The European Youth Centre Budapest hosted the "We choose PEACE" study session, organised by the Youth Department in partnership with the Erasmus Student Network. The study session took place from 12 to 18 May 2024, gathering 35 participants to increase their competencies to navigate conflict and create more peaceful and inclusive communities.

 Throughout the study session participants learned about concepts such as peace, conflict, human rights, and conflict transformation. They dove deeper into various conflict transformation tools, such as mediation and non-violent communication and had a chance to design activities on amplifying peace in their local communities, with a focus on supporting the inclusion of young people affected by conflict.

During the week, the programme featured inputs from guest speakers: Nazarii Boiarskyi (member of the Board of the NGO "Democratic Initiatives Incubator" (Ukraine), Programs Lead of the ECOM — Eurasian Coalition on Health, Rights, Gender and Sexual Diversity), Weronika Knowska (Member of the Board of Youth Peace Ambassadors Network) and Anja Jokić (Advisory Council on Youth) who talked about their field of work and how participants can be changemakers in their local communities.

 As a result of the 6-day long program, participants developed several outputs, such as a communication campaign to bring in the spotlight how conflict affects young people, training session outlines on various topics that were covered during the study session to be used during future training events of ESN, recommendations on how ESNers can offer support to young people affected by conflict, a map with all the key actors that ESNers can engage with to create more peaceful and inclusive societies and a comprehensive storytelling report about the study session.

 For detailed information on the study session, visit the dedicated webpage.