The Next Generation Speaks. Spoken word as a driver for global youth engagement (TNGS) challenges young people with a wide variety of culturally diverse and social backgrounds to find, develop, publicly present, and apply their voices as creators of societal change. These skills and competences will support their creativity, entrepreneurship and make them active ‘change makers’ and contributors to a more inclusive an democratic global society.A lot of young people, esp. from disadvantaged backgrounds experience a large distance to the established order. They are not heard in the mainstream arts and media or often portrayed in certain stereotypes, and they are hardly involved in social and political debates and decision making processes. This collaboration between the partners will allow young spoken word artists and youth workers to exchange experiences and cooperate with their counterparts on 3 continents: The Netherlands, Belgium, UK, South Africa and USA.Objectives:• To use arts, specifically spoken word, as innovative tools in empowerment of young people, youth engagement and active citizenship• To give young people from disadvantaged communities a platform where they can freely express themselves• To promote mutual understanding and tolerance amongst young people, stimulate social cohesion• To increase young people’s chances at the labour market; • To improve the mobility of young people and youth workers;• To exchange non-formal methods in order to improve youth work • To promote cooperation and the exchange of good practice between Programme Countries and Partner Countries; develop sustainable partnerships • To foster capacity-building for youth organisations in order to contribute to civil society development;Activities:• Training of peer coaches • National workshops for youngsters followed by presentations • Capacity building: exchange of youth workers • Create online platform • Youth exchanges • Final conference Impact:TNGS enhances the capacity of the partner organisations on topics as improvement of youth work, working on an international level and addressing social issues through arts. TNGS creates a new form of youth and cultural work that is closely related to the work that the Partner organisations already do on a local level; working with informal teaching methods and peer coaches, creating self awareness, social consciousness and civic action through arts. Spoken word can become a tool for policymakers to reach youngsters and to address societal topics; By making the connection between spoken word, youth development and civic engagement, TNGS aims to deconstruct dominant narratives in hopes of achieving a more inclusive, and active, democratic culture. TNGS provides a platform for youngsters where their voices can be heard: a next generation of poets, urban griots and voices of protest that use the stage and the internet to voice their personalities, ambitions and views on the future of our society.