Throughout the summer of 2026, YouTransition partners organised a new series of Peer Learning Workshops across Europe, bringing together young people, Youth Workers, local authorities and community organisations. Following the Grassroots Events, the International Training in Porto and the Transnational Online Events, this phase marked an important step in the project, helping participants transform the challenges identified in their communities into the first Service Concepts supporting the Just Transition.
Rather than focusing on final solutions, the workshops were designed to help young people explore local priorities, exchange perspectives and shape ideas that will be further developed in the next phase of the project. While each partner adapted the activities to its own local context, all workshops shared the same objective: preparing participants to enter the Local Workshops with stronger ideas, greater confidence and a common understanding of local needs.
A defining feature of this phase was its peer-to-peer approach. The workshops were facilitated by Youth Workers who had previously participated in the International Training in Porto, creating spaces where young people could learn from one another, share experiences and collectively develop the first Service Concepts. More than generating ideas, this process strengthened participants' confidence and prepared them to engage in the next phase of co-design with municipalities, decision-makers and local stakeholders.
Although every city addressed different priorities, the workshops all contributed to the same collective ambition: empowering young people to become active contributors to the Just Transition by transforming local challenges into concrete opportunities for action.
Different cities, shared purpose
From rural mobility to urban regeneration, mental health and civic participation, the workshops addressed a wide range of local priorities while laying the foundations for the next phase of the project.
Lecce
Italy
In Lecce (Italy), Project School and the Municipality of Lecce organised a two-step Peer Learning process. During the first event, young participants transformed the challenges identified in the Grassroots Event into nine Service Concepts aimed at strengthening youth participation before, during and after urban regeneration processes. A follow-up workshop then focused on two of these concepts, allowing participants to further refine them and prepare their first small-scale implementation through activities linked to the Southstainability Festival.
Cinisello Balsamo
Italy
In Cinisello Balsamo (Italy), AnciLab organised three workshops that progressively guided young people from identifying local challenges to structuring their first responses. Participants mapped six priority themes: education, communication, mental health, employment, participation and intergenerational dialogue, and concluded the process by translating these shared needs into initial ideas using a simplified Design Sprint approach.
Marmande
France
In Marmande (France), LENA organised a one-day workshop bringing together young people, mentors, local authorities and elected representatives to address one of the main challenges affecting the area: youth engagement and rural mobility. Working through a structured Service Design process, participants developed three Service Concepts: a Youth Engagement Forum, a community-based car-sharing network and a mobility support scheme for young people facing economic hardship.
Porto
Portugal
In Porto (Portugal), FNAJ organised a co-creation workshop where participants explored six key challenges linked to the Just Transition, including climate adaptation, youth participation, sustainable mobility, affordable housing, transparency in decision-making and community cohesion. Building on these themes, the groups developed six initial Service Concepts, each presented through a Concept Note describing the problem addressed, the proposed service, its expected impact and the actors involved.
Głogów
Poland
In Głogów (Poland), SZANSA organised a workshop centred on a simple but powerful question: "Young people have a voice, but do they have influence?" Rather than focusing on designing services, participants explored the barriers that limit meaningful youth participation and reflected on how ideas can move from dialogue to decision and action. The workshop resulted in a shared vision of the conditions needed to enable young people to actively contribute to local decision-making and receive feedback on their proposals.
Khashuri
Georgia
In Khashuri (Georgia), the Youth Agency organised a workshop focused on translating the principles of the Just Transition into local action. Starting from challenges such as unemployment, population outflow and limited youth services, participants reflected on opportunities to strengthen youth participation, improve access to non-formal education and support young people in shaping the future of their community.
Argos
Greece
In Argos (Greece), Learning Seed organised two workshops involving vocational students and young people from the local community. Participants explored how local services could better respond to community needs, developing proposals focused on accessibility, youth participation, community support and more inclusive local services.
Looking ahead
The ideas generated during the Peer Learning Workshops are now entering a new phase of development.
- Over the coming weeks, partners will organise a series of Local Workshops, where young people will work alongside municipalities, community organisations, local stakeholders and decision-makers to further develop and validate their Service Concepts, strengthen local partnerships and prepare them for implementation.
- The journey will then continue at the international meeting in Głogów (Poland), where young representatives from each partner country will present their proposals, exchange experiences with their European peers and select the Service Concepts that will move forward to the final prototyping and testing phase of YouTransition.
From one country to another, local priorities may differ, but the message emerging from every workshop is the same: when young people are given the opportunity to learn from one another and collaborate with their communities, participation becomes a driver of real change.
