Young people’s participation in education, employment and society could be negatively affected by issues such as poverty, social marginalisation and discrimination. Social inclusion is a top priority for the EU and it is also high on our agenda as project partners. We feel strongly about being more well-equipped to include disadvantaged youths in Judo training and the activities of the Judo clubs that are affiliated to our federations. The Malta Judo Federation in collaboration with 6 other federations from Sweden, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Estonia and Denmark will be undertaking a Strategic Partnership supporting the exchange of best practices, entitled 'Empowering Ourselves to Empower Youths'. The project will last 8 months from September 2016 until June 2017, bringing together 21 participants from different European countries to share their experience and gain more knowledge through discussions, videos and research. These 21 participants will be 2 coaches and one disadvantaged youth from each country participating in the project.As a result of our project, we will publish and distribute guidelines on how to better integrate disadvantaged youths during training and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Our project will also result in improved competences in dealing with disadvantaged youths from the perspective of Judo coaches and other organisation staff who work directly with disadvantaged youths. In terms of methodology, our project will not only involve the seven Judo federations mentioned above but also all 43 of the other Judo federations that together with us make up the European Judo Union (EJU). This will mean that the guidelines resulting from this project will be applicable and of interest to all EJU federations. This cooperation will take place through constant communication through e-mail, virtual conferencing and social media. Also, the seven disadvantaged youths participating in our project will act as intermediaries between us and disadvantaged young people who practice Judo from across Europe. To achieve this they will be blogging, promoting the project and attracting participation through social media and being active on online forums so that disadvantaged youths can give us their feedback and opinions anonymously should they wish. The objectives of the project are: > Exchanging best practices (highlighting success stories)> Understanding better the link between sports and youth development, which is essential for coaches who work closely and regularly with youths > Learning how to promote and encourage the active participation of youths and a healthy lifestyle, which is an informal learning experience > Improving coaches' communication skills, to better communicate with and understand the young Judokas - including learning about the type of communication tools which may be used during training > Developing a set of guidelines applicable to all 50 European Judo Union federations on engaging disadvantaged youths These objectives will be achieved through the following activities: > Remote cooperation through an online platform that will also serve as a website for the project. We will tackle a different topic each month: Month #1: Introductions and the definition of "disadvantaged"Month #2: Exchange of best practices Month #3: PilotingMonth #4: Sharing success stories Month #5: The guidelines> Transnational project meeting lasting 5 days to continue sharing best practices (based on the piloting of activities in the previous month) and to finalise the first draft of the guidelines> Consultation with stakeholders to gather their feedback on the guidelines, to make any necessary amendments before publishing them> Project conclusion and final evaluation By the end of this project, the participant will have the experience how to adopt a healthy lifestyle, how sports will keep them active not only physically but also as an active citizenship, the ability to work in a team and to cope with conflicts. All partners participating in this project will benefit from having coaches and other personnel within their organisation enhance the competences they already have in working with young people, promoting youth development through sport.