The development of the All on Board methodology was a collaborative process grounded in practice. It unfolded through several key stages, shaped by the contributions of youth workers and partner organizations committed to tackling a central challenge in the field: how to maintain young people’s interest and involvement throughout the life of a project, not just at the beginning.

The process began after an initial research phase that each partner carried out in their local context. Through surveys, interviews, and consultation with youth workers, the research revealed a widespread issue—youth participation tends to drop off over time. This disengagement often has little to do with a lack of interest from young people, and more to do with how activities are structured, communicated, or connected to their actual needs and motivations.

With these insights in hand, each organization entered a phase of focused brainstorming. Internally, they reflected on their own past experiences and began drafting initial concepts for engagement tools—whether activity formats, facilitation techniques, or program design ideas. These weren’t meant to be final products, but starting points: sketches based on field realities that could later be tested and shaped through dialogue.

The next step was to bring these drafts into conversation—literally. This happened during a Learning, Teaching, and Training Activity (LTTA) hosted in Tabbiano, Italy. The LTTA brought together the core partner teams along with selected youth workers from different countries. It was here, over a few concentrated days of work, that the ideas really began to take shape.

The sessions in Tabbiano combined collaborative refinement with hands-on experimentation. Participants rotated between presenting their draft ideas and participating in others’ proposed methods. They offered feedback, proposed modifications, and tested each tool against practical considerations: Would this work in a short-term setting? How would it adapt to different group sizes? What happens when motivation drops mid-way? How do we avoid relying on a single facilitator’s charisma? This kind of reflective exchange allowed the tools to evolve from theoretical ideas into grounded, adaptable strategies.

The LTTA also served as a space for mutual learning. Organizations and youth workers shared what engagement looked like in their own contexts—urban or rural, formal or informal, well-resourced or limited. This diversity became an asset, challenging assumptions and broadening the methodology’s relevance. In the end, the group produced a first version of the All on Board methodology—shaped by both professional insight and real-world testing.

What sets this methodology apart is its intention. From the beginning, the focus was on creating something that youth workers could genuinely use—not a set of abstract principles, but tools and approaches that reflect the messiness, creativity, and complexity of real youth work. It doesn’t offer easy fixes, but practical pathways to help young people feel ownership over their involvement and recognize their role as active participants in shaping what a project becomes.

The resulting methodology is flexible, modular, and open-ended. It recognizes that youth engagement is never static—it evolves over time, and so should the strategies we use to support it. By designing with this in mind, All on Board offers a foundation that can adapt to different projects, contexts, and groups—encouraging youth workers to continue experimenting, reflecting, and learning alongside the young people they support.