01Kick-off
Invest in Youth Begins in Erlangen
The first transnational meeting of Invest in Youth took place from 3 to 5 July 2025 in Erlangen, Germany. Hosted by Highlights e.V., the meeting brought together the project partners from Germany, Italy and Portugal to establish a shared direction for the partnership.
Date
3–5 July 2025
Location
Erlangen, Germany
Host
Highlights e.V.
Partners
Germany · Italy · Portugal
Invest in Youth explores the connection between financial literacy and civic participation. The project aims to develop an interactive board game and a practical guide that youth workers can use to introduce financial and civic topics in an accessible and engaging way.
Establishing the partnership
The kick-off meeting gave the partners an opportunity to review the approved project, clarify responsibilities and agree on how the different activities would be coordinated. The main areas of discussion included:
Particular attention was given to ensuring that the project outputs would respond to the experiences of young people in all three partner countries.
From an idea to a learning tool
One of the central working sessions focused on the first concept for the Invest in Youth board game. The partners discussed how financial topics such as saving, budgeting, inflation, debt and taxes could be presented through realistic decisions and interactive play.
The meeting also established the next steps for gathering input directly from young people. This needs analysis would later guide the development of both the board game and the accompanying Finance is Civic guide.
Next steps
Following the meeting, the partners began preparing the joint survey and developing the first educational content. The results would inform the international training in Caserta and the local pilot activities in Germany, Italy and Portugal.