<< Background >>The 2014 IPCC report states unambiguously: “Human influence on the climate system is clear, and recent anthropogenic emissions of green-house gases are the highest in history.” Knowing that human activities are the main driver of global warming helps us to understand how and why our climate is changing, and it clearly defines our responsibility to address the problem. Goal 13 of the Sustainable Development Goals calls for taking urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts. Today’s youth are key stakeholders who will be affected by climate change and have a vital role to play in contributing to national and global processes of sustainable development. While many young people take their responsibility seriously and connect with each other across Europe for purposes of climate protection, e.g. via Fridays for Future, the majority of these young people are coming from middle or high level income households (Traub, 2020). However, to be able to achieve full climate protection, a society needs to be addressed in which ALL young people are environmentally active, educated and able to make a difference in their everyday lives (cf. EU Youth Strategy 2019-2027).Non-formal youth work portrays the best opportunity to reach out to young people, including young people with fewer opportunities, who are not yet involved in climate justice activities, as those represent their main target group. Although there is abundant education material available on these issues, they are not well-integrated into youth work across Europe and youth leaders and youth workers are accordingly not well equipped to integrate these topics into their daily work with the young people. For these reasons, five organisations from the Czech Republic, France, Germany and Romania, chose to work together in the frame of “I-YES: Inclusive Youth Engagement for Sustainability - Tools for Youth Leaders”. The main aim of I-YES is to bring topics of climate justice and sustainability into non-formal youth work, using the approach of Global Citizenship Education (GCE). Non-formal youth work and GCE are related concepts which go beyond formal education, aiming to establish values, lifestyles and attitudes, addressing the intrinsic motivation of young people and promote self-efficacy within life-long learning processes. Studies in many countries show that climate anxiety is an increasing phenomena among young people. In a recent study of the Institut Futur of the Berlin Free University, youth workers relate the increasing relevance of climate-change issues in their work and the need to be better qualified to deal with these challenges.<< Objectives >>Studies have shown that efforts to promote sustainability need to communicate the ease and accessibility of pro-environmental behavior and to enhance people’s confidence in their ability to make a difference. Although there is abundant educational material available on these issues, they are not well-integrated into youth work across Europe. Non-formal youth work is voluntary and provides common learning spaces for young people, regardless of their social, financial or educational backgrounds. It has the potential to promote diversity and inclusion and create opportunities for young people, especially those who are marginalized from the mainstream, to actively participate in society. Therefore the concrete OBJECTIVE of I-YES is to equip youth leaders and youth workers across Europe with tools that enable them to holistically integrate the topics of climate justice and sustainability into non-formal youth work. The approach of Global Citizenship Education will allow them to address young people from all social backgrounds. In the long term, this project will contribute to systemic change by increasing the number of young people who are aware of climate justice & sustainability issues, think critically as global citizens and act as agents of change.<< Implementation >>Besides the development of the project results, one joint staff training and four Multiplier Events will take place during the project duration.The joint staff training will be an introduction to Global Citizenship Education (GCE) with the goal of enabling youth leaders & youth workers to integrate inclusive GCE approaches to global climate justice & sustainability topics into the daily work of their organisations. The GCE approach will also be the foundation for the development of the project results, the digital platform and the checklist.Multiplier Events will take place in Czech Republic, France, Germany and Romania, each in October/November 2023. These events will serve for the presentation of the project results and the establishment of new networks and cooperations between youth leaders and youth organisations across Europe.<< Results >>In order to achieve the above outlined project objective, two PROJECT RESULTS will be developed within the frame of I-YES. These are tools to offer youth leaders and youth workers approaches on how to proactively integrate the topics of climate justice and sustainability in their activities with young people from different social backgrounds in non-formal youth work across Europe. R1: The DIGITAL PLATFORM will consist of 6 self-learning sections and will be available in English, Czech, French, German and Romanian. The six sections will partly be newly developed and partly building on already existing learning materials. It will address diversity and include strategies for reaching young people with fewer opportunities.The topics will be the following: 1) Introduction to the Global Citizenship Education approach, 2) didactic principles on how to develop activities for young people (f), 3) support to event/activity planning (opportunities), 4) method toolbox for the implementation of activities , 5) literature, networks and other online resources in the field of GCE and climate justice, developed outside I-YES, 6) information and guidance on inspiring communities to become active and how to become a multiplier, peer leaders and agent for change.. All sections will be based on the GCE approach.R2: The CHECKLIST will be a 1 or 2 DinA-4 pager. It will serve as an information, motivation and dissemination tool. It is a tool for youth leaders on how to approach the topics of global climate justice and sustainability in non-formal youth work, and can also be used to promote the digital platform amongst all target groups of the project. The checklist will be adapted for each participating country and accordingly translated. A template for the checklist will be provided on the platform so that stakeholders from other countries or settings can use this to develop a checklist for their country/region.OTHER OUTCOMESAs aforementioned, in the long term I-YES aims to make the topic of climate justice and sustainability more accessible to young people from ALL social backgrounds and activate them to become change agents. Additionally, networks between youth leaders, youth workers and youth organisations will be strengthened through I-YES. At the beginning of the project an advisory board will be established, including all associated partners. With time, the networks will be extended to include interested youth leaders, youth workers and youth organisations across Europe and beyond.Lastly, in accordance with the European Guidelines for Digital Youth Work, the project will also qualify youth workers to plan and deliver Digital Youth Work according to youth work goals and young people’s needs and aspirations, enabling young people across Europe to connect with one other and expand their media literacy. The necessity of increased digitalisation in youth work due to the Covid-19 crisis has forced, but also enabled, youth workers to make great progress in this area.