Growing up in a rural or remote area often means living with a question that eventually shows up: should I stay, or should I go?
Staying can feel like being stuck, with few opportunities, and isolated due to distant and sometimes malfunctioning services. Leaving, on the other hand, often means giving up relationships, memories, and a sense of belonging. It’s not an easy choice — and it shouldn’t be the only option.
Across many rural areas in Europe, more and more young people face this dilemma. Depopulation is not just about numbers: it is about the feeling that their own territory has no room for dreams, ideas and projects involving the younger generations. But is this really the case?
Rural territories are full of stories, skills, landscapes, and relationships that are often overlooked. Giving a voice to the people who live there can change the way these places are seen and understood.
Rural territories are full of stories, skills, landscapes, and relationships that are often overlooked. Giving a voice to the people who live there can change the way these places are seen and understood. When young people are encouraged to participate, by conducting research in their local context, they are able to describe it realistically. This allows them to talk about it in an authentic way, creating new opportunities for future development.
Participation is not just about “being involved”: it means being able to speak out, make choices, experiment with new forms of leadership and imagine alternatives that are more consistent with the needs of the area. Tools such as digital storytelling, podcasts, and geo-localised stories allow places and truths to be recounted from a particular perspective, based on the experiences of those who live there every day. Telling the story of a territory is also a way of taking care of it and claiming the right to stay — or to return.
Connecting with young people from other territories and countries also helps to realise that these questions are not individual, but shared. The challenges faced by rural areas are not atypical and the answers are not unique. Dialogue between young people, local communities, and institutions is essential for building fairer and more sustainable futures.
These reflections gave rise to SOS, a project that promotes the active participation of the younger generation in the enhancement and sustainable development of rural and remote areas of Europe, strengthening skills in leadership, participatory research and digital storytelling.
In January, Porto hosted the partnership’s first meeting, to begin building this initiative together and setting out the initial operational steps.
If this question — should I stay or should I go? — resonates with you, keep following us or contact Riccardo Bellavista: riccardo.bellavista@danilodolci.org.
SOS – Should I Stay Or Should I Go? is funded by Erasmus+ – KA3: Support for policy development and cooperation – European Youth Together 2025.
Partners
- Coordinator: Centro per lo Sviluppo Creativo Danilo Dolci ETS, Italy
- Right Challenge, Portugal
- Re-Act, Bulgaria
- Active Youth Institute, Lithuania
- Institute of Entrepreneurship Development (IED), Greece
- Fundación Santa María la Real (FSMLR), Spain
For further information contact riccardo.bellavista@danilodolci.org.