Youth in Action, our most useful source of project fund, is the EU Programme for young people aged 15-28 (in some cases 13-30). It aims to inspire a sense of active citizenship, solidarity and tolerance among young Europeans and to involve them in shaping the Union's future.

Youth in Action is a programme for all! It promotes mobility within and beyond the EU borders, non-formal learning and intercultural dialogue, and encourages the inclusion of all young people, regardless of their educational, social and cultural background. Geographic reach or the programme is quite large: EU Member States, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Turkey, the EU neighbors (Eastern Europe and Caucasus, the Mediterranean region, South-East Europe) and other partner countries in the world

Youth in Action is the successor of the YOUTH Programme (2000-2006). Building on the experience of the previous programmes for youth, Youth in Action is the result of a large consultation with the different stakeholders in the youth field and aims to respond to the evolutions and needs of young people at European level.

With a total budget of 885 million Euros for seven years (2007-2013), the Programme supports a large variety of activities for young people and youth workers through five actions.

Programme Actions

The Youth in Action Programme aims to achieve the following general objectives:

• promote young people’s active citizenship in general and their European citizenship in particular;
• develop solidarity and promote tolerance among young people, in particular in order to foster social cohesion in the European Union;
• foster mutual understanding between young people in different countries;
• contribute to developing the quality of support systems for youth activities and the capabilities of civil society organizations in the youth field;
• promote European cooperation in the youth field.

To this end, the Programme is structured around 5 Actions:

Action 1 - Youth for Europe encourages young people's active citizenship, participation and creativity through youth exchanges, youth initiatives and youth democracy projects. For more information, click here.
Action 2 - European Voluntary Service helps young people to develop their sense of solidarity by participating, either individually or in group, in non-profit, unpaid voluntary activities abroad. For more information, click here.
Action 3 - Youth in the World promotes partnerships and exchanges among young people and youth organizations across the world. For more information, click here.
Action 4 - Youth Support Systems includes various measures to support youth workers and youth organizations and improve the quality of their activities. For more information, click here.
Action 5 - Support for European Co-operation in the Youth field supports youth policy co-operation at European level, in particular by facilitating dialogue between young people and policy makers. For more information, click here.

Programme Priorities
The Youth in Action Programme has four permanent priorities and additional annual priorities which potential projects will have to be aware of as they frame their bids for support:

European Citizenship: A key goal of the programme is to raise awareness in young people that they are citizens of Europe, as well as citizens of their own countries. The aim is to get youth actively involved in shaping the future of the European Union. Projects will have to show a strong European dimension if they are to receive programme backing.

Participation of young people: Youth in Action promotes and supports young people’s involvement in democratic life, spurring them on to be active citizens who care about their communities and understand the value of representative democracy.

Cultural diversity: Respect for people’s cultural origins is at the heart of the Youth in Action programme, as is the desire to fight against racism and xenophobia – forces that undermine European values and people’s solidarity.

Inclusion: The focus is on ensuring that young people with fewer opportunities get access to the Youth in Action programme, as well as on encouraging projects with a thematic focus on inclusion.

Annual priorities: In addition to these permanent priorities, each year the focus is also placed on specific annual priorities. In 2010 priority will be given to project proposals taking into account one or more of the following priorities:

- European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion
- Youth unemployment and promotion of young unemployed people's active participation in society
- Awareness-raising and mobilization of young people around global challenges (such as sustainable development, climate change, migrations, the Millennium Development Goals).

To get more information about the programme priorities, click here.

How to participate

There are two main ways to get involved in the Youth in Action Programme:

1. As an individual, if you are a young person aged between 13-30 or a youth worker; full of energy, creativity and ideas and would like to find a way to develop them; looking for opportunities to meet and exchange ideas and practices with other young people or youth workers from different countries; interested in volunteering in another country, you can be a participant in one of the activities supported by the Programme.

If you would like to get involved, join in Youth A.R.T. Initiative right now! We believe that our website would help you find out more about the opportunities offered by the Programme. You can get for further useful information and advice on Actions and projects directly from our core leaders. Do not hesitate to contact us!

2. As an organization, if you are a non-governmental youth organization; an informal group of young people; a local or regional public body; a body active at European level in the field of youth; willing to develop a project and submit an application for funding under the Youth in Action Programme, you can become a promoter of an activity to be supported by the Programme!

If you would like to get involved and submit a project application for funding, we are always ready to help you shape your ideas! Think through your project ideas and share them with us so as to realize them within the framework of Youth in Action Programme.

There are application deadlines as follows:
For projects submitted to a Turkish National Agency, located in Ankara, there are five application deadlines per year:



Once the project application is submitted, it will go through a selection process to make sure that it fulfils all the Programme criteria. At the end of this process, Turkish National Agency or the Executive Agency will inform you of the results. If the application is successful, the host organization will have to sign a grant agreement before starting the activities.

Get support from Youth A.R.T. Initiative!

At every stage of the process, whether you are looking for additional information or for advice on how to develop your project ideas, whether you need support in partner-finding or help to fill in your application form, during or after your project implementation, you can get assistance, training and advice from Youth A.R.T. as well as various support structures (your National Agency or the Executive Agency, the Eurodesk network, SALTO Youth Resource Centres). Write us on youtharti@yahoo.com to contact us at any stage!

Programme Guide

The Programme Guide is a tool for anybody who would like to participate in the Youth in Action Programme. It includes the necessary information about the priorities, actions and main features of the Programme as well as the criteria and conditions on how to participate. It will help you understand the Programme's objectives and criteria, and to identify the types of projects that can be supported by the Programme. Just click here to download the guide.

To learn more about the Youth in Action Programme, here are some sources of information available online:

- European Commission’s Official Website:
http://ec.europa.eu/youth/youth-in-action-programme/doc74_en.htm

- The Education, Audiovisual and Culture Agency Executive Agency (EACEA):
http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/youth/index_en.php

- Turkish National Agency:
http://www.ua.gov.tr/

- European Youth Portal:
http://europa.eu/youth/

- British Council Connect Youth Portal:
http://www.britishcouncil.org/connectyouth-programmes-youth-in-action.htm

- Youth in Action Glossary:
http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/youth/tools/glossary_en.php