"The basis of the project was that many studies had shown the importance of youth participation. The opportunity to make a difference was found to have an empowering influence on youth. In our schools pupils often felt that adults didn’t listen to them and they thought that their opinions weren't important. They felt frustrated, unappreciated and disappointed, even rebellious. We believed that they should be given more opportunities to involve in decision-making. For example a policy review of Council of Europe „Child and youth participation in Finland“ gave recommendations for adults to ensure that young people are listened to. So we decided to use our pupils as experts and invited them more often to the decision process. We decided to take them seriously and this project was used as a tool to make this happen. Through our project we hoped to raise our pupils to become active citizens. To obtain this goal we aimed to teach them the skills needed to staying active and also competences needed to advancing one’s goals using democratic means. We also aimed to teach our pupils that their actions and decisions have meaning and that they should put thought into them. The pupils also learnt that they can have a real impact in their surroundings. This was all achieved through activities such as setting up a campaign against cyber-bullying, setting up an Art Exhibit that showed the dream state of pupils’ surroundings and a debate which taught the pupils to take a stand for the things they believe in. We hope that in the long run the project leads to increased motivation and helps our pupils not to underachieve in the society that surrounds them. The participants of the project were the pupils from four different schools: Kaarilan koulu (Finland), Escola Básica Monsenhor Elísio Araújo (Portugal), Skolen ved Bülowsvej (Denmark) and Liceul Teoretic ""Emil Racovita"" (Romania). The pupils taking part were aged 12-16 years and the project was implemented in a way that enabled as many pupils as possible to take part in many of the activities. The participating pupils for the transnational meetings were chosen based on an application that they write in English. The pupils had to show their motivation and describe why they should be chosen. For each meeting different pupils were chosen so that the project felt more like it’s for the whole school. During the first year the pupils learnt the means needed to staying and being active. The year consisted of activities such as planning and cooking of a healthier lunch-box, organizing a local campaign against cyber-bullying and learning teamwork skills while teaching and playing the national sports of each country. Tangible outcomes of the first year included a Cookbook, campaign material against cyber-bullying and illustrated instructions on national sports. The second year the pupils first focused on their surroundings by taking photos of faults that they could find in their school. They then worked on fixing these faults and also familiarized themselves with the people who could fix the faults that they couldn't themselves. They then used photo manipulation to make the photos look like they felt they should, to look like the faults had been corrected. The photos were made into a large photo-montage showing before and after photos next to each other. The pupils then found a place in their neighbourhood that they felt could be made better in one way or another. They photographed the actual place and then built a scale model to reflect their dream world. Both the scale models and the photo-montages were put up in an Art Exhibition that the pupils organized in a transnational meeting. The second part of the year focused on democracy. The pupils learnt about decision making on local and national level when they prepared videos of democracy in their country. They then compared the democratic systems between different countries to find similarities as well as differences. In the final meeting the pupils also came together for a debate where they had to take a stand for the environmental goals for the year 2030 that they believed in. The pupils taking part in the project benefited by learning to take notice of their surroundings. They acquired the skills needed to take action to correct the faults they notice. They are now better able to take a stand for something that they believe in. This was reached through giving them the skills needed as well as giving them positive experiences in being active citizens. During the campaign against cyber-bullying the local schools will also benefited as they formed the target group of the campaign. The longer term benefits for the participating pupils are clear. They gained language skills, cultural skills and learnt to take an active role in the society where needed. For the participating teachers the project gave a great opportunity to learn from different practices that are used in other countries and to form transnational bonds."