• In total, more than 400 people participated throughout the 25 days held throughout the country.
• As a culmination, there will be a large national gathering of all youth associations.
• A competition for projects carried out by rural youth organizations is now underway, and the winners will have the opportunity to present their projects at the national event.

Without rural youth, there is no generational renewal in the countryside or in the villages. Therefore, it is important to show them the enormous potential the rural sector has for building a livelihood. But sometimes they don't know where to start and don't even know how to find each other to support each other.

For this reason, the National Rural Network (RRN) has organized a series of national workshops to promote youth associations through its Regional Antennas team . A total of 25 regional meetings took place in each of the 17 communities (some even held two workshops), giving voice to the more than 400 young people who participated.

The sessions brought together regional youth associations and other more informal youth organizations, including individual youth, along with the regional government, local youth groups (GALs), and local entities that provide services to young people. The sessions served as a platform for presenting current projects . They also provided opportunities to establish personal relationships or strengthen existing ones for future collaborations. Thus, the objective of this series was to create regional networks to expand contacts and build synergies with other regions.

Main conclusions

The workshops achieved a number of successes, while also identifying the main needs of young people in rural Spain.

Regarding the main achievements :

• Mobilization of young people from rural areas who are not associated with each other.
• Exchange of ideas, experiences, projects, and contacts among participants that can serve as inspiration or to simulate such projects in other areas.
• Creation of future networks between participants who did not know each other.

Regarding the main needs detected among rural youth:

• We must reach young people through social media.
• They are calling for greater frequency and continuity in events aimed at them.
• They ask us to look for them in the places they frequent: educational centers, leisure centers, etc.
• They demand extraordinary activities without the use of an institutional tone.
• Possibility of organizing National Rural Network events in conjunction with other entities to have a greater impact on the population.
• They want to be heard so they can have a voice and a stake in the management of their territories.
• They require fewer formalities to establish an association and the search for other platforms to join.

How has it been?

It's coming

In a few months, a major national gathering of rural youth will take place to enable the various organizations and young people to identify relevant contacts in other regions and foster mutual learning.

To generate the greatest possible visibility for rural youth, the National Rural Network is supporting this series of workshops with two other initiatives:

• Simultaneously with the conference, a competition will be held for projects managed by rural youth organizations, from which the winners will have the opportunity to present their projects at the national event.
• Additionally, an audiovisual campaign will be launched through the RRN's social media channels to raise awareness about youth organizations in rural areas and the role they play in promoting them.