"""Education in Citizenship has to be VIP"" (ECtobeVIP) is a project coordinated by the Spanish organization Gandia Youth Council - Consell dels Joves de Gandia along with a total 26 organizations from 21 countries of both the European Union and outside.This project consists a mobility activity of youth workers for attending a training course on human rights as the main axis.A total of 36 young people between 18 and 35 years with equal gender participation, taking place in Gandia between 4 and 12 October.The methodology to be used will be through non-formal education through active and committed participation of the participants giving them the opportunity to learn where they can meet your needs and expectations as far as possible and thereby ensuring the best results working . Workshops, dynamic , visits , talks... will be used to work on the issue of human rights, diversity , languages, cultures and equality.It is intended that through a major dissemination has impact multiplier and sustainable impact , is the participants through learning in this project to create ideas and future social projects in their countries of origin, the host community change vision about prejudices and stereotypes that already exist . It is about reaching young youth workers , opinion leaders , representatives of government agencies, and the local population in general. Contact with participants and these organizations will be maintained to monitor for several months to see the real impact has been through. With the 42 associationsfrom Gandia Youth Council - Consell dels Joves of Gandia , partners from different countries and experts participating in this project , the impact will be very positive and powerful .Some of the benefits expected to be obtained are more social participation , there is a greater cultural awareness , make more tolerance between people, increase motivation for young people to participate in mobility projects , creation of social projects , and as the establishment of contact between the participants after the project finished .Ultimately this project is an opportunity for young people to meet, share , learn from each other and use what they learn to improve the society in which we live."

Many types of conflicts exist in Europe ranging from social tensions, community conflicts to ethnic and identity-based violent conflict in Eastern Europe, namely in Ukraine and the South Caucasus. To aid communities and individuals affected by these conflicts, peace education - defined as a holistic, multidisciplinary and transformative process to develop competences in nonviolent conflict transformation, respect for human rights and active participation - is one approach of peace-building measures that aims at strengthening nonviolence and participatory means of conflict transformation to ensure human rights protection, nonviolence and participation as fundamental principles of societal life allowing young people to not only grow up in a peaceful environment without their personal development potentials being jeopardise, but also to contribute conflicts to be addressed nonviolently without making use of direct, structural and cultural violence.Against this background, the project aimed to strengthen the competences of youth workers and youth educators in peace education for young people in order to empower young people to become pro-active agents of peaceful change via local community initiatives addressing societal conflicts.Thus, the following objectives have been pursued by the project:-To qualify new peace educators in planning, delivering and evaluating educational programmes on peace education for young people-To create new educational materials and activities for peace education programmes for young people-To trigger transnational partnerships on peace education among youth organisationsTherefore, the following core activities have been realised in the frame of the project:1.E-Learning module on peacebuilding and peace education (online)2.1st Residential training course on peacebuilding and peace education (Misaktsieli, Georgia, 10-18 April 2016)3.E-Learning module on training delivery and facilitation (online)4.2nd Residential training course on training delivery for peace education courses in the youth context (Kobuleti, Georgia, 18-26 June 2017)5.Follow-up activities conducted by the participants applying their newly gained competences in their local communitiesAs a result, the project has trained 30 individuals (18 participated in both residential course, each 6 each only in one of both courses) on peacebuilding, peace education and training delivery on peace education, who created 8 educational activities on peace education for young people, and three different types of partnerships were created between the participants and partner organisations: 1) project-based partnership, 2) a pure learning partnership, and 3) a trainer partnership.

The project 'Professional Video Positive Impact 2' was financed by the European Commission through the Erasmus+ programme. The major activity of the project was a training course which took place in Alicante, Spain and hosted 19 participants – including the participants, the 2 trainers and support staff. The participants attended training sessions built around non-formal education methods.The project took place over a 6 month period beginning in May 2017 and culminating in November 2017. The six countries participating in the project were represented by NGOs and informal groups from Croatia, Latvia, Macedonia, Romania, Spain and the United Kingdom. The main purpose of 'Professional Video Positive Impact 2' was to develop the video-making, digital and communication competences of the attending young people and youth workers.To reach this purpose, we set the following objectives:Goal #1: During the project, the participants will improve their skills and knowledge on why to use video in education, how to do proper storytelling and how to reach people with fewer opportunities through video.Goal #2: During the project, the participants will improve their skills in filming, editing and publishing videos online.Goal #3: After the project, the participants will be more confident in their abilities, they will want to make a positive change in their NGOs and communities, they will have developed their empathy towards disadvantaged people and will be more culturally aware.During the project's major activity (an 8 day-long training course) we worked with local charities and NGOs in Alicante. Our participants used the knowledge and skills they had learnt in earlier sessions to produce high quality professional videos for these organisations.

"Through ""Into the World"" project we addressed the European contrast between the POTENTIAL of young people of current generation being the best educated ever and getting involved in volunteering and the REALITY that shows that 13,7 millions of youth remain out of employment. We aimed at soften the obstacle between the potential and the practice. Previously, youth work has focused in developing the potential, the competences and the capacities of young people. European Commission has put forward dozens of programmes that invest in young people, reinforce their education (formal, non-formal and informal learning), boost their employment and encourage their mobility. Nowadays though, a new need arised; the need TO MAKE THE POTENTIAL A REALITY. This means that we already have competent young people, so we need to start transferring the competences into practice, moving from the place of acquiring to the place of applying, implementing and achieving.Youth workers play a key role in supporting young people to unlock and apply their potential. As described by the EC “Youth work develops the life management and social skills of young people which assists their transition to the labour market”. Practicing youth work ourselves, we know very well that youth work does not only support young people in entering labour market, but also in achieving personal development and social change! In an attempt to move from the place of competences/potential to the place of practice, we focused on 2 steps:3. Youth need to be supported to realize the competences they have and find ways to put them into practice, to apply them in real life for their personal and professional development.4. Youth need to embrace a purpose in life, a direction that will guide them and through which the application of the competences can have a meaning and significance. Embracing a purpose in life is particularly important element, since without a meaningful direction the application of the competences can dangerously fail. In this context, the project “Into the world” has been developed. The project aimed exactly to reach its title: to enhance the competences of the youth workers so that they support youth to exploit their competences for personal, professional and social growth in a meaningful and purposeful way.The objectives of the project were for youth workers1. to gain knowledge related to the transferability of informal and non-formal learning into competences;2. to develop understanding why a purpose in life is important especially for youth;3. to enhance their skills in guiding the youth to apply their competences in meaningful and purposeful way; 4. to increase their motivation in supporting youth to use their competences (professionally and personally);5. to develop a personal follow-up plan to use with the youth they work with.The project had one activity, a training course which took place in Maguri Racatau, Romania and involved 24 youth workers from the following countries: Romania, Cyprus, Italy, France, Czech Republic, Croatia, Latvia, Slovenia, Spain, Malta and Ireland. It took place between 6th - 14th of May 2017. The training was based on the elements of experiential learning, self-directed learning and non-formal education (NFE). Throughout the training course the training team created the spaces for the participants for the experiential phase, for the reflection stage, for generalization and receiving of input and knowledge and for planning the transfer stage. The project had these results: - increased competences of the 24 youth workers directly involved in the project;- video with information and key elements of the project; - articles outlining the importance of transferring the competences into practice and the purpose in life. - workshops lead by the participants in their local communities of the partners regarding the knowledge transfer- workshops lead by the participants in their local communities of the partners with the youth with fewer opportunities."

"""YOUth 4 Peace"" is a youth exchange mobility project that will take place in Cluj-Napoca, Romania from 20th to 28th of November 2016 (including the arrival and departure days).The youth exchange project gathers 30 young people aged 15-17 and 7 group leaders coming from 6 European countries: Actions for Change, from Romania which is the host organization; Narodno chitalishte ""Badeshte sega 2006""from Bulgaria;Spolek pratel Cyrilometodejskeho gymnazia v Prostejove from Czech Republic;GLOBART from Austria; HUMANA PEOPLE TO PEOPLE IN LATVIA from Latvia and ASOCIACION PROMESAS Promotora de Metodologías Educativas para una Sociedad Alternativa y Sostenible from Spain. From our experience as youth leaders, youth workers and educators, we have observed that young people are faced with difficulties in navigating the complex world we are living in, where they are endlessly exposed to contrasting messages and they sometimes lack positive role models.That often leads to a personal storming, where they have challenges in finding themselves and creating an authentic, value-driven path, which affects both their personal life and their career choices. The need to be accepted and socially valued is widely recognized by psychologists and sociologists,especially when it comes to teenagers, who are known to experience stronger emotions and act according to their beliefs.A worrisome example of a powerful personal storming process leads back to recent acts of violent extremism and radicalization we have witnessed. Such acts of extremism and violence have brought into discussion the vulnerability of young people towards manipulation and radicalization. This leads us to state that young people need to be actively engaged in promoting and sustaining peace, and find positive ways of expressing themselves and contributing to society. The AIM of the project is to develop the life skills of 30 young people aged between 15-17, coming from Romania, Bulgaria, Spain, Latvia, Austria and Czech Republic in order to better deal with the challenges they face as global citizens.The Objectives:1.The 30 young people coming from 6 countries to experience and integrate four basic life skills: conflict resolution, creative problem-solving,critical thinking and empathy. 2.To develop a proactive attitude for the 30 young people coming from 6 European countries towards the interconnectedness of the world.3.To increase the awareness of the 30 participants coming from 6 counties regarding the benefits of cooperation based on trust. 4.To stimulate the self-discovery process of 30 young people coming from 6 countries regarding career orientation. The project seeks to achieve the above-mentioned objectives by means of a powerful non formal tool. The participants will get the chance to put their mind and heart into playing an interactive board game called the World Peace Game which is a complex real-life simulation that gives children the opportunity to creatively solve the crises of humanity,to manage the budget of their countries and to negotiate in order to achieve peace and prosperity. Every young people have a role, such as Prime Minister of a nation, cabinet member,President of the World Bank,arms dealer,Secretary General of the United Nations,saboteur etc. Each role receives a top-secret dossier with 20-30 pages of vital information describing the approximate 50 interlocking crises that are to be resolved, and the budget and other financial information used for crucial calculations.The learning by doing experience of the game followed by the debriefing sessions will provide the participants with a full-circle and empowering learning experience that would equip them with the mindset,attitude and necessary skills to be the engaged,community-oriented and mindful European citizens that Europe so desperately needs for a peaceful future. Moreover the experience will be completed by a wide variety of non-formal activities, workshops and group work on the topic of conflict resolution,creative problem-solving,critical thinking and empathy.The participants will organize a TEDed YOUth 4 Peace conference giving speeches, will create Delivering Life flash mob experiences, will write letters to peers from Cluj community, will transmit their Message to the World and will make an action plan for the dissemination activities.The most meaningful result of the project will be for the participants to reach the world peace by collaboration, reciprocity and care for all the counties and individuals. Based on their experience in the youth exchange, the most significant impact will be that the young people will transfer their key learning points to their personal life and self-development process, as well as pass them on to their communities. The longer term benefits of this learning mobility is the fact that it will be a life-changing experience for most of the participants and which will positively influence their path and also their mission in life."