Rural Voices

In this episode of Rural Voices, we return to the Powering Change – Empowering Rural Youth for Energy Communities project to explore what renewable energy looks like in practice across rural Europe. We hear from Sophie Bell in Ireland, a young farmer introducing renewable energy solutions on her farm, and Marina Sainz de la Maza Ortiz in Spain, who shares the realities of trying to establish a com...

In this episode we’re taking you back to the first ever European Rural Youth Forward Conference. Earlier this year, around 100 rural youth leaders and European policy-makers gathered in Piloña, Spain, for an event dedicated to strengthening rural youth policy-making across Europe. Hear from Ketrin, Spyros, Rosie, Martin and Jana from the RYE team, as they catch up with some of the conference deleg...

What happens when rural youth take control of their own stories? Recorded during our 2026 Study Session on media literacy, this episode brings together voices from across Europe to challenge stereotypes, unpack misconceptions, and share real experiences of rural life.  What are the hidden strengths of rural communities? And what are the misconceptions of living in rural areas? Co-produced by the p...

In this episode, part of our Powering Change: Empowering Rural Youth for Energy Communities project, we’re in Brussels with the Rural Youth Europe (RYE) Policy Committee talking all about the power of building an energy community. What are energy communities? And what are EU institution doing to support their development? Dan chats to RYE Policy Manager Adriana Borsellino, as well as energy commun...

It’s our last episode of 2025 and we are catching up with all the winners of this year’s Rural Youth Europe Awards. Dan chats to Jillian Kennedy from the Scottish Association of Young Farmers Clubs (SAYFC) about this year’s Project of the Year - the Respect Campaign. He also talks to Fabian Kogler from Rural Youth Austria, Inspirational Person of the Year, and Ewan Aitken from Strathearn JAC in Sc...

In this episode we’re in Latvia for the Autumn Seminar 2025. Hosted by Latvian 4H, with support from Latvian Young Farmers, this seminar brought together rural youth leaders from across Europe.  This episode is produced and presented by the participants of the Autumn Seminar and here they present to you the building blocks of a rural youth organisation. They cover our organisation’s vision and mis...

As part of the ‘Rural Youth Forward’ project, in this episode we are delving into our research on the different realities and trends on rural youth participation in policy-making across Europe. Dan chats to Victor Cătălin Toma and Catalina Gurgu from the Active Development Association about their work on youth participation, as well as their flagship project - the European Youth Village programme....

We’re at the 2025 European Rally in Slovenia. Hosted by our member organisation ZSPM - the Slovenian Rural Youth Association  - this year’s rally is all about empowering young people for active participation. Why do you do rural youth work? What motivates you to give back to your local community? In this episode the participants will be interviewing each other about their own experiences.  The pod...

Recorded at the Rural Youth Europe Study Session 2025, this episode focusses on rural advocacy. What is it? How do we engage with decision makers? What are the priorities of rural youth? Listen to young people from across Europe sharing their thoughts, as well as tips on how you can start your advocacy journey. This episode was recorded at the European Youth Centre in Budapest in collaboration wit...

In our final episode of 2024, Dan is joined by all the winners of this year’s Rural Youth Europe Awards, which aim to showcase the very best of rural youth across Europe. Hear from the team from Landjugend Schwoich who were responsible for this year’s Project of the Year - See Agriculture, Taste Agriculture, Experience Agriculture. Dan also chats to Teele Tõnisson from Estonian 4H, this year’s Ins...

Care to stay. Dare to change. We are at the 2024 European Rally in Voore, Estonia, hosted by Estonian 4H. Dan chats to the Estonian prep team and participants throughout the course of the week, which aims to develop our entrepreneurial mindsets. We also discuss the week’s theme with Kerli Ats, CEO of Estonian Farmers Federation and Katrīne Leitāne, member ... Read More

In this final COCOREADO special of Rural Voices, Dan chats to COCOREADO ambassador Peter Schön from Austria about his COCOREADO experience, how it has impacted his farming business and his hopes for the future of the project. To find out more about the project and the food system innovator toolkit, go to the COCOREADO website: https://cocoreado.eu 

We are back at the European Youth Centre in Budapest for our 2024 Study Session entitled ‘Rural Youth Work 101’.  In collaboration with the Council of Europe Youth Department, we brought together 35 participants from across our member organisations to exchange ideas, experiences and knowledge in relation to resilient rural youth work. Dan chats to the participants, prep team members, Course Direct...

We are at the final conference of the COCOREADO Project in Brussels which is an opportunity to present the results that the project has obtained over the last few years. In this episode, Dan chats to Project Coordinator Tessa Avermaete from KU Leuven, Mikelis Grivins from the Baltic Studies Centre, Marko Debeljak from the Jozef Stefan Instituteand Tomás da Cruz ... Read More

In this episode, Dan attends our policy workshop as part of the COCOREADO project. We have bought together policy makers from EU institutions as well as COCOREADO project partners and ambassadors, to discuss and highlight the work of COCOREADO, as well as unveil our new project policy brief: “Empowering young citizens involvement towards sustainable food systems”. Dan chats to Tomás da Cruz Machad...

Healthy youth workers - healthy youth. We are looking back at the 2023 Autumn Seminar hosted by Umbrella in Georgia. Dan chats to three members of the prep team - Doglas, Nikoloz and Anja - who take a look back at their highlights of the week, as well as the event’s theme of health as a human right. We also hear from participants from England, Slovenia, Wales, Austria, Norway and Northern Ireland....

As 2023 comes to an end, we’re taking a look back over the past year and chatting to the winners of this year’s Rural Youth Europe Awards! Our annual awards aim to showcase the very best of our member organisations. In this episode, Dan chats to Linda, Roberts and Kitija from Latvian 4H who were involved in ‘Give Way to Youth’, which won this year’s ‘Project of the Year’. Dan also chats to Sian He...

Grow. Eat. Repeat. We are at the 2023 European Rally in Carinthia, Austria, for our biggest event of the year. Dan chats to the prep team and participants throughout the course of the week, which involves plenty of intercultural exchange, as well as sessions about the circular economy of food. We’re also joined by a couple of experts including Johanna Michenthaler who talks about meat consumption...

In this episode Dan chats to Florian Lassnig and Daniela Hinteregger from Landjugend Österreich about this year’s European Rally in Austria. With just two weeks to go before the rally bell will be ringing, they discuss the importance of this year’s theme ‘Grow - Eat - Repeat’, what happened at this year’s Grand Prep meeting and give lots of advice to the participants on what to expect at this year...

We are in Riga for the third COCOREADO ambassador training! This episode is co-hosted by the ambassadors and they talk about how they are ‘campaigning for change’ in the context of the COCOREADO project. Hear more about the ambassadors, what they’ve learnt from the training, the power of campaigning and the strength of the COCOREADO network. 

We’re kicking off Series 4 with all the action from our 2023 Study Session at the European Youth Centre in Budapest. In partnership with MIJARC Europe and the Council of Europe Youth Department, we brought together 36 participants from 17 organisations to investigate the resilience and sustainability of rural youth organisations, with a focus on mental health.  Dan chats to the participants and pr...

We’re in Ireland for the 2022 Autumn Seminar! Hosted by Macra na Feirme, the event is called ‘Creating an LGBT+ Positive Europe – Rural Out Loud’ and focuses on how to make our organisations more inclusive to the LGBT+ community. Dan chats to the participants, prep team and experts, including Tilly Taylor from the LGBTQ+ charity ShoutOut (www.shoutout.ie) and AGRI ... Read More

We are in Pamplona for the second COCOREADO ambassador training! In this episode, we focus on some of the seed initiatives that are being co-created by the ambassadors. They aim to rebalance the position of the farmer within the food supply chain and we learn how the ambassador network is helping to develop them further.  Dan chats to Anano Isakadze ... Read More

We’re in Germany for the European Rally 2022! It’s our first physical rally since 2019 and Dan is chatting to the participants, prep team and board members throughout the course of the week. Have you attended a Rural Youth Europe Rally before? If not, have a listen to find out what it’s all about, from the international buffet, to sessions and workshops on this year’s theme: dialogue and sustainab...

This week Dan chats to Lauma Apine from Latvian 4H, who is on a mission to raise awareness of sexual health education within rural communities. This month, Scottish Young Farmers have also launched their ‘Jiggy with it June’ sexual health social media campaign. In the episode, Lauma talks about how we can start these sensitive conversations. So if you would like to replicate a similar campaign for...