In order to ensure that youth voices were heard, this project used a co-creative, interactive approach that directly involved young people in rural policy issues, and identified facilitators and solutions for young people’s issues in rural areas across all Nordic countries and autonomous territories. Co-creation – often defined as a non-linear process involving multiple actors in brainstorming, implementing and evaluating societal challenges, policies or systems – is a popular tool for making participation processes impactful. The aim is to strengthen the sense of ownership over the process, so that participants feel their voices matter and are heard – not as mere informants, but as co-creators of solutions and outcomes (Do, Powell and Naunova, 2018).
The co-creative method in this project involved recruiting networks of young people and conducting workshops on a rage of themes related to sustainable and inclusive rural development, all from the participants’ perspective. The thematic areas for discussion were identified and developed during the course of the project in close collaboration with the recruited panellists in the age group 18–25. The goal was that the panellists would provide concrete input to Nordic policy-makers in order to strengthen rural areas and create a brighter future not only for young people, but also by young people.