KA153-YOU-813B96B3
Title : ROOTED — Place-Based Youth Work for Belonging, Resilience and Local Action
Applicant : Coolvoyage Destinations di Angelo Calvi (E10408754 – IT)
Programme : Erasmus+Call : 2026 Round 2Action type : Mobility of youth workers (KA153-YOU)
ROOTED
Place-Based Youth Work for Belonging, Resilience and Local Action
A proposed Erasmus+ KA153-YOU initiative in development
Bakuriani, Georgia
ROOTED will take place in Bakuriani, Georgia, where the surrounding territory will become an active part of the learning process.
Rather than treating the destination simply as the location of the training course, ROOTED uses Bakuriani as a real-life environment in which participants can observe the relationships between place, community, environmental and territorial change, tourism, local identity and youth experience.
During the seven-day programme, youth workers from Italy, Georgia and Azerbaijan will progressively move from understanding place-based youth work to applying it in practice. A central element will be the ROOTED Field Learning Laboratory, where international groups will leave the traditional training-room setting and explore the local environment through structured observation, community mapping and listening.
Participants will examine how a place is experienced by the people who live there, how environmental and territorial transformations influence community life and belonging, and how youth workers can help young people interpret these changes and participate in constructive local action.
The experience gathered in Bakuriani will then be transformed into practical youth-work methods that participants can adapt to their own communities in Italy, Georgia and Azerbaijan.
In ROOTED, therefore, Bakuriani is not simply where the project happens. It is part of how the project learns.
Project summary
ROOTED — Place-Based Youth Work for Belonging, Resilience and Local Action is a 12-month Erasmus+ KA153-YOU mobility project designed to strengthen the professional competences of youth workers from Italy, Georgia and Azerbaijan.
The project responds to a shared challenge. Environmental change, territorial transformation, changing livelihoods, tourism pressure, urbanisation, mobility and altered community life are increasingly present in young people’s everyday experience. These changes can influence their sense of belonging, confidence in the future, wellbeing and willingness to participate in local life. However, youth workers often lack practical, transferable methods for turning these lived experiences into safe dialogue, non-formal learning, meaningful youth participation and realistic local action.
ROOTED does not treat environmental change only as a technical topic, and it does not present youth work as therapy. Its focus is the professional development of youth workers. The project will equip participants to use place-based, participatory and wellbeing-sensitive youth-work methods; facilitate inclusive dialogue; maintain professional boundaries; apply safeguarding and referral awareness; use community mapping and structured observation; support youth voice; and translate local realities into youth-led learning and action.
The core mobility is a seven-day Training Course in Bakuriani, Georgia. Bakuriani will function as a Field Learning Laboratory rather than a visit or excursion. Participants will use structured observation, community mapping, listening, stakeholder perspectives and facilitated reflection to explore how a mountain community is shaped by environment, tourism, development, community life and social change. They will then transform their observations into youth-work activities, test them through micro-facilitation, receive structured feedback and adapt them to their home contexts.
The project follows one clear professional-development pathway:
Environmental and territorial change → youth experience and social/emotional response → youth-worker competence → youth participation → realistic local action.
After mobility, participants and partners will transfer the methods into local follow-up. GTDİB will coordinate a community-mapping workshop, listening walk and facilitated youth dialogue in Baku or an appropriate Absheron/coastal community, reaching an indicative 15–20 young people.
Coolvoyage Destinations and Learn.Care.Grow will implement comparable locally adapted activities in Italy and Georgia.
The partnership will document practice, revise a ROOTED Facilitator’s Handbook and disseminate the resulting tools through relevant youth-work and community networks.
Objectives
General objective
To strengthen the professional capacity of youth workers in Italy, Georgia and Azerbaijan to use place-based, participatory and wellbeing-sensitive youth-work approaches that help young people understand environmental and territorial change, strengthen belonging, express their views and contribute to realistic local action.
Specific objectives
To develop the competences of 24 youth workers, youth leaders, peer educators, volunteer coordinators, educators and community facilitators in place-based and participatory non-formal education.
To equip participants with methods for community mapping, structured observation, listening walks, active listening, open questioning, youth dialogue and activity design.
To strengthen participants’ capacity to create safe and inclusive youth-work spaces around sensitive discussions of place, change, belonging and future, while maintaining professional boundaries and referral awareness.
To enable participants to support young people as active contributors who can identify local issues, express views, participate in dialogue and contribute to possible solutions.
To develop competence in ethical digital storytelling, consent, privacy and respectful representation as tools for youth voice and dissemination.
To ensure every participant develops an Individual Professional Transfer Plan and every national group produces a feasible local follow-up plan.
To implement at least one documented local follow-up activity in each partner country, reaching at least 15 young people per country and at least 45 young people in total; the partnership will aim for 60 young people where capacity and context permit.
To co-create, test, revise and disseminate a practical ROOTED Facilitator’s Handbook with eight modules and reusable activity templates.
To strengthen long-term cooperation and peer learning between youth-work organisations in Italy, Georgia and Azerbaijan.
Contribution to Erasmus+ youth priorities
ROOTED contributes to the quality and recognition of youth work by offering structured professional development through non-formal learning, practical facilitation, peer feedback, Youthpass reflection and transfer into regular organisational practice.
The project contributes to environmental sustainability and the fight against climate change through locally grounded learning. It helps youth workers move beyond abstract awareness by connecting environmental change with everyday places, community life, participation and realistic local action.
It supports inclusion and diversity through transparent selection, attention to barriers, accessible communication, individual needs assessment, an inclusive facilitation approach and the participation of youth workers who work with young people facing geographical, social, economic, cultural or participation barriers.
It strengthens participation in democratic life by giving youth workers methods to facilitate youth voice, community dialogue, stakeholder contact, participatory mapping and local action.
It contributes to digital transformation through ethical digital storytelling and online sharing of open educational resources. Digital tools will support reflection, youth voice and communication rather than only promotion.
Project rationale and needs
Shared challenge and professional competence gap
Young people do not experience environmental and territorial change only through reports, statistics or awareness campaigns. They see it in the places where they live: changing landscapes, weather, pressure on local resources, tourism and development, changing public spaces, migration, altered livelihoods, urbanisation and uncertainty about the future of their communities.
These experiences can raise questions of identity, belonging, participation, wellbeing and agency. Young people may be concerned about their future, disconnected from local decision-making, uncertain about whether their views matter or unable to identify realistic ways to contribute.
At the same time, youth workers may be committed to environmental and community issues but lack an integrated methodological toolkit. Environmental education can remain information-based; wellbeing conversations can remain disconnected from participation; and local action can be limited to one-off activities without reflection or transfer.
The specific professional need addressed by ROOTED is therefore not simply to raise young people’s environmental awareness.
The need is to strengthen youth workers’ capacity to:
read local realities with young people through observation, mapping and dialogue;
create safe, inclusive and non-clinical spaces for discussion of place, change, concern and belonging;
distinguish youth-work support from clinical intervention and apply safeguarding, professional-boundary and referral awareness;
support young people to identify issues, express views and take part in community dialogue and decision-making; use ethical storytelling to make youth perspectives visible without exploiting personal or sensitive experiences;
design and implement realistic local learning and action activities;
adapt the methods to different geographic, social and organisational contexts.
ROOTED responds to this competence gap through the sequence:
Need → Competence Gap → Training → Practice → Local Application → Impact.
Learn.Care.Grow | Georgia
Learn.Care.Grow is a youth-oriented organization working with young people, school pupils, students, and teachers. We support personal, educational, and social development through non-formal education, youth work, and psychosocial support.
Our activities focus on youth empowerment, active citizenship, and mental well-being. Led by a qualified psychologist, the organization integrates mental health, emotional well-being, and inclusive approaches into all its educational and youth work activities.
We work with youth workers, peer educators, volunteers, pupils, and teachers, implementing trainings, workshops, conferences, and learning mobility activities at local and international levels
Pictured: Mariam Vardosanidze | Director, Legal Representative
GTDIB | “Support for Solidarity People” Public Union | Azerbaijan
“Support for Solidarity People” Public Union was registered on May 30, 2003, in Baku. The organization’s main goal is to support the socio-economic development, education, and cultural heritage preservation of youth.
We believe that youth are the future of society, and providing them with the necessary skills and opportunities is the foundation of sustainable development. The organization participates in both local and international projects, including the European Union’s Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps programmes.
To support the socio-economic development, education, and vocational training of youth; to preserve the cultural heritage of Azerbaijan and the region for future generations; and to broaden young people’s horizons through international cooperation.
Long-term impact and sustainable development. Not quick fixes, but lasting change.
Lifelong learning principle. Equipping youth with new skills, organizing vocational and entrepreneurship training. Digital skills, business modeling, and marketing education.
Pictured: Anar Hasanov | Vice President, Legal Representative
Partnership
A partnership across Italy, Georgia and Azerbaijan
ROOTED is being developed by organisations with complementary experience in territory, youth work, wellbeing, community learning and communication.
Coolvoyage Destinations — Italy
Proposed applicant and coordinator
Coolvoyage Destinations is an international creative and educational initiative working at the intersection of sustainable territories, cultural communication, digital storytelling and youth empowerment. The organisation will lead project coordination, place-based territorial methods, communication, editorial development and dissemination
.
Learn.Care.Grow — Georgia
Proposed hosting and methodological partner
Learn.Care.Grow will contribute local youth-work knowledge, non-formal learning approaches, wellbeing-sensitive facilitation, access to youth and community networks, and practical support for the proposed training activity in Tbilisi.
GTDİB — Support for Solidarity People Public Union — Azerbaijan
Proposed sending and follow-up partner
GTDİB will contribute youth education and community-development experience, support the participation of youth workers from Azerbaijan, bring local perspectives from Baku and coordinate follow-up and dissemination activities in its own networks.
Partner descriptions will be updated and expanded following final agreement with all organisations.
What ROOTED aims to achieve
Practical tools that stay in use
If selected, ROOTED aims to create practical results for youth workers, young people and partner communities.
Proposed results include:
a ROOTED Facilitator’s Handbook, a free digital resource for youth workers;
eight practical learning modules on territory, youth wellbeing, participation, resilience, safeguarding, community mapping, storytelling and local action;
locally adapted action plans developed by participants;
ethical digital stories that connect place, environmental change, youth experience, youth voice and possible action;
accessible templates for community mapping, reflection and youth participation;
local follow-up activities in Italy, Georgia and Azerbaijan;
Youthpass recognition of individual learning outcomes for eligible participants.
The Handbook will be designed for practical use, not for a shelf. It will be tested through local activities, revised using feedback and made available as an open digital resource if the project is approved.
A responsible storytelling principle
Stories with communities, not only about them
ROOTED will use digital storytelling as a method of listening, reflection and participation.
Participants will work through a simple framework:
Place → Environmental Change → Human and Youth Experience → Youth Voice → Possible Action
This means that stories will not be produced simply to create attractive content. They will be created to make local realities visible, amplify youth perspectives and encourage thoughtful community dialogue.
Any images, interviews, recordings or personal stories used during the project will follow clear consent, privacy, safeguarding and respectful-representation principles.
Follow the development
Stay connected
ROOTED is currently being developed with its partner organisations.
We welcome contact from youth workers, educators, local groups, cultural organisations, environmental initiatives and community stakeholders interested in place-based youth work, resilience, participation and responsible storytelling.
Contact
Coolvoyage Destinations
Email: info@coolvoyagedestinations.com
Place-Based Youth Work for Belonging, Resilience and Local Action
A proposed Erasmus+ KA153-YOU initiative in development
ROOTED is an Erasmus+ KA153-YOU project proposal in development. This page does not imply that the project has been selected, funded or endorsed by the European Union, Erasmus+ or any National Agency. Any future activity will be subject to approval, grant agreement and final partner confirmation.