Shaping youth engagement at the NEXT.GEN.FORUM

The forum marked the beginning of the European Youth4Change project, which involves young people in actively shaping their communities, their countries and Europe. At a time when many young people feel unheard or disconnected from decision making, the project creates real spaces where youth voices matter and lead. It focuses on empowering individuals from marginalized and underrepresented backgrounds to take an active role in democratic life.

As a partner organization, the International Debate Education Association was glad to contribute to a program focused on this kind of meaningful youth engagement. During the forum we hosted the Logic Lab workshop to help participants develop strong arguments and gain practical skills to advocate for their ideas. We also led a round table discussion on the benefits of structured dialogue between young people and policy makers.

During the Let's Talk About Change panel discussion, we joined representatives from civil society and local politics to discuss the future of youth participation. Our main contribution to this discussion was addressing the question of how young people can be meaningfully involved in decision making processes beyond mere consultation. We emphasized that effective participation is a shared responsibility. Adults and politicians must move beyond election season tokenism and make a genuine effort to understand youth perspectives, even when young people use a different language than politicians are accustomed to hearing. At the same time, we highlighted that young people have a responsibility to keep pushing and refuse to let themselves be ignored.

This perspective is at the very core of our work. Debate education is fundamentally about active participation rather than mere consultation. It equips young people with the skills to express their vision and become confident change makers who help build more inclusive and democratic societies.

NEXT.GEN.FORUM was a very valuable experience and a perfect start to the Youth4Change project. We look forward to other activities within the project.