Event - Conference

Young LEADER Forum

The first opportunity for the EU CAP Network to bring together motivated young people from rural areas and people working with LEADER at regional, national and EU level.

11 Jun 2024, 19:00 - 13 Jun 2024, 17:00 CEST
English
Vierumäki, Finland
In-person

a group of people riding bicycles on a rail platform

The Young LEADER Forum was the first opportunity for the EU CAP Network to bring together motivated young people from rural areas and people connected with LEADER at local level, together with organisations and administrations at regional, national and EU level.

The event offered an opportunity to highlight the added value of youth engagement and empowerment in the implementation of the LEADER approach. To that end, the event was organised in close cooperation with the Finnish National Network.

The event also enabled the voices of young people to be amplified through the sharing of their ideas to ensure that their contributions will be valued and incorporated into the changes needed in their rural areas.

The main objectives of the Young LEADER Forum were:

to collect youth perspectives on LEADER – to understand how LEADER implementation could work for them;
to exchange approaches to increasing the power of young people in LEADER policy making and implementation; and
to foster an international young LEADER community.

The key characteristics of the Young LEADER Forum were its participatory nature and the co-design of its activities. The event aimed to engage mainly young ambassadors between 18 to 35 years old (with prioritisation for young people under 30 years) from different countries across the EU. It created a space for exchanges on LEADER related topics with their peers from other countries but also, importantly for exchanges, with representatives of Managing Authorities, National Networks and national LEADER networks who directly work with LEADER.