"BACKGROUNDResearch shows that young people living below the poverty line face multiple barriers to access education, employment, housing, etc. To be poor is a very stigmatizing experience, which affects self-esteem, confidence and personal security. Thus, low income is a strong predictor of low educational performance, lower aspirations for the future and finally social exclusion. The 2013 Annual Growth Survey showed that poverty and social exclusion are major obstacles to the achievement of the Europe 2020 objective of inclusive growth. There is a lack of extensive knowledge on how young people experience poverty in the different member states and much to learn about how the dynamic nature of poverty and youth intertwine. A better understanding is urgently needed for achieving the Europe 2020 goal of “at least 20 million fewer people in or at risk of poverty and social exclusion"". OBJECTIVES, NUMBER AND PROFILE OF PARTICIPANTSYES Forum, the European network of organizations working with and for disadvantaged young people, having members and affiliates in 18 EU member states, led the strategic partnership “Our life. Our voice. Young people and poverty”. We placed young people’s views at the heart of this project to explore their attitudes to poverty and what it means for them to live in families struggling to make ends meet from day to day. By listening to the young people experiencing poverty we wanted to bridge the gap between policy and practice. We provided fresh ideas for both actors in the field of youth services and youth work as well as policy makers on what real support should look like and how to better target resources to disadvantaged young people’s needs.The project partnership involved 6 partners and the YES Forum, as the coordinating organization. We implemented the project in 5 countries, different with regard to welfare system, historical development, and economic performance. We collaborated with partners coming from the UK, Italy, Germany, Finland and Romania, covering different regions of the EU. All participating organizations have had strong experience in delivering services for those experiencing poverty, listening to young people and influencing policy to improve the lives of those in or at risk of poverty. To reach a large audience ranging from youth work organizations, service providers, policy makers and public authorities, we involved another strong European network, active in the field of street work, Dynamo International. Through the activities of the partner organisation in the life-time of the project, we have reached 1.700 young people. Through extensive dissemination activities, as described in detail in the section ‘dissemination’, we reached around 6.500 multipliers across Europe. ACTIVITIES AND METHODOS USEDThis strategic partnership was built on a model established by The Children’s Society, a YES Forum member from the UK. We transferred this method and applied it within the strategic partnership by setting groups of young people with an interest to explore poverty. These groups of 12-15 young people were accompanied by youth workers applying interactive and participatory methods to get an insight into the experience of young people in poverty (IO1). The young people themselves created discussions on different perceptions of poverty and as a result formulated their recommendations against poverty and what real support should look like (IO2). At regional and national events, they met with representatives from youth organizations, service providers, local authorities, and policy makers to discuss their suggestions. The methodology used for engaging those young people who might be hard to reach was also published in a tool-kit for practitioners (IO3). The activities then culminated in the final international conference organized by the YES Forum together with Dynamo International. This event was held in Brussels, presenting the project findings in creative and interactive ways, devised by the young people to reach the various actors working with disadvantaged young people across Europe, ranging from professionals of youth and social work to decision- and policy-makers at EU level.RESULTS, IMPACT, LONGER TERM BENEFITSBy applying this participatory approach the project filled a gap in the discourse around poverty, where often the focus at national and EU level is on statistics and the definition of poverty rather than the day to day experience of young people. Local authorities and those responsible for developing services and policies for young people benefited from our substantial knowhow in including those young people who may not otherwise be engaged in established platforms for policymaking in the youth field (e.g. youth councils, youth organizations)."

The CONTEXT of our project was that the concept of the ‘Children's Town’, which is implemented in various cities in Germany and enjoys a high acceptance at regional level, will be implemented in the future in other European countries according to the concepts they developed on their own. The basis for this was the Children’s Town project ‘Bärenhausen’ (Bearsville), which in the last 10 years has been organised and carried out by the partner Stiftung Evangelische Jugendhilfe in cooperation with St. Johannis GmbH. This concept was presented to the transnational partners in theory and in practice and then discussed in detail. II. OBJECTIVE AND THEMATIC APPROACH: St. Johannis GmbH placed the Children’s Town, which entails elements such as political education, non-formal learning and participation of children, at the heart of the transnational cooperation and presented the Children’s Town project ‘Bärenhausen’ in practice and theory as an example; the participative Children’s Town concept was enriched and renewed by the ideas of the European partners (European ideas). On this background, the partners created their own national concepts and presented them in their region. Two partners implemented their concepts and carried out three Children’s Town projects. The partners entered their national concepts on the online platform ‘Wiki’ that was further developed during the project duration. All facts and figures were collected here; the Children’s Town ‘Wiki’ was made public at the end of the project period in order to give other organisations ideas and to support them with information when they develop their own similar projects. III.NUMBER AND PROFILE OF PARTICIPANTS: 4 transnational and 2 national partners participated in the project. The project is aimed at managers and professionals in the field of child and youth work who were and are active in the field of open and non-formal education for young people. All participants had a fundamental interest in professional exchange, the further development and testing of concepts new to them and contributed experiences in participative work with young people. IV. DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITIES: Cooperation agreements and learning agreements were concluded between the partners. The project leader visited the partner institutions, learnt about the structures of existing offers and checked and controlled the regional project work. He organised and carried out the transnational partner meetings and blended learning activities, detailed the work and time schedule as well as the quality assurance plan and presented these for discussion among partners. He worked out methods, strategies and standards for the realisation of the Children’s Town project and presented these for discussion among partners. The results were taken up in the local regional structures for the development of national concepts; A total of three Children's Town concepts were implemented (Sweden 1; Romania 2). He coordinated the development of the online platform ‘Wiki’ and the publication of the results of the national concepts and results. He conducted a survey among the participants and project partners and evaluated the results. The evaluation of the overall measure was also realized by the project manager. The cooperation partners selected potential regional, local and national partners and organized regular meetings during which the documents produced were reviewed and further proposals developed on the methods, strategies, standards for the implementation of the Children’s Town. V. METHODOLOGY: To reach the goals we used the following methods a) 4 project partner meetings (transnational partner meetings) with introduction, coordination processes, comparison of the elaborated documents, decisions were taken and strategies were revised, b) 2 transnational blended learning activities with key notes; inputs were given based on the realisation of the Children's Towns in Bernburg and Sweden through observation, work shadowing, questions, workshops and evaluation. During evaluation, new approaches and methods were developed, which were then incorporated into the national concepts. c) Development of the online platform ‘Wiki’ used for information transfer. VI. RESULTS: Realisation of C1 with transfer of basic knowledge. The partners have created their own concepts on the basis of the practical participation in the project and realisation of C1. The partners have adapted the concepts to their local framework conditions and disseminated and presented their Children’s Town concepts in their countries. Two partners have organised and realised their own Children’s Town project: the Romanian partner implemented two Children’s Town projects and the Swedish partner one project. Our Italian partner was about to implement his concept for a Children's Town when Covid19 measures put a temporary end to this. On the basis of the practical models, the partners have further detailed their concept development. Presentation of the concepts and discussion.Realisation of C2 - Concept development ‘Children’s Town’ based on practical models. Within the project term the online platform ‘Children’s Town – Wiki’ was developed where all data and facts for the implementation of a Children’s Town project were gathered. All partners involved entered their results and knowledge on this platform. The Kinderstadt ‘Wiki’ was opened to the public at the end of the project term in order to give suggestions to other organisations.VII. Longer-term EFFECTIVENESS is given by 1. the implementation of the results in the realisation of the Children's Towns in all partner countries; 2. via project information on the internet, in the press, during Y.E.S. Forum general assemblies; 3. dissemination of the national concepts in the partner countries as well as through Y.E.S. Forum on the European level; 4. ‘Wiki’ platform opened to the public.