The From Power to Empowerment project aims to give youth workers concrete tools to identify and deconstruct the often invisible power dynamics in their professional and social environments. When these dynamics are not recognized, they fuel inequalities, hinder emancipation, and limit the participation of the most marginalized young people.
The objective is to contribute to fairer, more inclusive, and more equal environments within the field of youth work. To achieve this, the project encourages participants to:
- Strengthen their critical analysis skills in order to identify and examine the power structures that shape their daily lives and professional practices with young people.
- Rethink and experiment with spaces of horizontal governance, in order to foster more democratic modes of organisation that are less prone to the concentration of power.
- Share and co-create pedagogical and creative tools that raise young people’s awareness of the power dynamics shaping their lives, while supporting them in developing autonomy and agency.
Through this process, the project seeks to equip youth workers to become agents of change who can transform their professional environments and contribute to greater social justice.
Activities
The project activities will be based on participatory and experiential methods such as Theatre of the Oppressed and forum theatre, horizontal governance models, conscious and non-violent communication, and awareness of decolonial and ecological thinking. Immersion in the self-managed Catfarm community will be a key component, allowing participants to experiment directly with collective, inclusive, and sustainable alternatives. Collaborations with local actors and the public presentation of forum theatre works will further enhance the project’s impact.
The training will be structured around four main intentions, which guide the participants’ journey:
1) Identify and analyse power dynamics.
2) Question these dynamics and draw inspiration from alternative models.
3) Experiment with new ways of exercising power.
4) Adapt the tools to their professional and local environments.
Participants will also take part in collective and individual feedback sessions, self-evaluations, sharing circles, thematic evenings (drag, intercultural, etc.), as well as co-creation of workshops and emergent practice sessions, fostering active, reflective, and participatory learning.
The project will involve approximately 38 youth workers, aged 18 and over, from partner countries (5 to 6 participants per organisation). The group will consist of diverse profiles in terms of age, gender, professional background, and cultural context. Special attention will be given to including people with fewer opportunities, ensuring diversity and representativeness within the group.
Impact
The From Power to Empowerment project will enable youth workers to strengthen their skills in critically analyzing power relations and in inclusive, intercultural facilitation. They will experiment with transferable methods that can be integrated into their everyday practice and will co-create a training handbook bringing together the tools and content explored during the course, as well as those developed collectively.
Dissemination will also take place through social media, the organisation of a community event presenting the mobility and the Forum Theatre pieces created, feedback workshops in local contexts, and sharing within European networks.
The expected impact is multifaceted. On the one hand, the project aims to bring about a lasting transformation of professional and organisational practices by strengthening inclusion and horizontal governance. On the other hand, it will equip participants with tools to raise young people’s awareness of power dynamics and to support their empowerment. Finally, by strengthening Erasmus+ networks and widely disseminating its outcomes, the project seeks to inspire innovative and inclusive practices at local, national and European levels.
Dates: October 15th to 24th, 2026
Location: France
Coordinator: Catfarm Education
Partners: Gaia Education Europe AISBL (Belgium), Youth Development Organization (Lebanon), Fundación Escuela de Solidaridad (Spain), Kinoniki Sineteristiki Epihirisi (Greece), Adventures of the Valparaíso (Netherlands)
2026-1-FR02-KA153-YOU-000393880