The COVID-19 pandemic is redefining the lives of young people. The need for a safe space to be with friends and be accepted, grow as autonomous individual and learn – has become even more relevant. When the lockdowns and restrictions will be over, the need for youth centers will be bigger than ever.

“How to establish a youth center” is an online training course for youth workers, municipal specialists responsible for youth issues, NGO representatives funded by the Erasmus+ program. The training course was implemented from 29th of March till 9th of April, it gathered more than 45 participants from 13 countries across Europe: Norway, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, North Macedonia, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Romania, Greece, Moldova, Sweden and Bulgaria.

Aim of the training course was to provide participants with the know-how on how to initiate and maintain a youth center, which is running daily youth work activities, and how the funding of the Erasmus+ programme can help to assure a better quality of daily youth work activities. Participants engaged in 9 days of discussions, group work, presentations, case studies (online study visits) and developed future projects. Experts from the fields of youth work, youth policy, research, social entrepreneurship and architecture joined to share their know-how and experience.

Main motivation of participants to join this training course was to create youth centers by themselves in the future. Their learning outcomes were recognized with Youthpass and online learning badges. The training course is implemented by Elektrėnai culture center.