News & Practices

Local youth policy and democracy. Study Visit to the Council of Europe

From October 28 to November 1, 2024, the Council of Europe’s Youth Department, in partnership with the Democracy Reloading Partnership of Erasmus+ national agencies, hosted a four-day study visit in Strasbourg. This event brought together 25 municipal youth policy practitioners from 16 European countries, aiming to equip local governments with effective strategies and tools for […]

Democracy Reloading in 2025

Improved Reflection Cards

Improved Reflection Cards Developed with the collaboration of Erasmus+ Youth National Agencies, practitioners, and experts, the Reflection Cards help to understand the Democracy Reloading Reference Framework and provide playful approaches to systematically reflect on the most important quality aspects of youth participation in municipal decision-making.. It aligns with the European Youth Strategy 2019–27, which highlights […]

The 5th Municipalities4Democracy training course

The Democracy Reloading Partnership organised its flagship training module Municipalities4Democracy (M4DEM) for the 5th time in Braga, Portugal in July 2024. The program, the content and the methods were gradually improved, based on previous editions. The methods were still improved significantly as compared to previous editions (Budapest 2021, Braga 2022, Oslo 2022, Brussels 2023). However […]

The Democracy Reloading trajectory has given me focus on youth participation

The Democracy Reloading programme has set a lot of things in motion in the field of youth participation at the municipality of Nijmegen. Thanks to the continuous attention youth policy officer Lieke Peeters has given to the subject ever since; she has created renewed attention and support among young people, colleagues, schools, and other stakeholders. […]

Five tips from young people on engaging young people

Tip 1: Take young people seriously by making an effort You can take young people seriously by showing that you are making an effort for them. Two ways to achieve this are active listening and giving feedback. Active listening Listen and ask further questions. Then, summarise the young people’s answers and double-check your understanding. Here, […]

How to create a supportive environment within the municipality for involving young people in decision-making?

In the Democracy Reloading Partnership activities we always ask municipal youth policy officers about the general attitude of the municipal authority towards giving a voice to young people in municipal decisions, and we provide these four statements above. Those youth policy practitioners who join our activities tend to stand with the statements 2. and 3. […]

Council of Europe: Reykjavik Declaration refers to democratic youth participation in decision-making

Heads of State and Government gathered in Reykjavík on 16 and 17 May 2023 to stand united against Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and to give further priority and direction to the Council of Europe’s work, and they concluded their visions in the Reykjavik Declaration that includes also a very clear and specific note […]

The Impact of Democracy Reloading

Democracy Reloading is bringing together people from across Europe to improve youth participation in municipalities and help young people to have a voice at local level. But what difference is it currently making? To help us understand that we have commissioned Ondřej Bárta and Dan Moxon from People Dialogue and Change to undertake a study on the impact of Democracy Reloading. The study is now in its third year – and has a range of results so far

Democracy is reloading in 2024

You can read here the plans of the partnership for 2024. The Democracy Reloading Partnership is involving the Erasmus+ national agencies of the following countries in 2024: Belgium (French and Dutch speaking communities), France, Italy, Portugal, Norway, the Netherlands, Hungary, Estonia, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Greece, Cyprus, Iceland, Bulgaria, and started consultations with relevant youth services in Armenia and Switzerland. It means that these countries can send participants to the Democracy Reloading activities. Next year we will offer several learning and sharing opportunities for municipal youth policy officers and youth participation experts.

ChangeTracker – Assessment tool

Change Tracker_Final This self-assessment tool aims at identifying successful engagement with decision making within youth political participation activities.

Webinar 4 – Municipal youth dialogue: Make it work, make a change!

Local municipal authorities can involve young people to influence the local decisions. Managing the two diverese sides of the dialogue is challenging, but NOT impossible. This webinar is one of the four online activities that the Democracy Reloading Partnership is organising on the basis of its online Toolkit. Each webinar is focusing on one of the 4 key competences […]