Youth participation in rural development – insights from LEADER projects for young people in Germany

Participation has been a key part of pro-youth strategies in the past years. Participation is as well a key element of LEADER. This approach for a Community-Led Local Develop-ment (CLLD) is a well-established “territorial delivery mechanism” to foster rural development in the European Union. The topic of this contribution is to discuss the implementation of youth participation within LEADER, with a review of survey results of projects for young people, whereby the focus lies on the project level and not on participation within the decision-making-process for the selection of projects. This contribution is based on findings from the evaluation of four Rural Development Pro-grammes (RDPs) with 115 LEADER regions in four German federal states (“Länder”). In terms of implementation, projects relating to public services – such as social places for gatherings and interaction – are particularly relevant to the topic of “youth.” Looking at projects for young people, some results indicate long-term benefits for rural devel-opment. An early participation in project development promotes well-tailored projects for the specific needs of this target group. In addition, the direct involvement in project management instils a sense of responsibility in the youth and helps to foster skills such as self-organisation. In the long run, both suitable living conditions and a sense of belonging and responsibility, which can be fostered through participation and volunteering, may contribute to young peo-ple staying or returning to rural areas. This is a very relevant development in light of the cur-rent direction of demographic trends, but it can only be achieved if other needs are fulfilled, such as the provision of suitable job opportunities and infrastructure.