For many years, the City of Lille has remained committed to addressing the questions relative to young people, in particular by encouraging the participation of young people in the everyday life of their districts - in terms of leisure, culture, sport, education and extra-curricular activities, but also in terms of good citizenship initiatives and youth health issues.

In this way, the development of a series of local action plans constitutes the foundation of the policies of the City. For example, in the early 1980s, the CRIJ (Regional Centre for Youth Information) was created to give access to all kinds of information of interest to the young population. The Local Missions present in different districts of Lille provide advice about employment and training for the 16 to 25 age group. The CLAP (Lille Committee for Project Aid) offers financial and technical assistance to young people with ideas for projects. Moreover, the Credits-Loisirs scheme proposes vouchers enabling young people to enjoy free cultural and leisure activities in the city.

Finally, whilst it is essential to lead these initiatives on a local and district level to ensure the effective implication of young people, it is also imperative to coordinate on a wider scale public policies pertaining to the integration of young people, for instance, in their professional development. For this reason, the Nord-Pas-de-Calais Region and the Departement du Nord (on an inter-county level) are very active in the fields of preventing the exclusion of young people and encouraging self-fulfilment. The empowerment of young people is also at the heart of the concerns of the Regional Annexe of the French Ministry of Youth, Sports and Voluntary Bodies, situated in Lille.