This KA1 project pursues a dual objective, which stems from the dual structure of the Generation Europe – The Academy funding programme. On the one hand, Generation Europe – The Academy is an international network of youth organisations; on the other, it is a funding programme for European cooperation. The programme cycle in the current funding period plays a key strategic role as a bridge, as it directly links the consolidation and evaluation process of the 2021–2025 funding cycle with the start of the new programme phase from 2026 onwards. At the institutional level, the project aims to strengthen the quality, recognition and resilience of (international) youth work in Europe, as well as to establish sustainable networks among the participating partner organisations. In this respect, the project directly supports the priorities of the EYWA by offering professionals and organisations platforms for professional development, methodological development and strategic exchange. This includes preparatory meetings and training sessions for professionals and participants, formats for the policy development of the sector, and measures that safeguard the peer-education approaches of the outgoing phase and specifically prepare the organisations participating in the network for cooperation within their trilateral partnerships. Another key specific objective was to provide targeted support to organisations newly represented in the network, such as within the framework of trilateral collaborations involving Ukrainian participation. Against the backdrop of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, a central concern here was to ensure the sustainable inclusion of participants from Ukraine with particular care, as well as to structurally strengthen the Ukrainian partner organisation. At the participant level, the project aims to enable young people with fewer opportunities, in particular, to access European mobility and participation programmes. In line with the educational guiding principle ‘act local – connect European – think global’, young people are empowered to develop active democratic engagement based on their local realities and to experience personal self-efficacy. By combining local group work, international exchanges and the targeted training of experienced participants to become delegates and mentors, safe spaces are created in which social participation, inclusion and the ability to advocate for one’s own interests are made possible. The project as a whole aims to strengthen and strategically align the three pillars of the Generation Europe – The Academy funding programme. These are: 1. Youth Cooperation (cooperation between youth organisations and the youth exchanges they organise), 2. Next Steps (a peer-to-peer mentoring approach and a delegate system that empowers young people to help shape the framework conditions of youth work from their own lived experience by representing participants’ interests at events within the sector and in dealings with other stakeholders) and 3. Advocacy (strategic advocacy for the visibility and recognition of the field of youth work).