Migration can be a transformative experience, opening up new opportunities, but at the same time generating serious risks in terms of education, employment and social cohesion for young people. According to Eurostat, over 30% of all migrants to the EU are aged 15-29, i.e. teenagers and young adults. As the JRC report ‘Youth and Migration’ emphasises: ‘Migration offers potentially enormous opportunities for young people (...) but it can also be a disruptive experience, particularly in terms of identity, educational outcomes and income.’ Furthermore, Council of Europe research on media coverage shows that narratives about migrants are often depersonalising and stigmatising: only 16% of articles mentioned the name of the protagonist, and only 7% mentioned their profession, which makes young people with migration experience lose their sense of agency and subjectivity even more. As practitioners in the youth work sector, we want to address the issue of identity and roots by training youth workers to equip them with the skills that will facilitate their daily work with young people. Difficulties in putting down roots and the lack of a clear path affect both migrant youth and youth workers, and we want this training to be a bridge to a better tomorrow. The way in which the media portray refugees and migrants has a significant impact on how societies perceive and treat new arrivals. Dehumanising narratives can lead to increased prejudice and discrimination, and the lack of migrant voices in media coverage leads to their marginalisation in public debate and perpetuates the image of ‘others’ rather than a community of equal citizens, according to the 2017 UNESCO & Council of Europe report, Media coverage of the refugee crisis in Europe. Such statements were also made by our youth worker friends, with whom we conducted a ‘research trial’ to see if such a project was needed... and it is! Together with our partners, we have identified three particular challenges in our work with young people: a lack of rootedness, multiculturalism and frequent migration, and the need to find one's own path. Youth workers, in turn, report a need for substantive training in this area. We want to respond to this need. That is why our Roots&Routes project aims to strengthen the key competences of youth workers in dealing with these challenges. Our objectives are closely linked to youth practice and policy. We want to ‘water the roots’ by equipping youth workers with methods that support young people in discovering and appreciating their own identity, family/regional history and cultural heritage. We will support intercultural dialogue by preparing staff to work in diverse environments and counteract stereotypes through non-formal education tools, and we will provide support methods and develop scenarios to support young people in planning their educational and professional development paths. Our training responds to the real needs identified (described in the application) in working with young people and is in line with EU guidelines as it contributes to social inclusion, competence development and strengthening the potential of youth workers and their local communities. Our project is of high quality, so it will contribute to building the capacity of participating organisations and to developing the quality of youth work in Europe.