25 Years Anniversary Event Workshop Summaries

Youth in the Alps: engaging the next generation

Youth engagement has become a policy buzzword in the last years. That’s why the Interreg Alpine Space team decided to dedicate a workshop session to the topic during its 25 Years Anniversary event in Salzburg, handing over the organisation to the directly interested parties: the EUSALP and CIPRA Youth Councils, together with the younger team members of the Joint Secretariat.

The group brainstormed on the topics and issues that are perceived as key challenges for the next years by younger generations: mobility, climate change and winter sports adaptation, education, engagement of peers, inclusivity and diversity.

After a pre-selection, the five topics proposed for the workshop were mobility, glacier preservation, institutional engagement, education and intercultural exchange.

Moderators from the EUSALP Youth Council and Joint Secretariat team developed prompts on these youth interest areas: thought-provoking questions, videos, materials that conveyed the point of view of younger generations. Workshop participants were then guided to use them to develop a youth engagement project through a format created by a past Interreg Alpine Space project: the GaYA Canva.

The Project GaYA, short for Governance and Youth in the Alps, ran from 2016 to 2019, and aimed at developing youth participation tools for institutional actors. One of these was the Canva, a table to support project ideation that is mindful of youth and decision-makers perspectives, trying to make them dialogue and become actionable.

In the two rounds of the workshop on May 13, 2025, 9 groups worked with 5 EUSALP Youth and Joint Secretariat moderators to come up with ideas for the engagement of younger generations. Here is an overview of the developed concepts, divided by proposed topic.

• Glacier Preservation

Two groups worked on glacier preservation with distinct approaches. The first developed a project aimed at “unfreezing power structures” through intergenerational exchange, specifically by promoting “reverse monitoring”: organizing or participating in events where younger generations can influence older ones regarding glacier preservation. The second group focused on glaciers as sources of clean water and the origin of rivers. They proposed an educational program involving schools along glacier-fed river systems, culminating in the creation of a manifesto to be presented to local institutions.

• Mobility

The mobility group designed a project to raise awareness about using public transportation for outdoor activities. Their approach included gamification and collaboration with public transport providers and local associations to make sustainable mobility more engaging and accessible.

• Education

Both education groups focused on preserving Alpine heritage. The first group proposed a festival showcasing culturally relevant performances and projects by school students, with awards to recognize their efforts. The second group emphasized the use of digital tools and gamification to help younger generations connect with their cultural heritage in an engaging and modern way.

• Institutional Engagement

Two groups addressed institutional engagement. The first introduced the “Autonomous Youth Budget” project, which aims to structure a participatory process allowing youth councils—often lacking financial resources—to effectively manage and utilize dedicated funding. The second group tackled youth migration and the right to remain in the region. Their project called for institutions to create a shared vision for life in the Alps and develop opportunities that encourage younger generations to stay in the area.

• Intercultural Exchange

The first group focused on student intercultural exchange through an online platform providing access to job, grant, and training opportunities across the Alps. The second group developed the concept of a recurring online exhibition to raise awareness of climate change in Alpine communities.

This session was truly full of inspiring and creative ideas. We sincerely hope that participants will take these ideas home, along with new perspectives and tools to support youth participation.

A special thank you to all the EUSALP Youth Council members who helped organize and moderate the session, the CIPRA Youth Council members who supported the conceptualisation of the workshop and the current and former Joint Secretariat interns and IVY that led the group and moderated the session.