Y-PLAN – Youth for Participatory and Localized Action in Neighborhoods is an Erasmus+ project that empowers young people to become active participants in the planning and development of their cities and local communities.
Cities across Europe are rapidly evolving, yet young people remain underrepresented in urban planning and decision-making processes that directly affect their everyday lives. At the same time, contemporary cities face challenges such as social inequality, environmental degradation, and the need for more inclusive forms of governance.
Y-PLAN aims to address this gap by providing young people with the knowledge, skills, and practical tools they need to better understand their urban environment, identify community needs, and actively participate in developing solutions.
The project is implemented from September 2025 to August 2027 through international cooperation between organisations from Cyprus, Greece, Serbia, and Belgium.
Project objectives
Through Y-PLAN, young people develop competencies in GIS mapping, data visualisation, and participatory design, while learning how to transform data, experiences, and community needs into concrete proposals and local initiatives.
The project promotes youth-led neighbourhood planning in cooperation with local authorities and other relevant stakeholders. A digital and physical urban archive will also be developed, helping young people to support their initiatives with evidence and better communicate the needs of their communities.
A strong emphasis is placed on practical experience. Young people will have opportunities to express community needs, visualise their proposals, and participate in small-scale tactical urbanism interventions, allowing selected ideas to be tested directly within local communities.
From ideas to change in the community
Y-PLAN goes beyond education and training. The project enables young people to experience the entire process – from exploring their local environment and collecting data to developing and visualising ideas, engaging in dialogue with decision-makers, and implementing concrete interventions.
The experiences, methodologies, and good practices developed throughout the project will be brought together in an online guidebook, enabling the Y-PLAN approach to be replicated and adapted by other cities and communities across Europe.
Project outcomes will also be disseminated through workshops, events, and stakeholder engagement activities, further encouraging meaningful youth participation in shaping the future of their cities.
Project partners
Y-PLAN brings together five partner organisations from four European countries. The partnership is based on complementarity and multidisciplinarity, combining expertise in youth engagement, innovation, entrepreneurship, urban planning, community building, grassroots initiatives, and participatory urban design.
The consortium consists of:
- SocialTech Lab (Cyprus) – Project Coordinator
- URBANA (Greece)
- OPU (Cyprus)
- Young Ambassadors (Serbia)
- Toestand (Belgium)
Through Y-PLAN, we aim to contribute to a new generation of young people who see their city not only as a place where they live, but as a space they can actively explore, shape, and transform.
Programme: Erasmus+
Duration: September 2025 – August 2027
Countries: Cyprus, Greece, Serbia, and Belgium
Project number: 2025-1-CY01-KA220-YOU-000360453