The UN-DUST project was born from the shared desire of the partner organisations to promote theatres and cultural centres as spaces for non-formal and informal learning, safe and accessible places where young people can experience active participation, embrace diversity as a value, and directly contribute to building more inclusive practices within the European culture. The project aimed to move beyond the concept of young people as mere recipients of cultural offerings and instead recognise them as active agents of change capable of positively influencing their surroundings. In line with the Theory of Change promoted by UNICEF, the goal was to foster greater awareness among participants of their rights, needs, and potential, thus triggering a process of cultural and social empowerment. The main objectives of the project were: - To promote active youth participation in the cultural, social, and political life of their local communities, by offering tools and spaces for expression and dialogue on collectively relevant themes, particularly those related to diversity and inclusion. - To encourage a shared reflection on diversity, understood not as an obstacle but as a valuable resource for enriching cultural programming and fostering dialogue among people from different backgrounds, languages, abilities, and life experiences. - To strengthen participants’ transversal skills, such as intercultural communication, teamwork, empathy, and active listening, through artistic and workshop-based experiences that used theatre techniques, facilitation tools, and co-design practices. - To enhance cultural venues as spaces for active citizenship, where young people feel welcome, heard, and involved—and where they can contribute to shaping new inclusive practices, even in dialogue with institutions and decision-makers. - To co-create a toolkit, developed through a participatory process between the participants and partner organisations, to gather good practices, strategies, and reflections that emerged during the exchange, with the aim of making cultural spaces more accessible, participatory, and youth-oriented. - To foster collaboration between diverse European cultural organisations, with the goal of enriching dialogue and promoting mutual learning between organisations active in both urban and rural settings, thus contributing to the development of their respective communities. Through experiential activities, structured moments of reflection, documentation and sharing tools such as learning diaries, the Youthpass, final focus groups, and the toolkit, UN-DUST aimed to create a journey that would strengthen the European identity of young participants, improve the quality of cultural initiatives in partner regions, and generate a tangible, lasting impact on both participants and the involved organisations.