The story of a campaign: “Young Changemaker”
28. März 2026In a social media campaign for the Up2Youth project, young people from different European countries share what matters to them. Project manager Eva Kell offers a brief, personal insight into the campaign and what it aims to make visible.
A picture of a cat, a dog, a ferret. Then a young person speaking directly into the camera. At first glance, nothing out of the ordinary on social media. But if you look closer, these posts reveal how young voices were given a platform in the Up2Youth campaign.
Up2Youth (#Up2Youth) is an Erasmus+ cooperation partnership with partner organisations from France, Spain, Italy, Greece, and Germany. The project promotes the active participation of young people through cultural activities.
As part of the project, local focus groups met in each country. They discussed how young people are perceived in their communities or countries today and what needs to change so that they feel more heard and included. The responses were analysed by a working group of young people at the Campaigning Lab of the Greek partner organisation United Societies of the Balkans. Based on this analysis, a joint campaign called “Young Changemaker” was launched with the slogan “Don’t assume, start listening.”
The campaign includes five posts and ten short videos. In them, young people from various European countries share how they’re making a difference in their cities and communities. One example is Kilian (16), for whom rap is a way to raise his voice alongside his daily life as a baker. Or Anastasiia (26), who is from Ukraine, lives in Berlin, and has already helped organise more than 20 youth projects. What unites these young people is their desire to be taken seriously.
The analysis of the focus groups shows that many young people feel overlooked or underestimated despite their commitment. They want less token listening and more genuine shared decision-making, as well as trust, recognition, and concrete opportunities for participation.
To make these topics and feelings visible, fifteen posts can at first seem like only a small impulse in the fast-paced world of social media. The campaign’s particular strength, however, lay in the fact that the same content was shared across the channels of all five partner organisations. There was no central project account; instead, existing structures were used and reach was pooled.