Written by Giulia Bartolini, Filipa Pereira, Mateusz Hoffmann
From 10 to 15 November 2025, the Youth & Municipalities 4 Democracy Training Course brought together tandems of municipal youth officers and youth representatives in Portimão, Portugal, for an intensive programme dedicated to strengthening youth participation in local democratic decision-making.
Developed within the Democracy Reloading Partnership, the course offered a unique approach: training young people and municipal staff simultaneously so they could reflect together on their local practice, identify gaps, and co-design strategies for improvement. The programme alternated between joint sessions and separate working spaces for youth and officers, creating a balance between shared understanding and independent reflection. The entire course was based on the Democracy Reloading Framework, with participants exploring the four key competences through the partnership’s methodological tools: the Cards and the Workbook.
The activities allowed participants to examine levels of youth involvement in their municipalities, the strengths and weaknesses of existing structures, and the limitations of commonly used participation models. Throughout the programme, tandems explored how municipalities can empower young people and create environments where youth participation is meaningful, sustained, and co-owned.
A strong emphasis was placed on Key Competence 2, focusing on building the capacity of young people, youth organisations, and their communities to actively participate in municipal decision-making. This competence was explored over four sessions, integrating Open Space Technology (OST). In OST, young participants proposed discussion topics related to opportunities and barriers for youth participation, while municipal officers observed, gaining insight into young people’s priorities. The resulting discussions were dynamic and constructive, generating ideas for future collaboration and follow-up initiatives.
A particularly impactful moment was “A Step Forward” exercise, designed to explore issues of privilege, inequality, and access to youth participation. Participants embodied fictional characters and responded to real-life scenarios, visualising how structural and social factors shape opportunities an experience that supported deeper reflection on inclusion within youth participation structures.
During Task 3, the group focused on theoretical foundations such as the Ladder of Participation, before assessing the quality of local policies and structures using the workbook’s evaluation tools. This led to the widely appreciated Domino Exercise, where groups negotiated which attitudes, skills, and knowledge elements were most essential for strengthening youth participation. Youth representatives and officers worked separately and later compared results; surprisingly, both groups identified the same final two cards. This is an example of how impactful the training was for participants and how aligned they were despite their different roles.
Another key moment was the work on the CLEAR Model, a European framework highlighting the five conditions necessary for active civic and youth participation. Mixed groups analysed each component, created visual interpretations such as posters and theatre scenes, and presented them in plenary. This session helped link theoretical foundations with the lived realities of municipalities across Europe.
Towards the end of the course, participants took part in Alpha City, a simulation exercise reproducing a municipal consultation process aimed at improving a local youth council. Participants were assigned roles representing various municipal stakeholders, learning about each other’s positions, interests, and visions. After informal networking, the simulation moved to a formal hearing where stakeholders presented their views. For the first time in this training’s history, the exercise organically expanded into a public “demonstration” moment in the town square, prompting the mayor to approach participants directly and discuss the views expressed—a powerful testament to the realism and engagement of the activity. Final debriefs highlighted power dynamics, inclusion, and the importance of transparent communication.
Now in its third edition, this training has shown how valuable it is to bring together municipal officers and young people to foster a multi-perspective approach and encourage rich dialogue among participants with diverse backgrounds. Intergenerational and interdisciplinary dialogue proved to be a key element in enriching the experience and making youth participation projects more effective.