We spent an inspiring Monday afternoon with members of student colleges and other youth organizations to explore how we can respond to the challenges our organizations face.


During our trip to Finland, we learned that involving members in decision-making, increasing their sense of competence, and maintaining flexible operations all have a positive impact on volunteer retention and participant engagement.

The aim of sharing this knowledge was to help participants believe that they, too, are competent to take part in shaping how their organization works — to communicate their ideas and start implementing them.

During the session, participants attended a 30-minute presentation about the best practices we gathered from Finland and the lessons learned in the context of youth organizations. Then, for another hour and a half, the room turned into an “adaptation workshop,” where groups of two or three responded to specific challenges in their own organizations in a structured, facilitated way. It was clear that the teams quickly immersed themselves in the work, and it was wonderful to see how committed and inspired they became while developing their own plans.


The goal of the session was not to turn participants into organizational development experts. Rather, it was to show them that they already possess enough resources to create change within their organizations - and that sometimes, all it takes is a good example.

A good Finnish example.



This project is implemented with the support of the European Union’s Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values (CERV) programme. The European Commission’s support does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect only the views of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.