Open call: New Power in Youth’s Online Challenge on youth participation

Are you a youth leader or youth worker committed to becoming an agent of change in your local community and beyond? Are you interested in applying for an Erasmus+ or European Solidarity Corps Project in 2025 focused on youth participation? Then, New Power in Youth’s Online Challenge is the place for you! Apply by 7 January 2025, together with your team!

The Online Challenge – Youth Participation Projects aims to challenge and support those interested in submitting their projects by the February 2025 deadline of Erasmus+ or European Solidarity Corps (ESC) through a tailored learning & mentorship programme!

The Online Challenge is part of the strategic partnership New Power in Youth (NPiY SNAC), between SALTO Resource Centres and several Erasmus+ National Agencies in the field of youth. Other NAs are welcome to support participants in this activity, even if they are not part of the NPiY SNAC.

During the Online Challenge, you will:

• learn about youth participation & participatory approaches
• learn about quality elements of an Erasmus+/European Solidarity project
• develop the concept and write participation projects that fit in one of the 3 formats: 1) Erasmus+ KA1 – Youth exchanges; 2) Erasmus+ KA1 – Youth Participation Activities or 3) European Solidarity Corps (ESC30 Solidarity Projects)
• get tailored and quality support from mentors (experienced in developing/assessing E+/ESC projects) who will help you to transfer your project idea into the application form
• find international partner(s) for the project and develop the project application together with them
• take part in e-learning modules and weekly tasks connected to youth participation and project writing
• get a YouthPass (if you are part of at least 80% of all activities in the challenge).

Selection criteria

• potential beneficiaries who have little or no experience in participating in Erasmus+ and ESC projects (you can be in any of the following situations: you have joined as a participant in an E+/ESC activity; you have been part of the organising team but not developed a project by yourself; you have maximum two E+/ESC projects that have been approved but you want to learn more about how to develop quality projects)
• youth workers & youth leaders – members of an organisation or informal group (you can and you are encouraged to apply on behalf of a team; the team can include both youth workers & young people or just young people)
• all interested persons – no age limit
• all interested persons capable of communicating effectively in English

Participation requirements

Participants should be available to join the following activities:

• 16 January 2025, 10:00-16:00 CET – joint online kick-off meeting (mandatory for all selected participants)
• Active participation in the e-learning modules (min 80%) and completing weekly assignments via the online platform Howspace (individual accounts will be created after selection)
• 24 January 2025, 10-12:30 CET – Partnership finding activity – online meeting with potential partners outside the Online challenge
• 1st week of February 2025 – Q&A meeting with representative of NA for E+/ESC
• 14 February 2025, 10:12:00 CET – joint online closing meeting

Other important criteria for participation:

• available to allocate 2-3 working hours between 16 January and 12 February for working with your team to develop the project idea and meetings/discussions with the mentor (individual work, online meetings, emails, chat messages)
• interested in developing projects with a strong youth participation dimension – specifically one of the 3 formats: 1) Erasmus+ KA1 – Youth exchanges; 2) Erasmus+ KA154 – Youth Participation Activities; 3) ESC (ESC30) Solidarity Projects
• interested in finding partners during the challenge.

The main platform for sessions will be ZOOM (Central European Time). Access to a personal computer and the Internet is required. For group consultations with mentorship, you can choose the preferred communication channel.