FRICTION Young people, global challenges, and how to support youth-led activism

5 May 2025 | Lecce, Italy

This seminar explores how global challenges affect young people and how youth workers and educators can support them, focusing on migration, inclusion, racism, and climate change, and inspiring action for a future based on human rights and sustainability

Young people today walk on razor-thin lines in deep uncertainty between the many global challenges and their future: climate change, economic instability, forced migration, and social injustice. These challenges already shape and define their present and are a big threat to their future. Yet, their voices are too often dismissed, their fears unrecognized, their activism undervalued. And here comes the role of youth workers and educators: how can we support young people in their fight for their future? How, by helping them, can we make and leave them the space they rightly claim? 

This seminar will explore how global challenges affect young people in Europe (and worldwide) and how we, as youth workers and educators can be at their side in this uncertain world. We will address migration, intercultural inclusion, the fight against racism and discrimination, climate change, and how all these global challenges are interconnected. We will reflect on the role of older generations – not as old-school guardians but as allies – to make youth movements and activists heard and legitimized in their demands for change.

The razor-thin lines – both physical and invisible – on which young people walk also define the limits of opportunities and participation. But young people are pushing beyond them, claiming space, advocating for justice, and reshaping society. This seminar will be the space to dig into all these global challenges’ layers, and it aims to be a call to action as well. How can we, as youth workers and educators, support them in creating a future where human rights, inclusion, and sustainability are not negotiable?

FRICTION as the conceptual definition of the seminar: 

• F: embrace FRICTION as a driver of change 
• R: Rewriting, questioning outdated systems and models
• I: Identity, who we are in this world 
• C: challenges, global challenges 
• T: Transformation, turning frictions into evolution 
• I: Inspiring, encouraging new perspectives 
• O: Open to inclusive spaces for dialogue 
• N: Narrative, reshaping stories for the future 

During our 5 days seminar, we will focus on:

• The impact of global challenges on youth in Europe (and worldwide)
• Strategies to support youth-led activism and participation
• The role of older generations as supporters of youth-led activism 
• Tools for fostering inclusion, equity, and sustainability in youth work