Two practical resources supporting youth participation, inclusion, human rights, and social justice
Within the Erasmus+ project “Fostering Youth Participation and Social Justice – NextGenVoice”, project number 2024-3-DE04-KA154-YOU-000271505, the project partnership created two important educational resources:
- the NextGenVoice Guidebook of Non-Formal Learning Activities;
- the NextGenVoice Toolkit of Case Studies and Best Practices.
These publications transform the experiences, methods, results, and lessons of the project into accessible resources that can be reused by young people, youth workers, trainers, teachers, schools, NGOs, volunteers, and other organisations active in education and community development.
The Guidebook and Toolkit were developed through cooperation among the project partners from Germany, Hungary, Türkiye, and Romania. They reflect the knowledge gained during the four international workshops organised in Budapest, Bilecik, Iași, and Germany.
Why were these resources created?
The project partners wanted the knowledge developed during the international workshops to remain available after the mobility activities had ended.
For this reason, the partnership collected, reviewed, adapted, and organised the most useful activities, case studies, facilitation approaches, participant experiences, challenges, and successful practices from the project.
The publications were designed to help other organisations apply the project’s methods in their own communities and educational programmes.
Both resources address the project’s principal themes:
- civic engagement and community leadership;
- digital transformation and innovation;
- social inclusion and equality;
- human rights and social justice;
- youth participation and active citizenship;
- advocacy and community action;
- intercultural dialogue;
- accessibility and participation of young people with fewer opportunities.
Although the two documents are connected, they serve different purposes.
The NextGenVoice Guidebook of Non-Formal Learning Activities
The NextGenVoice Guidebook of Non-Formal Learning Activities is a practical facilitator resource created for those who organise workshops and educational activities with young people.
It does not function as a theoretical report. It is a working document that allows facilitators to select an activity, understand its purpose, prepare the necessary materials, adapt it to the group, and guide participants through meaningful reflection.
The Guidebook contains 19 selected non-formal learning activities organised across six thematic strands:
- Civic engagement and community leadership;
- Digital transformation and innovation;
- Social inclusion and equality;
- Human rights and social justice;
- Cross-cutting learning;
- Supplementary practice.
Each activity is presented in a clear and practical format, including:
- the objective of the activity;
- recommended group size;
- estimated duration;
- required space and materials;
- language level;
- step-by-step facilitation guidance;
- explanations of why each stage matters;
- adaptation suggestions;
- meaningful debriefing questions;
- the activity’s value within the project.
This structure allows youth workers and educators to quickly identify methods that match the needs, confidence levels, and interests of their participants.
Activities included in the Guidebook
The Guidebook includes practical activities such as:
- Avatar and Identity Mapping;
- Community Issues to Advocacy Messages;
- Street Action for Youth Participation;
- Digital Collaboration Studio;
- Data-to-Idea Lab for Community Problem-Solving;
- Future of Work Sprint;
- Embodied Leadership Archetypes;
- Re-moving Debate;
- Forum Theatre on Exclusion;
- Rights Mapping to Campaign;
- TV Interview under Pressure;
- Consent Circle for a Youth Action;
- Burnout Budget Battle;
- Mirrors and Guided Pair Walk;
- Prototype and Pitch Clinic;
- Open Space Resource Wall;
- Reconnect the Missing Youth;
- Newcomers in the District.
The methods encourage participants to learn through teamwork, discussion, movement, simulation, creativity, public interaction, reflection, and practical problem-solving.
They can be used in Erasmus+ projects, youth centres, schools, training courses, civic education programmes, volunteer activities, and community events.
An inclusive approach to facilitation
The Guidebook places strong emphasis on inclusion, safety, choice, and gradual participation.
It encourages facilitators to avoid forcing participants immediately into demanding public-speaking or performance-based activities. Instead, participation can begin in pairs or small groups and gradually move toward larger discussions, presentations, advocacy, or public action.
The publication also recommends using different forms of participation, including:
- visual expression;
- movement;
- short written contributions;
- teamwork;
- role-based activities;
- discussion;
- digital collaboration;
- outdoor observation;
- public presentation.
This mixed approach helps create opportunities for young people with different abilities, communication styles, confidence levels, and language competencies.
The Guidebook also highlights the importance of voluntary participation, consent, cultural awareness, accessibility, and continuous adaptation according to the needs of the group.
The NextGenVoice Toolkit of Case Studies and Best Practices
The NextGenVoice Toolkit of Case Studies and Best Practices documents how the project methodology was prepared, tested, improved, and transferred across the four international workshops.
It presents the project as a complete learning journey rather than as a collection of isolated activities.
The Toolkit includes practical experiences from:
- Budapest, Hungary, focused on digital transformation and innovation;
- Bilecik, Türkiye, focused on social inclusion and equality;
- Iași, Romania, focused on human rights and social justice;
- Germany, focused on civic engagement, community leadership, and public-space participation.
Each workshop is presented as a case study showing what happened in practice, what challenges appeared, how facilitators adapted the programme, and which methods produced the strongest results.
From project experience to transferable practice
The Toolkit explains that successful youth work requires more than following a fixed agenda.
Before every workshop, the partner organisations reviewed educational materials, facilitation notes, activities, videos, handouts, and previous experiences. They adapted the programme according to the participants’ needs, cultural backgrounds, language confidence, and expectations.
During the workshops, facilitators gathered feedback and observed:
- where participants showed strong engagement;
- where instructions needed to be simplified;
- which participants required different ways of contributing;
- when the pace was too fast or too slow;
- which activities created confidence;
- which methods needed adjustment.
The partners then discussed these observations and used them to improve the following activities.
The Toolkit records this process so that other organisations can understand not only which methods were used, but also why they worked and how they were adapted.
Case studies from the four partner countries
The Toolkit shows how each workshop contributed a different but connected dimension to the project.
Digital transformation in Hungary
The Budapest workshop demonstrated that digital education becomes more meaningful when technology is connected to real social challenges.
Participants worked in mixed teams and used digital tools to develop ideas, prototypes, campaigns, and solutions. The activities encouraged young people with different levels of digital confidence to contribute through technical skills, creativity, problem analysis, communication, or user-centred thinking.
Social inclusion in Türkiye
The Bilecik workshop explored inclusion as a practical design responsibility rather than only as a general value.
Participants examined who speaks, who remains at the edge, how leadership is distributed, and how programmes can become more accessible. Role-play, embodied learning, forum theatre, community engagement, and group planning helped transform inclusion into practical action.
Human rights and social justice in Romania
The Iași workshop focused on translating human rights language into advocacy, campaigns, public communication, and community action.
Participants explored local rights issues, developed messages, practised public communication, designed campaign ideas, and reflected on how young people can defend equality and social justice.
SKILLHUB INCLUSIVITY contributed its experience in human rights, disability inclusion, equal opportunities, youth work, and practical advocacy.
Civic engagement in Germany
The workshop in Germany connected indoor learning with outdoor observation, public interaction, street action, community leadership, and future project ideas.
Participants tested how civic messages could be communicated respectfully in public spaces and learned how youth participation can move from discussion to visible community action.
A youth-friendly and visually accessible design
Both publications were designed to be easy to browse and attractive to young readers and practitioners.
They use:
- colour-coded thematic sections;
- clear titles and subtitles;
- icons and visual signposts;
- practical tables;
- activity cards;
- evidence boxes;
- short summaries;
- structured navigation;
- photographs and examples from the project activities.
The visual design helps readers quickly find the section, activity, or case study most relevant to their needs.
The publications can therefore be used both for detailed reading and for quick workshop preparation.
Who can use the Guidebook and Toolkit?
The resources are intended for:
- young people and youth leaders;
- youth workers and facilitators;
- teachers and educators;
- NGOs and community organisations;
- schools and universities;
- volunteers;
- Erasmus+ project teams;
- local authorities and youth councils;
- organisations working with disadvantaged groups;
- professionals supporting young people with disabilities or fewer opportunities.
The resources can support the planning and implementation of workshops, training courses, youth consultations, awareness campaigns, community initiatives, advocacy activities, and international mobility projects.
Supporting young people with fewer opportunities
Inclusion is a central principle of both documents.
The resources recognise that not all young people enter an activity with the same opportunities, experience, confidence, digital access, language skills, or support.
Facilitators are encouraged to adapt activities according to the needs of participants and to provide different entry points into learning.
The publications promote:
- accessible communication;
- voluntary participation;
- small-group preparation;
- varied participation methods;
- culturally sensitive facilitation;
- respect for personal boundaries;
- gradual public visibility;
- inclusive leadership;
- continuous participant feedback.
These principles help ensure that young people with disabilities, social or economic difficulties, migration backgrounds, geographical barriers, or lower confidence can participate meaningfully.
Sustainable results of the project
The Guidebook and Toolkit are important sustainable outcomes of the Erasmus+ project.
They ensure that the knowledge developed during the four international workshops remains available for future educational activities.
Partner organisations can use the publications in their own programmes, adapt the methods to new groups, and share them with other institutions.
Youth workers and educators who did not participate directly in the project can also benefit from the tested methodologies and practical examples.
The resources therefore extend the project’s impact beyond the original participants, countries, and mobility activities.
A result of European partnership
The publications were created through cooperation among:
- Phoenix Knowledge Wings gGmbH, Germany – project coordinator;
- Creative Youth Academy Hungary, Hungary;
- ERFEY BILISIM VE DANISMANLIK, Türkiye;
- SKILLHUB INCLUSIVITY, Romania.
Each partner contributed expertise and experience from its thematic workshop and organisational field.
Together, the partnership transformed the project’s activities into two practical resources that can support youth participation, active citizenship, digital confidence, inclusion, human rights, and social justice across Europe.
SKILLHUB INCLUSIVITY’s contribution
As the Romanian partner, SKILLHUB INCLUSIVITY contributed especially to the human rights and social justice dimension of the resources.
Our organisation helped connect rights-based learning with advocacy, youth participation, inclusive education, disability awareness, community engagement, and practical follow-up actions.
The methods and experiences developed during the Human Rights and Social Justice Workshop in Iași were integrated into the Guidebook and Toolkit so that they can be adapted and reused by other organisations.
We are proud to have contributed to publications that place young people, inclusion, accessibility, participation, and social justice at the centre of the educational process.
Continuing the NextGenVoice journey
The creation of the Guidebook and Toolkit represents an important step in ensuring the long-term value of the NextGenVoice project.
They are not publications intended only to document what has already happened. They are resources created to support future action.
Through these materials, young people and professionals are invited to:
- organise inclusive learning activities;
- develop youth-led initiatives;
- promote responsible digital participation;
- defend human rights;
- challenge discrimination;
- strengthen community leadership;
- create spaces where young people’s voices are heard;
- transform ideas into visible social action.
The Guidebook provides the practical activities.
The Toolkit explains the experiences, adaptations, and best practices behind them.
Together, they offer a complete resource for organisations that want to strengthen meaningful youth participation and contribute to more inclusive, democratic, and socially just communities.
Project: Fostering Youth Participation and Social Justice – NextGenVoice
Project number: 2024-3-DE04-KA154-YOU-000271505
Programme: Erasmus+ Youth Participation Activities – KA154-YOU
Resources created: NextGenVoice Guidebook of Non-Formal Learning Activities and NextGenVoice Toolkit of Case Studies and Best Practices
Partnership: Germany, Hungary, Türkiye, and Romania
Romanian partner: SKILLHUB INCLUSIVITY
Funded by the European Union. The views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the granting authority. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
https://skillhubinclusivity.eu/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/NextGenVoice_Guidebook.pdf
https://skillhubinclusivity.eu/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/NextGenVoice_Toolkit.pdf