There is a real problem with how Artificial Intelligence is being introduced into the youth sector: most available tools and resources were designed for corporate or academic contexts, and they simply do not reflect the reality of those who work daily with young people in vulnerable situations — in associations, community centres, and non-formal education organisations.

That is precisely the gap that Building the Future with AI (BFAI) sets out to close. And the Co-Creation Labs are at the heart of that mission.

What Are the Co-Creation Labs?

The Co-Creation Labs are collaborative working sessions in which youth workers from different contexts come together to co-create the content of the project’s AI toolkit. This is not a traditional training where participants passively receive information. It is a collective construction process: participants bring their practical experience, their real questions, and their perspectives on how AI can — or cannot — be useful in youth work.

The result of this process will be the AI Toolkit for Youth Workers — a free, open-access resource available in multiple languages, designed specifically for youth work practitioners who need to navigate Artificial Intelligence in a critical, ethical, and inclusive way.

Why Caldas da Rainha?

The Co-Creation Labs for the Portuguese phase of the project take place in Caldas da Rainha, home city of RUA — Associação Juvenil, the Portuguese partner organisation in the BFAI consortium.

RUA coordinates the project at national level and has a long track record of working with young people and youth workers in non-formal education settings. Hosting the labs in Caldas da Rainha is a way of grounding this European process in a real community, with real people.

A European Project, Three Partners, One Shared Vision

Building the Future with AI is an Erasmus+ KA210-YOU project, co-funded by the European Union, developed by a consortium of three organisations:

• RUA — Associação Juvenil (Caldas da Rainha, Portugal) — project coordinator
• Lascò (Italy) — specialists in non-formal education methodologies and work with young people at risk
• La Cultora (Spain) — an organisation with strong expertise in social innovation and digital skills

Together, these three organisations represent a diversity of contexts, languages, and approaches to youth work across Southern Europe. That diversity is a strength: the resulting toolkit will be more robust, more inclusive, and more useful precisely because it was built from different realities.

What Will Happen at the Labs?

During the Co-Creation Labs, participants will:

• Explore core AI concepts in an accessible, jargon-free way
• Discuss the ethical, social, and inclusion dimensions of AI in youth work contexts
• Test activities and methodologies that could integrate the final toolkit
• Co-create real content that will form the modules of the AI Toolkit for Youth Workers
• Provide feedback on what works, what is missing, and what needs to be different

Each lab is documented and its content feeds directly into the toolkit development process — participants are not just recipients, they are co-authors.

AI is already present in young people’s lives — in the algorithms of the social media they consume, the tools they use to study, and the automated decisions that affect them. The professionals who work alongside them need to be prepared to talk about it, to question it, to protect and to empower.

But being prepared does not simply mean knowing how to use tools. It means understanding what lies behind them, recognising their limitations, identifying their risks, and knowing how to make the most of their possibilities in a responsible way.

That is what the AI Toolkit for Youth Workers is for. And that is why it is being built this way — with the people who need it most, and who know best what they need.

Follow the Project

The Co-Creation Labs are just one of the key milestones of Building the Future with AI. Throughout the project, the consortium will also deliver an international training course for youth workers and publish the final toolkit as an open-access resource, available to any youth organisation or practitioner across Europe.

To stay up to date with project news, follow the communication channels of RUA and the consortium partners.

Co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union. The content of this article represents the views of the project partners only and does not necessarily reflect the views of the European Commission.