What is Youth at the Top?

Youth at the Top is a project which mobilize groups of young people at a common annual date, in an active, civic process, with a symbolic and imaginative approach.

Youth at the Top is  foremost an international project: a collective action organized simultaneously in the Alpine countries (Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Slovenia and Switzerland), which aims to create links between the different countries and symbolically go beyond administrative and language barriers by considering the Alps as a sole region.

Each year, a common theme links all the local events. It is also the occasion to reconnect the youth to its natural and cultural environment by addressing various essential topics. In previous editions, kids and teens from the Alps and the Carpathians took part in educative activities related to different common themes such as: “Forest - the Almighty”, "Water in all its forms" or “Alpine Flowers and Pollinator Insects”.

Why Youth at the Top?

All over the Alps, people are disturbed by the lack of young people in the mountains, notably in summer. Are the mountains boring?
People are beginning to realize that our children and our young people are short of nature. Has contact with nature become a waste of time? Omnipresent screens, hectic lifestyles, no more room to simply go out and discover the nature.

From France to Slovenia, the Alpine protected areas are very keen to recreate or strengthen the link between mountain nature and young people from here and elsewhere. Because living in the Alps does not necessarily mean knowing the region and traveling all over it. Because mountaineering means education. Because the young people of our areas are also our discussion partners and tomorrow’s players, and also because it is quite simply vital for every human being to have regular contact with nature.

So, along with many other activities and projects, we have together imagined an original way to take young people of the Alps to experience the mountains, spend a night up there, and rediscover the power of being a group and the values of citizenship and solidarity. A collective operation rich in symbolism: Youth at the Top!