What are Youth Initiatives?

It can be:
- A national Youth initiative: proposed by a group of young people from programme countries. This is a project which can be realised at a local, regional or national level.

- A transnational Youth initiative: could be realised in common with young people from at least one other country. This project should be based on a real partnership and aimed at exchanging and sharing the practices developed by young people in their respective communities.

Brief description of a Youth initiative:

The group of young people has to choose a theme relevant to the group itself and to the local community. For example: art and culture, fight against racism and xenophobia, the environment, equal opportunities, media and communication, cultural heritage etc.
A well-structured programme and a timetable for the project must be provided. It must be clearly linked to the objectives. The project can last anywhere between 3 and 18 months, including preparation, implementation, evaluation and follow-up. For concrete examples of projects, take a look at our Youth Initiatives database "Compendium".

Target group:

A Youth Initiative project should actively involve a minimum of 4 young people (in each country) from 15 to 30 years old.

Selection criteria:

- Quality of the programme and working methods
- Impact of the project on the local community
- Innovation
- Relevance of the objectives
- European dimension of the project
- Visibility of the project
- Dissemination of results and follow up of the project

Deadlines for submitting a project:

1st February 2012: for projects starting between 1st May and 31st Oct 2012.
1st May 2012: for projects starting between 1st August 2012 and 31st January 2013.
1st October 2012: for projects starting between 1st Jan and 30th June 2013.

*Information is taken from the SALTO-YOUTH website. Look more information from here