The project RISE: Resilient Youth Leadership Against Isolation and Radicalisation was born from a participatory process involving six group leaders and dozens of young people from the partner countries (Italy, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Spain, Estonia, and Latvia). Through local focus groups, surveys, and collective brainstorming sessions, young people identified as their main common needs social isolation, the lack of authentic spaces for participation, and the growing risk of radicalisation, especially among those facing economic, cultural, and social obstacles. The co-writing of the project proposal ensured that RISE was truly built by youth for youth, with a shared needs analysis and a concrete commitment to transform them into educational objectives. The needs analysis highlighted how social isolation and the risk of radicalisation are concrete challenges across all partner countries, although with different nuances. Many young people, particularly those facing economic, social, or cultural barriers, feel excluded from community dynamics and deprived of opportunities for positive self-expression. This marginalisation makes them more vulnerable to extremist ideologies that offer simplistic answers to the complex realities they experience daily. During the consultations led by the group leaders, it was emphasised that the lack of authentic participation spaces and the perception of not having a voice in society feed mistrust in institutions and foster the search for belonging in closed or radical communities. A strong need that clearly emerged is the lack of positive models of youth leadership that can act as catalysts for change, precisely the figure of a youth leader that RISE aims to create. From the perspective of youth work, RISE seeks to address this crucial gap: the absence of positive models of youth leadership and of training paths that strengthen resilience, protagonism, and critical thinking. The Youth Exchange will therefore serve as a laboratory of European citizenship where young people will not only reflect on the risks of exclusion and radicalisation, but will also directly experiment with practices of transformative leadership, becoming youth leaders and young changemakers capable of catalysing positive social change and promoting inclusion, participation, and engagement against youth radicalisation. The main objectives of the project are: 1. Strengthen transformative youth leadership, by developing skills in facilitation, intercultural communication, and artistic expression (digital and visual), enabling young people to act as role models for their peers and as youth leaders. 2. Develop digital and visual competences so that young people can narrate their local and European identities, positioning themselves as changemakers and catalysts of positive change against peer isolation. 3. Prevent radicalisation by promoting the ability to create positive counter-narratives based on empathy, solidarity, and inclusion, and by offering alternative forms of participation that foster agency and youth protagonism. 4. Produce an Ebook “by youth for youth” as the project’s tangible output, collecting practices of transformative leadership, digital/visual methods, and alternative forms of participation to connect young people with their communities and with the European Union in the fight against radicalisation. 5. Consolidate the sense of European belonging, fostering intercultural dialogue, transnational cooperation, and the recognition of common EU values. Build a European network of young changemakers/youth leaders and partner associations, ensuring reinforced and expanded cooperation among the partnership.