Decolonizing Approaches through Reflexivity and Exchange (DARE)
DARE is a training that aims to equip youth workers from across Europe with awareness, knowledge and practical tools to dismantle colonial legacies and structural inequalities in their job.
The initiative provides a space where participants can critically examine how structural privileges, eurocentrism, and racism influence youth work organisations. The goal is to identify patterns of exclusion and design more inclusive, anti-oppressive strategies.
objectives
DARE’s general objective is to strengthen youth workers’ capacity to critically recognise and dismantle colonial legacies, whiteness, and systemic inequalities in order to foster more inclusive, participatory, and anti-oppressive youth work practices across Europe.
Moreover, the project pursues the following specific objectives:
SO1. Develop critical awareness among youth workers of how colonial legacies, whiteness, and systemic inequalities continue to shape youth work and international cooperation.
SO2. Provide youth workers analytical tools such as critical whiteness, intersectionality, and power mapping, enabling them to identify and challenge exclusionary patterns within their organisations and contexts.
SO3. Encourage intercultural dialogue and solidarity by bringing together youth workers from Belgium, Greece, Spain, and Italy (three countries where colonial legacies and migration dynamics strongly influence youth realities) to exchange perspectives, practices, and strategies.
SO4. Promote anti-oppressive and participatory methodologies (storytelling, artistic reflection, collaborative methods) as accessible tools for engaging diverse young people and addressing systemic inequalities.
SO5. Co-create a practical Toolkit that consolidates reflections, exercises, and strategies into a resource that strengthens the long-term capacity of youth workers and organisations to implement inclusive, decolonial practices.
SO6. Support competence development and recognition by integrating Youthpass, journaling, and peer reflection throughout the project, enabling participants to articulate and apply their learning in personal, organisational, and European contexts.
Furthermore, DARE seeks to make a concrete contribution to the professionalisation of youth work by embedding decolonial and anti-oppressive perspectives into practice. Youth workers will finish the project not only with a critical awareness but with tangible tools, creative methods, and action ideas to transform their organisations and better support young people.
activities
Check out the agenda for the Decolonizing Approaches Through Reflexivity and Exchange Training here!
duration
01/01/2026 –
31/12/2026
(12 months)
target groups
Youth workers.
call
The project is under Mobility of young people (KA153-YOU) KA153-YOU-1BD5549A
contact
sarapatricia@quest-eu.org
partnerships
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.
