Participa kick-off meeting held in Rijeka, Croatia

The project “Empowering Youth Participation through Digital Transformation” (PARTICIPA) kicked off with a two-day meeting of project partners in Rijeka. Two representatives from each partner organisation took part in the programme on 15 and 16 January 2026. Alongside Delta, the participating organisations were the Croatian Youth Network, the Italian organisation EUROPIAMO, the Cyprus Youth Council from Cyprus, and A4Action from Romania.

The two-and-a-half-year project focuses on improving the work of youth councils and strengthening youth participation in local communities. The project’s main activities include the development of digital courses (Massive Open Online Courses – MOOCs) for local government staff working with young people and for youth council members, as well as advocacy action plans.

The content of the two MOOCs will be developed based on research into the work of youth councils in each partner country, including focus groups with the target groups.

The courses will be based on the Democracy Reloading methodology, which each partner will adapt to its national context.

We used the meeting as an opportunity to get to know each other better, exchange experiences and discuss the different national contexts related to the work of youth councils, as well as to establish a common research framework and pedagogical approach for developing the first online course.

On the second day, in addition to discussing the research and focus group questions, we discussed the content of the courses and their individual modules. The main content will be general and available in English, while each partner country will also develop content adapted to its specific national context.

The courses will be available online, and pilot activities with interested local government staff and youth council members will also be carried out in each country.