The team met each other in a previous project, ClapLab!. We developed an Youth Exchange regarding active participation and at the end of the project we realised that we were not yet finished with this topic. We had the ambition of creating a project on our own, and that’s how the idea of Keeping Democracy Alive begins.An important part of a functioning democracy is the participation of its citizens. We noticed that the youngsters had a big interest in participating in society, but didn’t have a good view of the possibilities and the impact that their actions would have on society. We will start the project will an Youth Exchange that will give to the youngsters the tools to find their way into participating in society. The participants and the group leaders will also develop some methods to involve actively other youngsters in society. Since our tagline is; “Think globally, act locally” all groups of participants will be challenged to implement this method in their local reality after their arrival back home, which also includes practicing their skills and sharing the knowledges they gained during the Youth Exchange.After a few months there will be a training course for those who were more interested (3 per country). The training course will center around learning how to become a multiplier, develop non-formal educational activities, equipping them with the tools to become young leaders with the basic of training and facilitating skills. To sum up, this is the final purpose of our project “ Keeping Democracy Alive”.The whole project will be developed in an international group, composed from 5 partner countries : Italy, The Netherlands, Spain, Romania and Finland. All participants will be 18+ y.o., Participants need to have a good level of English, to show deep interest in the topic and to be eager to take an active role in their local reality. Each partner organization will try to have a gender balance when selecting the participants and to give the chance to those with fewer opportunities (economic, social, demographic...).Keeping Democracy Alive will take place during a 9 months period and consist of 4 main activities:Activity 1) September 2016 - APV Exchange Keeping Democracy Alive - SpainActivity 2) October 2016 - Youth Exchange Keeping Democracy Alive- SpainLocal activity) October 2016-February 2017 - local implementation and challenges - each country in its national groupsActivity 3) March 2017 - Training course Keeping Democracy Alive- The NetherlandsThe participants come from various backgrounds and from the 5 partner countries : Italy, The Netherlands, Spain, Romania, Finland. Each country organization provides the same number of participants. All the activities are based on non formal approaches and peer to peer methods, to facilitate a spontaneous and increasing learning process. Activity 1) 10 participants; 1 participant + 1 group leader per each country Activity 2) 35 participants; 6 participants + 1 group leaders per each country. Local activity) 35 participants; 7 in each country, working together locally to involve youngsters in democratic lifeActivity 4) 20 participants, 4 per each country The envisaged results of Keeping Democracy Alive for our participants of the youth exchange are:• An increase in the capability of the participants of creating and expressing an opinion • The participants create their way of transforming what they have learnt into reality• An increase in the capability of the participants of comparing and analysing different democratic situations and points of view• The participants develop the capability of analysing the results of their activity and spread what they have learned from it• The participants have a stronger confidence in the impact they can have on their local communities• The participants have a better insight in the need of their participation in democratic lifeThe envisaged results of Keeping Democracy Alive for all partner organisations are:• An increase in quality of the organizations youth run (local & international) projects• A stronger connection between partner organizations • An increase in the experience of the partner organizations