Youth participation requires involvement, inclusion and cooperation between various sectors such as governmental bodies, non-governmental organizations, youth itself and even the private sector. But unfortunately in post-Soviet countries, it is very difficult for young people to actively act, especially in the field of youth councils. The European experience is a way for non-EU countries to be more open to European values, learn the best practices and, on this basis, build their democratic activities at a qualitatively new level.The main aim of the project “Youth Councils - advisors or activists” was to provide young people with equal opportunities and experience which enable them to develop the competencies to play a full part in all aspects of society through expressing their needs, interests and visions. With our project, we helped them to raise the capacity of Youth Councils and to empower them through cooperation across the sectors involved in the youth field (public bodies - local municipalities, active youth non-governmental organizations and Youth Councils). The main aim had been achieved through concrete objectives:- raising the transparency of Youth Councils- raising the visibility and importance of Youth Council among youth- raising the civil and political participation of youth through Youth Councils- creating space for sharing knowledge and exchanging experiences, know-how and good practices in the field of participation and youth active citizenship;- creating space for building international partnership and planning future projects in the field of youth involvement in decision-making;- finding new strategies and inspiration on creating and supporting local youth initiatives;- learning new approaches and finding an innovative ways of communication between youth and local municipalities politicians/experts/- discovering the opportunities under structural dialogue- creating opportunities for starting long-term international cooperation (EU and Partner countries) in the field of youth participation and structural dialogue projects.During the project, youth organisations and youth workers were mainly focused on building a structured dialogue with decision-makers and public bodies. In order to create space for it, local activities, conferences and round tables with decision-makers and public bodies representatives were organised. But a big part of building that dialogue and raising the capacity of youth were done via exchanging knowledge, experience, good practices and know-how with other youth organisations. It’s important to add, that whole main idea of the project was related with capacity building of the partner organisations (through cross-sectoral cooperation, organisation of international and local events, training staff and other core members and also attracting and training of potential future members of the NGO through the activities with youth councils and the youth interested in the civic participation. Additionally, the project has increased the competencies of the youth workers and capacities of the organizations from different sectors working in the youth field, affirmed equity, active citizenship and stimulated replicating more international projects. Therefore, there will be an increased number of learning mobility opportunities for young people, or people involved in youth work.Our cross-sectoral and cross-national cooperation fostered quality improvement in Youth Council’s work on local, national and international levels, it also increased the recognition of non-formal and informal learning.The project also contributed in enhancing the international dimension of youth activities and the role of youth workers and organizations to support young people.

“Raising the capacities of youth NGOs for rural youth participation in democratic life – VOTE!” project aimed to raise the capacities of youth NGOs working with rural youth to encourage youth active participation in European democratic life and elections. We believe that active youth participation and in particular rural youth political participation can be an added value for the development of our countries and communities. For this reason, the consortium from 14 organizations representing different European countries decided to develop a long-term cooperation project on capacity building of rural youth political participation. The project aimed to contribute to the capacity building of youth workers from civil society organizations, particularly the ones working with rural youth and public authorities at the local and regional levels to be able to increase the level of youth democratic participation. At the same time that focus also on the capacity building of youth leaders from local rural communities. In order to reach our project aims we had defined the following specific objectives: a) To increase the capacity of NGOs working with rural youth to influence policy at local, regional, national and European levels;b) To empower local organizations staff to better involve young people in the decision-making process of their projects and activities;c) To increase the political influence of young people in their communities by active participation in the processes of political elections;d) To improve local and national youth policies and the competencies of local stakeholders to work together (cross-sectorial initiatives) and with rural youth in developing new projects;e) To develop instruments that can support youth NGOs that need to start working with rural youth;f) To raise the level of awareness within the communities in Europe about the impact of the young generation, particularly addressing rural youth;On the local level, the project had a significant impact with the implementation of training courses, local youth initiatives and development of the action plans for raising the capacities of rural youth.The priorities this project addressed:- Promoting the take-up of practical experiences in education, training and youth work in rural areas;- Supporting the production and adoption of Open Educational Resources in diverse European languages on youth political participation (elections on local, national, European levels);- Stimulating active participation of young people in democratic life in their communities, supporting their local initiatives and active participation in elections.