Democracy Reloading provides tools, training and inspiration to municipalities to develop democracy through engaging young people in local and regional municipal decision-making.
We provide reference tools, assessment tools and support tools to reflect on the local and regional context of youth participation. We organise training courses and meetings for policy makers, decision-makers and youth representatives to share their expereince and practices, and learn from theory and practice. We collect and publish inspiration from municipal youth policy practitioners from all around Europe.
Democracy Reloading is a long term cooperation program among Erasmus+ Youth national agencies with the aim to support municipalities in developing youth participation in decision-making with know-how, exchange, networking and financial grants. The actual phase is planned between 2021-2027 and coordinated by Bureau International Jeunesse (Belgium).
Civil servants working for local or regional authorities, and responsible for your policy and youth participation.
Elected politicians of local or regional councils/ self-governments, whose priority and policy focus is youth and youth participation.
Members of local youth councils or other types of youth participation structures that can influence municipal decisions, who represent the young people of their municipality, their organization or their school.
Youth workers who facilitate and support municipal youth participation, or coordinate the work with the municipal youth council.
Democracy Reloading aims to respond to the needs and expectations of these actors of change.
Where are you now ?
Where are you now ?
Where are you now ?
Where are you now ?
Check out the ideal organisational environment for youth participation in municipal decision-making. We will help you to get here.
You can do a quick scan of your municipal reality to understand what you need to do to get closer to this ideal reality of a real youth friendly city.
Democracy Reloading is constantly producing tools that can help you to reflect on your practices and further improve them. You can download assessment tools, development tools and workbooks that you can use in your own municipal context.
Democracy Reloading is organising training courses for municipality staff, for political representatives and for youth representatives on how to design, how to realise and how to develop municipal youth participation and local democracy.
Democracy Reloading is collecting video interviews with youth policy practitioners about their experience, their challenges and their achievements for insipration.
Democracy Reloading is creating and managing a European community of municipal youth policy officers, that is a safe space for sharing experience, mutual learning and partnership building.
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So far, 20 municipalities have participated in the Democracy Reloading trajectory, a collaboration between the Netherlands Youth Institute (NJi) and Erasmus+.
In Breda, a lot is already happening in the field of youth participation. However, in practice it turned out that initiatives often exist separately from each other. The Democracy Reloading trajectory gave the municipality the opportunity to gain better insight into this.
In the first half of 2026, the Democracy Reloading Partnership continued its work to strengthen youth participation in municipal decision-making across Europe.
Date & Time: 7th October (Wednesday) | 15:00 - 16:30 CET Platform: Online via Zoom / E-Learning Cost: Free of Charge
Are you a municipal youth officer or local representative looking to transform how your city engages with young people? From November 2-7, 2026, Portugal will host Municipalities4Democracy, an intensive training course designed to help local auth
How can local governments move beyond simple consultation and genuinely involve young people in municipal decision-making? The answer lies in building structural capacity, fostering political support, and creating inclusive strategies.
The new e-learning platform developed within the Democracy Reloading initiative represents a shift from traditional training formats toward a more interactive, competence-based digital learning experience.
Are you working to improve municipal youth participation and local democracy? This project-building seminar in Bulgaria might be relevant for you.
Municipalities4Democracy - La participation et l’inclusion des jeunes dans la prise de décision municipale
Youth4Democracy – International Training for Local Youth Representatives
Are you involved in local youth councils or youth representation structures?
Would you like to strengthen youth participation and democratic practices at local level?
📍 Youth4Democracy
Understand the usual doubts that prevent municipalities from engaging youth in their decisions, and improve your advocacy skills.
Record a short video in which you explain tell your experience and practices of municipal youth participation and send us the link.
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