Early school dropout rate among young Roma is 64% compared to 19% in the general population, and 78% lack basic skills as they never completed compulsory education. The unemployment rates of young Roma are three times higher than that of their peers in the rest of society. Learning by Doing programme, developed by our winner in the youth category, Spain's Fundación Secretariado Gitano, is fighting to change that. The programme offers young Roma an opportunity to gain work experience and receive training in leading companies which joined the initiative. The results are already there: 55% of the around 3 500 young Roma who have taken part in the programme got a job and 32% went back to school.

The education of young learners in the Superpower School, a volunteer programme run by our winner from Portugal, Movimento Transformers, does not end there. They have to "give back" to the community what they have learned. They do it by identifying a social problem and solving it with the talent or "superpower" they have acquired. Although the Superpower School students – mostly children and young people at risk of social exclusion – have weekly classes in which they can develop talents such as cooking, photography, creative writing or skating, their mentors also work with them on developing different skills and teach them about values such as gender equality, environmental or social sustainability and positive communication. Some 80% of those who attended the Superpower School say they now know better what to do in life and 30% stopped receiving negative grades.

The Care Leavers Network was launched by our Italian winner, the volunteer organisation Agevolando, as an experimental project implemented in Italy's Emilia Romagna region in 2014. Today, it is a nationwide project, present in 12 Italian regions. It has to date involved 500 young care leavers from across Italy, who have come up with suggestions for innovation in the care system and given new impulses to national policies that should help young people stand firmly on their feet once they leave the system. One of their achievements is the National Experimental Fund for Care Leavers, which provides concrete support for young people up to age 21.

Our first prize winner for Ukraine, the Romanian association SUS INIMA, based its refugee inegration model on a simple questionnaire containing questions on different issues such as education, medical services, access to basic needs, overall quality of life etc. Once it obtains the replies, it develops activities and initiatives to meet the evolving needs stated by respondents. This has built trust between the host society and refugees and quickly enabled the latter to become community members.

"You are in a Safe Place" is not just the name of the Spanish emergency fund for Ukrainian children with cancer who resumed their medical treatment in Barcelona after the war came to their country. It is also the first phrase the members of the Villavechia foundation, the association which operates the fund, told the mothers and other family members of 16 young cancer patients when they arrived in Barcelona in mid-March 2022. To make the phrase come true, the Villavecchia foundation teamed up with many hospitals, volunteers and other entities to make sure young patients and their families are cared for and supported in the best possible way.

The Polish Scouting and Guiding Association (PSGA) has been actively helping Ukrainian refugees from the very first day Russia attacked. Its scouts were present at six border crossing points, and during the first month of the war they directly helped more than 1.5 million refugees. Overall, of the around three million Ukrainian civilians who fled the country to Poland, one in three received assistance in centres run by scouts and one in five children participated in scout-led activities. During the first months the volunteer service was provided 24 hours a day. The PSGA also collected 127 tons of aid, which was sent to Ukraine. (ll)