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This contribution offers a pedagogical reflection on the methodology adopted within the training experience "Just YOUth. Having a say is a sustainable action' [Just YOUth. Prendere parola è un’azione sostenibile]. It was promoted within the orientation program of the University of Milan Bicocca (Italy) addressed to secondary school students. The aim was to promote a learning process around the meanings and possibilities of ‘having a say’, the first step for participation in decision-making processes. In fact, learning to ‘have a say’ is a crucial ability to orient one’s own decisions in relation to the self and the community one is part of. These decisions include choosing how to build one’s own life project, also in relation to the choice of an educational path. Moreover, acknowledging the role of young people in public decision-making processes, together with adults, assumes a specific pedagogical, ethical and political value (Bertolini, 2003). In fact, learning to have a say is a crucial starting point for the development of a sustainable, just, equitable world (Riva, 2018; UN, 2018). Within this framework, Just YOUth gave the young people the opportunity to meet local but also international youth realities, including, for example, collectives, representative bodies, and peer tutoring realities working in the field of children’s and young people’s rights, activism, social and political participation. They orientate decisions in collaboration with adults, showing how participation is an intergenerational process. The proposal included classes, workshops, discussions and meetings, where university lecturers and professionals from the public and third sectors and young people showcased their work and allowed the participants themselves to actively experience different ways of taking the floor. Another crucial aspect is related to the variety of languages that can be used for having a say. The participants were able to experiment with the use of different languages

The paper aims to present a pedagogical reflection on the spaces for youth participation in decision-making, drawing on a content analysis of the most recent European and international youth strategies Youth participation is at the centre of international and European policies and strategies. The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development considers youth rights essential to the development of a sustainable, equitable, and peaceful world (UN General Assembly, 2015). The Committee on the Rights of the Child (2009) identified participation as one of the four principles of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) and thus it has been recognized not only as a right, but also as a cross-cutting interpretation and implementation of all other rights. A content analysis (Berelson, 1952) of the most recent youth strategies of the European Union (2018), the Council of Europe (2020) and the United Nations (2018) was conducted to explore how youth participation is described and what meanings it assumes in policies. In particular, this contribution will focus on the spaces of participation dedicated to young people. The youth strategies, and especially that of the European Union, gives prominence to the theme of spaces of participation, defining them in terms of both physical and virtual spaces, and understanding youth spaces as autonomous, open, safe, and accessible to all. This is of particular interest because it dovetails with an emerging reflection in the literature, which points out that recent years are witnessing a shift in the spaces of participation (Willems, Heinen & Meyers, 2012). In fact, alongside the decrease in traditional forms of youth participation - associated with political, formal and public contexts accessed "by invitation" (Cornwall, 2008) there is a rise in innovative or alternative forms of participation-characterized by the combination of physical and virtual spaces (Willems, 2012), as well as more "popular" spaces, often clai

This contribution presents pedagogical reflections on the construction of a ‘care leavers-led’ policy as a strategy to promote the right to participate in decision-making processes in the child-protection system. Specifically, the paper bears witness to the CarINg project (Empowering Child Care Systems and Supporting Leaving Care from Inside), co-funded by the Rights Equality and Citizenship Programme of the European Union (REC-RCHI-PROF-AG-2018). The project consortium is made up of two Universities (Polo Universitario City of Prato and the University of Milano-Bicocca); a non-governmental organisation (SOS Children's Villages International), and two local partners (Municipality of Florence and the Health Society of the Area of Prato). It started in April 2021 and, based on the Capability Approach (Sen, 2009; Sen & Nussbaum, 1993; Nussbaum, 2006), it aims at creating opportunities for care leavers–– by working with social services and local stakeholders–– to participate in decisions concerning their life project. We will be looking at a specific phase of the project characterised by a participatory action-research (approved by the ethical committee of the Milano-Bicocca University prot. N. 647)) articulated in four consultation activities (two for each group of participants, with two groups involved) with the care leavers (N=18) part of the protection system of the Municipality of Florence and of the Health Society of the Area of Prato, Italy (areas in which the project is based) that led to the definition of the first draft of a policy concerning participation in decision-making processes. Ensuring participation in the child protection system is challenging because it requires balancing the institutional mandate to protect the child (0-18) with the need to foster participation as a critical form of intervention against violence, and as a form of prevention of, and a strategy for coping with, adverse childhood experiences (Montà & Biffi, 2019). Moreover, p