Twenty-five participants from 10 municipalities across nine Council of Europe member states met at the European Youth Centre in Strasbourg from 6 to 11 October 2026 for the residential seminar of ACCESS!, a training course on local action for young people’s social rights.

Participants worked in local teams of two or three, bringing together institutional and civil-society perspectives. They represented local authorities, youth organisations, youth-work providers, social and community services, and other local stakeholders.

 ACCESS! aims to strengthen local implementation of Recommendation CM/Rec(2015)3 on young people’s access to social rights in disadvantaged neighbourhoods through cooperation among local stakeholders. The course builds on the experience of the Enter! long-term training courses, with a renewed focus on local policy development and young people’s participation.

 From local needs to local action

Participants shared local challenges and explored barriers young people may face, including inadequate housing, limited access to education and training, precarious employment, difficulties accessing health and support services, discrimination and exclusion, and limited opportunities for cultural activities or participation in local decision-making.

They examined social rights as human rights and explored Council of Europe standards, including the European Social Charter and Recommendation CM/Rec(2015)3. Discussions also considered local youth policy and the differences between needs-based and rights-based approaches.

A central focus was how young people can take an active role in decisions affecting their access to social rights, and how local authorities, youth organisations, youth workers, social services and other sectors can work together.

Working in their local teams, participants mapped young people’s needs and realities, identified priorities and potential partners, and began designing local actions. They also considered how young people could be meaningfully involved in developing and implementing responses to local challenges.

 Continuing beyond Strasbourg

The teams will continue developing and implementing local actions in their communities. The Council of Europe will support them through direct mentoring and targeted coaching, with additional institutional support where relevant. A tailor-made advanced seminar is planned for 2027, giving the teams an opportunity to review progress, deepen their learning and further develop their actions.

The Strasbourg seminar is the start of a longer-term process. ACCESS! aims to strengthen local partnerships’ capacity to address inequality, discrimination and social exclusion, and to turn social-rights standards into participatory, sustainable action in young people’s communities.