Utopia is not an island arises from a pressing need: to provide youth workers with a safe, inclusive and creative space to rethink the horizons from which we support young people in Europe. Queer communities and other minorities are increasingly exposed to fear-based discourses, political backlashes and hostile media narratives. This climate generates discouragement, affects mental health and limits the capacity to imagine and project alternative futures. Youth workers, who are at the frontline of support, often lack tools, spaces and networks to respond effectively. The inspiration for the project comes from Layla Martínez’s book Utopía no es una isla, which affirms that utopia is not escapism but a way of resisting the normalization of dystopia. Our own community survey confirmed this: young people and youth workers reported being surrounded by dystopian narratives, while lacking positive references and practical tools to turn imagination into action. These findings revealed the urgent need for methodologies that foster hope, resilience and inclusion. Across Europe, these challenges appear in very different ways. In some partner countries, openly creating safe spaces for queer youth is becoming increasingly difficult due to restrictive laws, censorship and hate speech. In others, resources exist but risk being fragmented or disconnected from broader European debates. Bringing 24 youth workers together in a transnational framework allows them to exchange strategies, gain recognition, and co-develop practices that may not be possible in isolation. From the perspective of youth work practice, the project is not only about reflection but about equipping participants with concrete, replicable methods they can immediately integrate into their daily work: designing inclusive workshops, facilitating safe spaces, addressing discrimination, and embedding hope and imagination as tools for participation and wellbeing. The training course is structured in three phases that mirror this learning journey: Roots: understanding how fear-based narratives operate and how they affect young people’s emotions, wellbeing and sense of belonging. This enables youth workers to identify the impact of these narratives in their own communities and prepare responses. Horizons: using storytelling, performance and creative labs to imagine desirable futures. Youth workers will practice methods to help young people reframe challenges and envision alternatives. Solutions: transforming imagination into practice. Participants will design, test and evaluate workshops with their peers, producing a digital toolkit and follow-up plans to replicate locally. The programme also includes reflection groups, embodied methods, intercultural activities and a final Youthpass ceremony. Together, these ensure that learning is consolidated, documented and recognised as competences for daily youth work. Objectives of the project Equip 24 youth workers with competences and tested tools to design and implement high-quality, inclusive actions with and for young people, particularly queer youth and other minorities, strengthening their capacity to counter fear-based discourses and support wellbeing, resilience and participation. Provide a safe, intercultural and creative learning environment where participants can critically analyse dystopian narratives, explore emotions, and co-create utopian horizons through experiential and arts-based methodologies directly applicable to youth work. Transform imagination into practice by co-developing replicable workshops, contributing to a collective toolkit, and designing follow-up actions applicable in local contexts, thus ensuring sustainability and transferability of results. In this way, we foster a European network of inclusive youth workers, enabling continued exchange, solidarity and cooperation beyond the project through online mentoring, joint dissemination and active communication channels. So, Utopia is not an island combines critical reflection with practical action. It asserts that utopia is not an unreachable dream but a working method for youth work: a way to generate hope, protect wellbeing and strengthen participation. By the end of the project, youth workers will return to their organisations with concrete competences, tested methodologies and a supportive European network, ready to translate imagination into action in their daily practice. As Paulo Freire reminds us in his Pedagogy of Hope, hope is not passive waiting but a commitment to act: in this project, imagination becomes a practice of freedom and transformation.