The YouCare project is coming to an end, and it was a surprising journey all the way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eIiQIxJMZ8
We started with a simple question : what happens when you take eco-anxieties seriously, not as a disorder to be treated but as a rational response to real threats? And in particular, what happens when you let young people lead the research themselves?
The answer, we learned, is not simple! But the process of collective exploration is truly worth it.
What we did
Using Youth-Led Participatory Action Research (YPAR), teams of young researchers in Bulgaria, Ireland, Italy and Lithuania investigated how their peers experience the socio-ecological crisis. They conducted interviews, facilitated workshops, made short films, wrote songs, created posters, and organised local events.
Besides talking about their feelings (which in and of itself is a challenge for many) they connected those feelings to concrete and complex issues like the lack of spaces for youth to share how different complex issues (like deforestation, microplastic pollution, environmental catastrophes, food waste…) impact them and their ideas for change.
One of the main results of this is a set of youth-led policy recommendations, titled “Nothing About the Planet’s Future Without Youth” . It is a short, practical document written by the young researchers themselves. Among other things, it asks EU and national decision-makers to:
- Bring young people into formal climate decision-making
- Create a digital exchange platform on climate anxieties
- Support schools in helping students process complex emotions
- Protect forests, biodiversity, and oceans from further degradation
- Limit microplastic production and reduce food waste
You can read and download the full recommendations here:
https://quest-eu.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/NOTHING-ABOUT-THE-PLANETS-FUTURE-WITHOUT-YOUTH-1.pdf
We also held a final 2-day conference in Brussels in October 2025, where young researchers presented their findings to MEPs and European Commission representatives and debated what meaningful youth participation should look like.
To the young researchers who trusted us with their time, their doubts, and their ideas: thank you!
To our partner organisations across Europe: thank you for making YPAR possible on the ground.
To the policymakers who engaged with us honestly—Nela Riehl, Valérie Drezet-Humez, Benedetta Scuderi, Alina-Stefania Ujupan, and Brando Benifei, thank you for listening and responding!
The project is ending, but the young people we worked with are not going away. They have built skills, connections, and confidence, and they have written recommendations that deserve to be read and acted upon.
So this is our final ask : if you are in a position to make decisions about youth, climate, or education, please read their recommendations. Share them. Use them.
Nothing about the planet’s future without youth.
Thank you for following the YouCare journey.
#YOU-CARE, #EcoAnxieties, #Erasmusplus
Funded by the European Union.