On April 20-21, 2023, partners from across Europe gathered in Budapest to discuss the upcoming YOUnite project, aimed at helping young people integrate into the labor market. Participants discussed various training activities, methodologies, and formats, with a focus on creating non-specialized, entry-level modules that could be easily adopted by trainers across the continent.

The meeting produced several key takeaways. First, the partners agreed that the training should not be focused on curing obesity but on making young people more adaptable and better equipped to join the labor market. Second, the training will be provided for a group of obese or overweight youth, with the modules designed to be nearly identical or at least similar in all countries to fit all partners’ areas of expertise. Third, the modules and instructions developed through the project will be open-source documents, available for anyone to use.

Partners discussed the timeline for activities, which included each partner providing at least 15 activities to the pool, followed by joint decision-making on the selected activities. Detailed ideas of the selected activities will be discussed, with bilateral conversations between the responsible author of the modules and the provider of the activity. The final deadline for the modules and instructions is at the beginning of the summer so partners can start developing the draft version of the training program.

In addition to discussing the YOUnite project, partners also engaged in financial management and dissemination planning, including boosting social media followers and providing articles about their working group meetings for the project website.

Overall, the Budapest partner meeting was a productive and collaborative effort, laying the groundwork for a successful YOUnite project that will benefit young people across Europe.