Journey - Youth Decide

THE JOURNEY

The Journey is the living thread of YouthDecide 2040 — a dynamic, multimedia online platform shaped by those taking part. More than a video or a photo archive, it captures how the project is experienced from within, unfolding step by step in order to witness the process and so others can replicate it.

Everyone is invited to contribute in the format that feels most natural to them, helping to break down barriers of language, generation and technology.

democracies, Engagement, Consultation, Change, Populism, Missions

The Creative Retreat marked the starting point of our collective exploration. Over two intensive days, participants from diverse disciplines and backgrounds gathered to reflect on the futures of democracy and test the first building blocks and tools of the participatory workshops. Feedback based on the experimentation with these tools was provided in an open, experimental setting that encouraged individual reflection and collaborative prototyping.

The retreat set the tone for the rest of the journey, leading directly into the Regional Workshops.

PHOTO GALLERY

REGIONAL WORKSHOPS

Held across Eastern, Western, Northern, Southern and Future Europe, the Regional Workshops brought together young people selected in order to ensure a diverse cultural, ideological and geographic background.
These sessions serve as a refinement testing ground for the methodology developed during the Creative Retreat with actual participants profiles. These participants will imagine preferred democratic futures and test the tools that would later be scaled across the continent.

Cities such as Bratislava, Skopje, Barcelona, Paris and Oslo hosted the events, ensuring broad representation and inclusivity.

NATIONAL WORKSHOPS

Following the regional pilots, the National Workshops fully implement the participatory foresight methodology of YouthDecide 2040. Organised in 18 countries and facilitated in national and local languages, these fullday workshops Will engage young people aged 18 to 35 in the cocreation of concrete Visions for Democracy in 2040.

Participants developed narratives, scenarios and ideas that form the backbone of the project’s outcomes through a rooted in local realities and shaped by diverse democratic experiences.

Online conversation space

This multilingual digital platform will invite over 10,000 people from across Europe to join the conversation on the Futures of Democracy. Presented in six languages — English, German, French, Polish, Italian and Hungarian — the space allows participants to react to, enrich and expand the scenarios generated during the National Workshops. It ensures wider civic inclusion, offering valuable input that adds depth and diversity to the final outcomes. Through inclusive, transparent, and replicable processes, we will create, together, strategies to support your visions for thriving democracy in Europe in 2040.

transnational assembly

The European Youth Assembly of the Future is a transnational forum that will bring together one young representative from each National Workshop with experts, researchers and civil society actors to refine the collective visions of democracy in 2040. Their work ensures that the final scenarios are coherent, inclusive, and grounded in both local experiences and shared European aspirations.

Strategy Playbook

The Strategy Playbook is the final actionable synthesis of YouthDecide 2040. It transforms the visions co-created throughout the project into concrete policy pathways and strategic recommendations. Codeveloped by youth representatives and experts through an intergenerational, collaborative process, the playbook offers practical tools for institutions, civil society and citizens to support democratic resilience.
It serves as both a roadmap for the future and an invitation to shape it!