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YOU-CARE

Youth Creating Action Research on Eco-Anxiety
Research and political responses to the emotions aroused by the socio-ecological crisis among young people must keep pace with the rapid changes in the environmental health of this segment of the population. 
YOU-CARE aims at creating strong links between research, policy, and practice, while fostering knowledge on eco-anxiety among young people living in Europe. It does so by setting up a participatory action research (PAR) framework and learning exchanges for youth and by youth, in order for them to be better equipped to understand and reclaim these emotions and get involved at a decision-making level. 

objectives

YOU-CARE’s general objective is to allow youth to collectively examine the set of emotions linked to the ecological crisis, so as to move from ecological preoccupation to active participation, while fostering their emotional, pedagogical, scientific, and advocacy skills.

This general objective is supported by the following specific objectives:

SO1 – Providing youth-workers and educators the knowledge and tools to support youth facing eco-anxiety

SO2 – Empowering young people coming from different geographical and socio-economic realities to connect and exchange about their experiences with ecological issues

SO3 – Gathering information allowing to asses the presence and levels of eco-anxiety experienced by youth in different European countries 

activities

  • Training for youth workers and educators on Youth-led participatory action research, with a focus on eco-anxiety
  • Youth-led participatory action research workshops and Learning exchanges, for young participants to share thoughts, experiences, and collectively envision ways to act
  • A Youth Open Assembly bringing together decision-makers, broader youth communities, and other civil society players to share the project’s key outcomes. 

These activities are backed-up by the following expected results: 

Concrete results

  • Youth-generated recommendations for politicians and other co-decided mixed-media research results
  • A video documenting the research workshops in each partner country
  • Mid-term/final reports summarizing the main findings
  • A 2-day long Youth Open Assembly (with seminars and workshops)


Other results

  • Creation of a space for cross-cultural and cross-sector dialogue around a complex subject
  • Encouraging collective ownership and driving policy changes towards a better handling of environment related emotions and their causes

duration

01/04/2024 – 31/03/2026 (24 months)

target groups

  • Young people aged 14-25 
  • Youth workers and organisations
  • Decision-makers
  • Education stakeholders and scholars

call

This project is under the KA220-YOU – Cooperation partnerships in youth (KA220-YOU) call 2023

Project ID: BG01-KA220-YOU-E18BBFDD

contact

mathilda@quest-eu.org

e.raynova@foryoubg.org

martina@quest-eu.org

partnerships

Inovatyvi karta/ Innovative Generation (Lithuania)
Felcos Umbria (Italy)
Love & Care for People (Ireland)
For you (bulgaria)
Quality Education in Europe for Sustainable Social Transformation (Belgium)

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.

Related publications

The Change We Want: A Manifesto by Rural Young People in Europe

At QUEST, we believe young people don’t need adults to translate what they want to say. Too often, they are tokenised, routinely consulted to check a box, yet shut out from meaningful decision-making on the very issues that shape their lives. They need real space to say it, and real doors opened to the people who can act on it. Giving rural youth the room to define their own demands, in their own words and their own format, and then walking those demands into institutions like the EESC and the Committee of the Regions, is exactly the kind of empowerment we exist to make possible.

Nothing about the Planet’s Future without youth

For the last two years, we worked with young people across 5 European countries who are living through the reality of the socio-ecological crisis. Using Youth-Led Participatory Action Research (YPAR), they took a deep dive into the emotions that come when their lives and futures are taken out of their hands, and figured out how to turn this into collective action and empowerement.

From Eco-Anxieties to Action

On October 17 th 2025, 35 young participants from Lithuania, Ireland, Bulgaria, and Italy gathered in Brussels, Belgium, to bring eco-anxiety into light in front of Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), youth workers, and peers.

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