The big picture

Across Europe, youth workers are meeting young refugees every day — in classrooms, youth centres, shelters, and city squares. Stepping Beyond Tents set out to listen to those frontline voices, distil what works, and turn it into a clear, usable guideline that can travel from practice to policy.

Funded under Erasmus+ KA210 (Small-scale Partnerships in Youth), the project runs 1 May 2024 – 31 August 2025 with a €60,000 lump-sum grant. Its primary policy priority is supporting Europe’s youth field response to the war in Ukraine, reinforced by Inclusion & Diversity and stronger links between policy, research and practice.

Who’s behind it

  • CIFIR (France) — coordinating management, research design and overall dissemination.

KA210-YOU-F718E509 (1)

  • Backslash (Spain) — leading the development of the guideline and hosting the learning seminar in Spain.

KA210-YOU-F718E509 (1)

  • Old School Green (Antalya, Turkey) — Turkish partner for implementation and practice transfer. (Editor’s note: this is the current Turkish partner’s name and location for the series.)

Together, the partners structured the work in four packages: WP1 Management, WP2 Data collection (literature review, two surveys and two focus groups), WP3 Guideline development, and WP4 Seminar-based validation and transfer.

 

What we’re doing — and why

The project’s core promise is a concise, evidence-based guideline (≈40 pages, five key points) that youth organisations and decision-makers can actually use — a bridge from daily practice to EU-level conversations about protection, inclusion and long-term integration.

 

To reach that outcome, the consortium committed to:

  • A three-month research sprint (online) combining desk research with ≥90 responses across two targeted surveys and two focus groups (frontline workers and refugee youth).
  • A co-creation phase led by Backslash, bringing French, Spanish and Turkish experts together to shape the five-point guideline.
  • A five-day seminar in Spain to present, test and refine the guideline with practitioners from all three countries. (This seminar took place on 14–19 June.) Planned format in the application: 4 participants per country + 2 trainers, with daily reflections and a final evaluation.

 

How impact will be measured

Impact isn’t left to chance. The partners agreed on layered evaluation tools: continuous feedback at the end of each survey/focus group, daily seminar evaluations, a final learning survey, and structured monitoring and management reports. A stakeholder sample of ~50 people (policy-makers, NGOs, refugee representatives) will review the guideline during implementation to check fitness for purpose.

Visibility and where to find the results

Dissemination runs in parallel with implementation. Besides partners’ websites and social channels, outputs will be shared on SALTO and the Erasmus+ Project Results Platform so practitioners across Europe can access the guideline and supporting materials.

At a glance

  • Programme / action: Erasmus+ KA210 — Small-scale Partnerships in Youth.
  • Duration: 1 May 2024 – 31 August 2025 (16 months).
  • Grant: €60,000 (lump sum).
  • Priority focus: Youth field response to war in Ukraine; Inclusion & Diversity; Policy–Research–Practice links.
  • Key deliverable: Five-point, ~40-page guideline for safe, inclusive youth policies.
  • Spain mobility: Seminar hosted by Backslash, exact days to be decided later

 

Note: this article has been edited after the partnership change due to unforeseen reasons and the name of the Turkish partner has been updated accordingly.