Public Spaces 4 Peace Places
In many European communities, young people — especially those with fewer opportunities — are excluded from shaping the spaces they live in. Project empowers youth to transform public areas into inclusive “peace places” that promote safety, belonging and coexistence.
Project Summary
Project period: January 2024 – December 2026
Partners: Rauhankasvatusinstituutin, Polytechneio Kritis
Funded by: Erasmus+ KA2
”Public Spaces 4 Peace Places” is a project focused on empowering young people to shape public spaces into ”peace places” that foster safety, belonging, and community. It aims to increase youth participation in urban planning and promote local communities as spaces of peace and coexistence. The project utilizes a youth-led approach, involving young people in co-creating and reimagining spaces through participatory mapping and creative workshops.
The purpose of the project is to empower young people—especially those with fewer opportunities—to lead the transformation of public spaces into inclusive and peaceful community areas, by developing their skills, fostering local engagement, and creating innovative, youth-driven models for peacebuilding across Europe.
Context and Challenges
Youth work across Europe is built on the values of solidarity, equality, and meaningful participation, yet there is no clear roadmap to bring these values to life. Many countries, including Sweden, Finland, and Greece, lack effective methods to tackle rising violence, strengthen youth agency, and empower marginalized groups.
Young people today face growing uncertainty due to rapid social, political, and economic changes, while current youth work struggles to adapt. As a result, trust in institutions is declining, and young people feel excluded from decision-making. Populist movements exploit this dissatisfaction, while divisions between youth groups, generations, and authorities are deepening. Hate speech, discrimination, and violence against minorities are rising, with Sweden experiencing alarming levels of youth-related violence.
Traditional youth work often focuses on solving immediate problems like unemployment or exclusion but rarely addresses the root causes or creates spaces where young people can reimagine their role in society. There is an urgent need for innovative, youth-led approaches that foster belonging, safety, and active participation while helping policymakers better understand and respond to diverse youth realities.
Activities
Our project introduces new methods to strengthen young people’s role as active citizens and changemakers. Through the combined expertise of Fryshuset (youth empowerment in Sweden), RKI (local peacebuilding), and TUC-TIE Lab(working with public spaces), our consortium develops an empowerment-based approach rather than a problem-centric one.
We train and support youth leaders who work directly with marginalized groups to co-create “peace places” — redesigned public spaces that foster safety, dialogue, and inclusion. Using trust-building activities, participatory mapping, and co-design workshops, we create hundreds of proof-of-concepts tailored to local needs. These concepts are showcased to policymakers, inspiring more empathetic, inclusive decision-making and providing tangible data for municipalities to improve community planning.
Impact
The project builds lasting youth groups that continue beyond its lifespan, becoming safe spaces for growth and expression. By elevating youth voices, we aim to bridge divides between generations, communities, and authorities, while helping society recognize the value of these often “invisible” groups.
In a time of divisive politics and rising alienation, our approach promotes inclusion, peace, and active citizenship. The project empowers hundreds of young people across three European cities while laying the groundwork for innovative, scalable methodologies in youth work and non-formal education.
Updates & reports
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Contact
📧 For more information or to get involved, contact us at: development@fryshuset.se
📲 Follow our journey on Instagram — click the names to visit the profiles:
@fryshusetglobal & @fryshusetyouthmobility