Participation of young people is one of the key questions that youth workers address in their work. Concepts of participation usually refer to at least four dimensions: social participation, political participation, economic participation and cultural participation. Unfortunately, in today`s Europe young people do often not participate in any of these societal dimensions. With youth unemployment rates peaking e.g. in Spain with over 40% young people face massive difficulties to sustain their life independently. According to the EU Flash Barometer on youth participation (2013) only 22% of young people within the EU are involved in youth clubs or any kind of youth organisations. The same survey states in the category of political participation, that voting in local, regional and national is with 56% rather low, and standing as a candidate is not an option for 79% of young Europeans. Against this background, the project aims to contribute to the development of measures that foster the participation of young people in political, social, cultural and economic life in their countries. Since youth work holds a variety of instruments at hand to foster youth participation, the project aims to strengthen organisations in making best use of the power of educational programmes addressing youth needs by an empowerment approach that provides young people with the necessary competences to become an active part of the society in which they live. Two training courses are integral parts of the project and aim at the following objectives: 1. Training course “Explore your Potential – Capacity Development for Youth Organisations”  To introduce civil society activists and CSO staff to systematic approaches to social change in the youth sector  To review organisational practices in programme development and project management  To create a portfolio of measures for successful youth participation and empowerment  To establish transnational links between CSOs in the youth sector and translate them into project-based partnership 2. Training of Trainers “Explore your Potential – Competences for Youth Empowerment”:  To deepen the understand for concepts of youth empowerment and participation amongst youth leaders and educators  To enhance theoretical knowledge and practical skills of educators in planning, implementing and evaluating educational short-term projects on local, national and European levels  To create new workshops, exercises, role plays for youth projects  To create European learning partnerships in the field of youth empowerment The methods that will be used in the training courses will be taken from European training manuals such as Compass, Domino, Have Your Say, or the T-Kit series, while others will be those the selected trainers developed or use from other resources. All methods are based on the principles of non-formal education, are highly participatory and inclusive and rely on the active participation of the participants to make the educational experiences a success. While the direct impact of the educational programmes is directed on the participants` competence development as project coordinators and youth educators, the project also aims to create an impact beyond the participants. The expected impact on the sending organisation is to use new procedures in the design of their youth activities, apply new non-formal working methods in their daily work, and to engage to a larger extend into international youth projects and to participate in an exchange of expertise and experience on European level with colleagues from other countries. The project “Explore your Potential” involves a total of 56 participants from Latvia, Denmark, Romania, Poland, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Belarus. It is targeted at youth workers, youth leaders, and youth activists as well as at youth educators and project coordinators of youth organisations who participate in two training programmes. The training course “Explore your Potential – Capacity Development for Youth Organisations” will take place in Kobuleti, Georgia from 21.03.2015 to 29.03.2015. The training of trainers “Explore your Potential – Competences for Youth Empowerment”:” will take place in Ganja, Azerbaijan from 23.05.2015 to 31.05.2015.