. Participants didn’t just acquire the planned skills – they built confidence, became creators of content, organisers of events, and advocates for responsible journalism and civic responsibility.