The article is devoted to social projects identified by the youth of the Sverdlovsk region as the best urban practices with the participation of volunteer assistants. The relevance of studying this topic is due to the expansion of the use of project technology in all spheres of public life, as well as the mass involvement of young people in charity and volunteer movements in general. The purpose of this article is to characterize the best, in the opinion of young people and girls of the Middle Urals, socially significant projects, to identify the specifics of youth participation in them. Based on a socio - logical survey conducted in the summer - autumn of 2020, young people aged 14 to 24 years (n = 1105 people, the article is based on data from a subsample, n = 537), directions for the implementation of urban projects were identified, and target audiences were described. Sources of informing volunteers about the best social projects, the nature of youth participation in these urban practices have been identified. The most attractive for young people are mass, promotional (short - term) social projects in the social and patriotic direction. According to the results of the study, it was found that most often young people receive information about social projects thanks to the environment of educational institutions and the initiatives of teachers. Less effective in involving young people in social projects is their immediate environment and the professional community of organizers of social activity. In social projects, young people and girls can implement different types of participation: proactive, active and passive. It is at the school that the mass involvement of young people in social projects takes place, where passive participation becomes the first stage in the involvement of young people and girls, in which they get their first experience of participation, information about the project activity itself and the opportunities that open up for young people. The level of involvement of young people and girls in social projects does not form their responsibility for what is happening where they live. The higher the level of involvement in a social project, which determines the type of youth participation highlighted in the study, the more likely it is that young people and girls will continue to volunteer in the same role positions in future social projects.