The project, over two years, will design, implement and review a Civic Engagement learning programme for socially excluded young people. Organisations from three countries will participate (Ireland, Greece and Portugal). There will be two partners from each country: one with expertise in education, research and review; and the other partner being an NGO with a development base within the excluded community targeted. The lead partner is a Regional Youth Service from Ireland, with extensive experience of integrating innovative practice and learning into mainstream youth work services. Programme participants (aged 16-20) will be drawn from the Traveller youth community in Ireland and the Roma youth community in Greece and in Portugal.The project is based on the premise that the standard progression routes (relating to labour market, education and training opportunities) are often difficult, if not impossible, to access for members of marginalised and excluded groups of young people. Experience to date – working with our target groups in each country – has shown that delivery of broader learning programmes about engagement with society can act as an essential platform for more meaningful progression in the longer term. The learning programme to be implemented and tested through PACE is aimed at increasing knowledge about civil society, and increasing capacity amongst young participants interacting with wider community and mainstream service provision. In order to recognise the formal and informal learning of the young people, the prorgramme will include innovative assessment methodologies , including Youthpass and tools as developed in previous EU funded projects. The experience of our project team to date has also demonstrated that these aims are more likely to be fulfilled if the learning environment is one of mutual support that can be maintained in the longer term. As well as delivering a learning programme about active citizenship engagement, therefore, the PACE project will also impart skills in self-organisation, self-representation and mutual support structures that are sustainable into the future.The project comprisess the following elements:1. Reaching transnational agreement on course content and delivery. The Irish partner will take the leading role in this – based on successful initiatives already delivered, but all partners need to agree on relevance and consistency within their own practice base. This phase will also aim to achieve clarity amongst partners on approach and style of delivery.2. Programme implementation. The programme will be delivered as part of NGO development programme with young people in their own environments. The academic partner in each country will provide advice and support in programme implementation, including assistance with the ongoing application of evaluation mechanisms and instruments.3. Post programme support for participants. All participants will be supported (through information, advice and advocacy delivered as part of ongoing NGO development programmes) in efforts to build upon their learning in the programme. 4. Review of outcomes. All participants will be centrally involved in assessing the programme contribution to their own knowledge, levels of civic engagement and future progression prospects. Central to this will be a multiplier event bringing together youth workers from all three countries in an international seminar. The seminar will allow for presentation of the results and assessment of the programme, recording of outcomes to date, identifying elements of good practice and ‘what has made the difference’, as well as a mapping of future development pathways and routes to influence mainstream policy. Academic partners will act as a resource in seminar preparation: producing data collection instruments for review, supporting the preparation of presentations, and undertaking research into relevant policy environments in each country.The main project outcomes will be:• Increased capacity and enhanced potential for individual participants.• Significant assets for youth NGO sectors in each jurisdiction through the enhancement of leadership skills, mutual support structures and increased capacity to pass on learning content and style.• Greatly enhanced understanding of blockages to progression for those young people who are most excluded from progression opportunities, and an approach to addressing these blockages that is fully tested and reviewed.• Stakeholder-specific recommendations addressing how the approach can be best supported and embedded in the mainstream service responses of each participant country; as well as pointers as to how lessons emerging can be taken on board in the broader European policy context (especially in relation to LLL).