MAKING LIVING responds to a systemic gap in youth work between young people’s growing demand for support in navigating economic reality in alignment with their values, and limited competencies and concrete knowledge among youth workers on empowering ethical economic choices, self-employment and ethical alternatives. The project strengthens youth workers’ capacity to support young people from diverse backgrounds in building self-directed livelihoods, exploring local entrepreneurship and recognising non-academic learning as a viable pathway, and fostering constructive civic engagement aligned with their values. Across Europe, many young people, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, face economic precarity and anxiety about the future. Media-saturated reality exposes interrelated global and local crises – armed conflicts, environmental degradation, climate change, economic insecurity and intense political polarisation – making youth acutely aware of limits and injustices of economic models centred on extraction, competition and growth at the expense of care and ecological balance. This critical awareness reflects strong ethics growing among youth but collides with a lack of meaningful alternatives for personal employment and civic engagement, especially for young people alienated by academic education or excluded from mainstream labour markets. This frustration often turns into disengagement, self-marginalisation or radical stances. EU data mirror what youth workers observe in daily practice: in 2024, 24% of EU young people aged 15–29 were at risk of poverty or social exclusion, with many more facing barriers to education and employment. In the absence of credible, accessible pathways to act on their values, many young people feel overwhelmed and disoriented about how to direct their energy in meaningful ways. MAKING LIVING treats youth frustration as a resource for positive change. The project shows how young people’s values and resistance to dominant economic narratives can be channelled into personal agency and constructive engagement. Youth workers are central to this process: they accompany young people through uncertainty, anxiety and critical questioning. Yet they often lack tools, examples and methods to support exploration of ethical livelihoods. MAKING LIVING responds by shifting how youth work approaches employability, learning and success – expanding it beyond job placement towards life-building and value-aligned community participation. In summer 2027, participating youth workers will take part in a week-long Experiential Learning Programme in the mountain valleys of Ariège, hosted at a nature-based learning centre embedded in a vibrant local economy. The programme is place-based and grounded in meetings and workshops with young eco-minded artisanal entrepreneurs, primarily women, who have built livelihoods rooted in local resources, traditional skills, cooperation and care for land and community. Through hands-on workshops, storytelling, visits to local markets and exchanges with practitioners, participants explore how local economies offer viable, resilient and dignified alternatives to dominant economic models. The project does not focus on artisanal production alone, but on equipping youth workers with narratives and methods to support young people in developing agency, orientation and confidence in shaping their futures. This may take the form of local entrepreneurship, passion-driven self-employment or other economic pathways prioritising autonomy and values. Even young people who do not pursue self-employment benefit from encountering concrete ethical economic examples, helping them regain trust in the future and a sense of agency to engage constructively in society. Alongside workshops with local artisans, the project integrates inclusive experiential exercises focused on personal strengths, values, confidence-building and addressing internal barriers such as fear and self-doubt. These methods are practised and adapted for transfer into participants’ own youth work practice, supporting youth who learn better through hands-on approaches than academic systems. Youth workers create a leaflet documenting narratives, lived examples and methods of the Programme. As multipliers, participantsintegrate the learning into their youth work, follow-up and dissemination actions. The project’s ultimate target group is the young people reached through youth workers’ daily practice, particularly those with disadvantaged backgrounds, from rural and peripheral regions, socially marginalised youth and those critical of dominant socio-economic models. By making ethical, local entrepreneurship and value-driven economic participation visible and legitimate within youth work, MAKING LIVING contributes to a systemic shift in youth work: from supporting young people merely to “find work” towards empowering them to build meaningful lives, community connections and agency in shaping their futures.