TRIO: PORTUGAL’S PRESIDENCY
Since September 2026 Portugal’s leadership in the project TRIO has began. Local implementing partner GERADOR will conclude the project activities. In this period we will collect youth input for the final Policy Recommendations to be presented to the EU and general public during the Gala Event in Brussels on the 13th of November. SAVE THE DATE!
By this moment GERADOR has developed an important tool – non-formal education materials “Storytelling for Civic Participation” and trained 50 youth from sadly famouse in the country undepriveleged and discriminated neighborhood, preparing them for the final event in Portugal – The Parliament of Words, where they had an opportunity to share their stories and challenge the local authorities to respond. Read about this event here.
Storytelling is one of the most important methods used in artivism methodologies to engage youth, share personal experiences and engage through them with other participants. GERADOR will continue working with this community and support them providing training and platform for storytelling.
Portugal will be in the lead untill the end of the project in December 2026.
TRANSNATIONAL MEETING IN LISBON
Second Transnational Project Meeting (10-11 September 2026) organised by local implementing partner GERADOR marked a project 9 month. It was dedicated to sharing personal feedback after project activities in the implementing countries – Greece, Poland and Portugal – were over, discussing the results of the project meedterm report and laying foundation for the final Gala Event in Brussels.
TRIO: POLAND RULES 
Sad King (pic.1)
Under Polish governance in the Trio – by Fundacja Wspólnota Wielopokoleniowa or Multigenerational Foundation, also known as FWW – all three implementing countries delivered the main final local events: Symphony of Inclusion (Greece), Theatre of Democracy (Poland) and Parliament of Words (Portugal).
For FWW itself from June to September 2026 was an intense period of NFE materials development after the train-the-training activities in Katowice in April’26, youth intence artistic training and arranging festival of performances that created a great regional impact. Read about the performances on the 19th and 20th of June 2026 here.
The structured training guide “Theatre for Democracy” is a valubale and insightful tool for youth trainers to use a theatre mask, a costume. a pupet or a text of the play as a medium to express the most important and deep concerns and reach out to bigger audiences connecting heart-to-heart.
This amazing guide was used to train over 50 youth in a series of 6 workshops in preparation for the festival in two cities – Zabrze and Katowice – that included outstanding artistic intervantions.
The workshop program attrected and successfully brought together a committed group of participants interested in exploring theatre as a form of artistic expression and social dialogue. Through open discussion, facilitators gained valuable insight into the participants’ interests, motivations and previous creative experiences, which helped shape the direction of the upcoming workshops. Participants actively contributed ideas and reflected on possible directions for their future performance, showing openness to exploring social and democratic themes through theatre
FWW passed the leadership torch to Portuguese partner in September 2026.
TRIO: GREECE IS IN THE LEAD 
During Al Systema Greece presidency in the project implementing partners conducted local Needs Analysis that provided context for non-formal education methodologies and followed capacity building trainings. The partner conducted the policy alighnment meetings and the publication of the joint Policy Alignment Document.
Greece was also the first to run train-the-trainer activities, develop local adaptation of the NFE materials – Youth Training Toolkit “Music, Participation and European Values” and to train 50 youth from diverse backgrounds.
YOUTH TRAINING. The 90-minute workshop combined experiential learning, guided discussion, audiovisual material, and reflection activities. Participants first engaged in a collaborative concentration game focused on listening, cooperation, and group awareness. Facilitators then introduced the concept of artivism and explored how music can contribute to social change. Through guided discussion and the screening of audiovisual material, participants reflected on artistic messages, audience engagement, and the role of music in promoting inclusion and participation. The session also connected these reflections with the upcoming Symphony of Inclusion concert and its social messages.
One 18-year-old percussion student expressed an interest in adapting and sharing the training with students and teachers at the special education school he attends, showing how the workshop encouraged participants to consider ways of transferring the learning into their own communities.
Through this workshop El Systema Greece’s team collected imput from youth for the final policy recommendations to be presented to the EU community during the final Gala Event in Brussels in November 2026.
In May leadership in the TRIO was passed to FWW – implementing partner in Poland.
The culmination of the project in Greece was the final concert on the 13th of June – The Symphony of Inclusion. Read more about this event here.
CAPACITY BUILDING TRAININGS
Train-the-trainer activities – 3 days capacity building trainings – based on the developed non-forml education methodologies were organised in the three implementing countries in spring 2026. Trainers from MasterPeace, YEU and Autres Directions gave insightfull and interective training sessions to 45 youth workers and CSOs team members in three project countries: Greece (March’26), Poland (April’26) and Portugal (May’2026).
We are proud to share feedback of some of the participants here:
“It was great exchanging with different people from different environments. It was interesting to hear other experiences and learn some new tools or deepen my knowledge on some contexts like Theory of Change.”
“To place greater value on the possibility of creating real impact through tried-and-tested practices and techniques”
“I was particularly interested in the tools for defining clear advocacy goals. The training also highlighted the value of collaboration, as well as the importance of connecting evidence with compelling stories that inspire action. And I enjoyed discovering the concept of the “new power” :)”
“the opportunity to expand my network, learn from people with diverse backgrounds, and discover new perspectives through the sharing of others’ experiences.”
“The big take away from me was the output-outcome distinction. I have realized by now that this is something universities get wrong, researchers get wrong, NGOs get wrong. This is a game changer because when you see that you’re working for outputs actually and not outcomes, your mindset changes. Also, breaking down the steps of advocacy to reach a specific question, and thus a specific course of action, was very important. THANK YOU.”
We were extrimelly happy to know that after the trainoings there was a network club formed in Athens to continue developing ideas that were born during the training days.
Another amazing initiative in Portugal started in Portugal by one of the training participants – Exam Books to Share. The costs of the exam books and therefore missed opportunity to prepare properly for exams limits education options for youth with lower income.
NON-FORMAL EDUCATION MATERIALS
During the first three months of the project partners’ teams of MasterPeace, YEU and Autres Directions worked on developing 3 non-formal education materials turning their expertise into a capcity building methodologies for Civil Society Organisations. The materials can be used to organise trainings for CSO team members and management, youth workers and volunteers on topics of CSO Leadership and Management, Advocacy Campaigns and Use of Artivism.
Methodologies are available for downloading. Click on the thumbnails below to open pdfs in a new window.
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PROJECT KICK-OFF IN ATHENS
Transnational Project Meeting 1 in Athens (Greece) kicked off the project in January 2026 gathering 2 representatives of partnering organisations. We worked together for the first time in person. The MasterPeace Code of Conduct was signed to guide partners’ collaboration through the intense timeline of this project.
