The Youth Department is initiating a project - Democratic Participation with Belarusian Youth Civil Society - to support democratic Belarusian youth civil society and activists for democracy, in particular to develop their abilities to organise, advocate, mobilise and network with counterparts in Council of Europe member states and with activists for democracy inside and outside Belarus.

The project is a result of the work of the Contact Group on co-operation with Representatives of Belarusian democratic forces and civil society, which holds regular exchanges of views with representatives of the Belarusian democratic forces and civil society, including the Belarusian Youth Council (RADA), partner in this project.

 The training course Living Democracy through Youth Participation is currently being held at the European Youth Centre in Strasbourg with 30 youth multipliers.

 It aims to support democratic youth participation in Belarus based on the Council of Europe standards and has the following objectives:

• To strengthen participants’ understanding of key concepts of democratic citizenship and human rights education with young people;
• To introduce participants and their organisations with the work of the Council of Europe, and its relevant entities, in particular related to democratic citizenship and youth participation;
• To develop and/or improve relevant skills, knowledge and competencies of youth activists to advocate for and engage with democratic values and processes;
• To develop participants’ skills for self-organisation, resilience, and democratic leadership of youth organisations;
• To identify needs and priorities for further work with youth leaders and multipliers for democratic civil society youth organisations.