MYC – Modeling Youth Centers: Project Overview and Results

Modeling Youth Centers (MYC) is an Erasmus+ project dedicated to rethinking and strengthening youth centres across Europe. Led by an international consortium coordinated by Europe4Youth, with partners from Germany, Italy, Poland, Portugal and Sweden, the project set out with one overarching ambition: to support the creation, reinvention and long-term sustainability of youth centres that truly respond to young people’s needs.

Project Objectives

  • Deepen knowledge
    Gain a clearer understanding of youth-centre models and the conditions in which they thrive, through research mobilities and field observations.

  • Innovate youth centres
    Developing variations, amendments and original models tailored to the needs, resources and realities of partner countries.

  • Strengthen advocacy
    Provide the youth sector with tools such as:
    • a step-by-step manual for advocating, developing and evaluating youth centres,
    • and a card game that helps youth workers and activists prepare for advocacy roles.

  • Measure impact
    To raise awareness and deliver tools to measure effectiveness, providing a structured approach to evaluating the strategic and long-term outcomes of youth centres.

  • Promote youth spaces
    To mainstream Youth Centres, promoting their importance in adolescence and early adulthood through a campaign directed at decision-makers and reinforcing their confidence in youth centres as vital instruments of youth policy.


Intellectual Outputs 

As a result of the Modeling Youth Centers project, we produced four key Intellectual Outputs, each designed to strengthen the establishment, functioning and advocacy of youth centres across Europe:

  1. The research output MODELS – A Publication on the State of the Art of Youth Centers in Europe

  2. The operative Manual – How To Create A Youth Center?

  3. The Board Game – Why Youth Centers

  4. Booklet on Quality Indicators for Youth Work