We are proud to announce a major milestone in our journey to transform public spaces across the Balkans. The Youth Placemaking Balkans project has officially launched its Online Training Course—a youth-centered, digital learning hub designed to turn passion for community into tangible action.
Moving beyond the initial planning stages, this course has evolved into a living educational resource, already empowering hundreds of young people to reclaim and reshape their urban environments.
The foundation of this course was born from extensive regional research and national focus groups that identified a common gap: young people want to be involved in their communities, but they often lack the accessible tools to do so.
By bridging the gap between theory and practice, the curriculum focuses on essential 21st-century competencies:
Forget dry, academic lectures. The instructional design of this course follows a peer-to-peer communication model that prioritizes lived experience over theory.
The course is organized into four progressive modules that guide participants through a seamless evolution of skills and mindset.
It begins with Module 1: Foundation, where learners build a solid understanding of the core principles of placemaking through short video lessons and targeted reflection prompts. Once the basics are established, Module 2: Analysis shifts the focus to the urban landscape, utilizing diverse case studies from across the Balkans to teach participants how to “read” and interpret their local environments.
The journey then moves into active territory with Module 3: Action, which provides a practical toolkit and engaging “Reels” that demonstrate exactly how to execute community interventions. Finally, the experience concludes with Module 4: Reflection, a phase dedicated to ensuring long-term impact through self-assessment and a formal certification process that validates the learner’s new expertise.
The content is delivered via short, engaging video reels produced by our project partners. These videos use personal narratives and accessible language, ensuring the material resonates with a generation that values authenticity.
To ensure no one is left behind, the platform utilizes a sophisticated multilingual approach. While the core structure is universal, videos are presented in the national languages of our Balkan partners, preserving the authenticity of youth voices.
The response has been overwhelming. Since its launch, the project has already seen more than 200 graduates across the partner countries.
Participation has been robust across the entire Balkan region—including Romania, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, and Greece—demonstrating a unified regional interest in urban transformation. We have even seen “spillover” interest from Italy, the Netherlands, and France, proving that the need for youth-led placemaking is a movement that knows no borders.
“The certification process has played a key role in reinforcing motivation and providing tangible recognition of non-formal learning outcomes.”
The Youth Placemaking Balkans course is designed for the long term. It will remain an Open Educational Resource (OER), available to future cohorts, other NGOs, and urban planners as a blueprint for youth engagement well beyond the project’s duration.
By equipping young citizens with the skills to act, we aren’t just hosting a course—we are strengthening a regional ecosystem of active, engaged, and empowered community leaders.
Join the movement and start shaping your city today.
Access the course here: learning.placemakingconnected.com
“Youth Placemaking Balkans (YPB) is funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or HRDC (Human Resource Development Center). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.”