Across Europe, young people often feel disconnected from democratic processes and decision-making structures that affect their lives. While democracy and active participation are core values of the European Union, youth engagement remains uneven, particularly at local and community levels. Youth workers play a key role in bridging this gap by creating inclusive, participatory learning environments that empower young people to engage actively in civic life.
The training course Democracy in Play aims to equip youth workers with practical and interactive resources and competencies to promote active youth participation, democratic engagement, and EU values through experiential learning. Game-based and non-formal education approaches have proven to be effective tools for engaging youth, fostering critical thinking, and translating abstract democratic concepts into tangible experiences. The youth workers in the training course will dive into the educational board game – Democracy in Play and explore practical NFIL tools that offer innovative ways to explore democracy, participation, and decision-making in a playful yet meaningful manner. The overall aim of the training course is to strengthen the capacity of youth workers to promote democratic participation, active citizenship, and EU values among young people through game-based and non-formal education methods.
The training course will be based on non-formal education and experimental learning, with strong emphasis on learning by doing. By incorporating the educational boardgame on democracy, the youth workers will be stimulated to see how decision-making processes and power dynamics are formulated. Group discussions, reflection circles, and debriefings will help participants to connect game experiences with real-life democratic practices as well as guided reflection on transferability to participants’ local youth work contexts.
The specific objectives of the project are:
- Increase youth workers’ understanding of democracy, active participation, and youth involvement in decision-making processes;
- Build practical skills in using educational board games and training toolkits as learning tools;
- Enhance participants’ ability to facilitate inclusive, participatory, and reflective learning experiences;
- Promote EU values such as democracy, human rights, equality, solidarity, and active citizenship;
- Encourage youth workers to adapt and transfer game-based methods to their local contexts and target groups;
- Foster networking and cooperation among youth workers and organisations across Europe.
Venue: Varna, Bulgaria
Dates: 30 May – 4 June 2026 (including travel dates)
Participating countries: Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Romania, Greece, Hungary and Slovakia.
The info-pack is available here.
The application form is available here.
The project is funded by the European Commission under the Erasmus+ program.
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.