The EVS project “Second Wave” started in May 2016 and lasted more than 1 year in Birzai town, Lithuania. Project involved 9 partners, 5 sending organizations from Greece, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Spain, Armenia and Russia which had sent volunteers into three hosting organizations and 1 coordinating organization. Objectives of the project included improvement and expansion of activities locally for children and families and local youth - volunteers, creation of spaces for development of volunteers’ skills and competencies to increase their employability, exchange knowledge and skills in children and family free time facilitation, introduction of local youth with possibilities to gain valuable experience in voluntary activities, which remarkably increased their employability, contribution in youth empowerment to became competitive in labour market, promotion of volunteering locally in Birzai area and internationally using social networks of partners involved.The main targeted beneficiaries were children, families and local youth tending to get more involved locally. Hosting organizations were Birzai museum, regional park and kindergarten and all of them were highly value holistic attitude to person's development, so there were big flexibility for volunteers to choose fields of self development upon their interests. During the project six volunteers were developing new educational programs for children and families and these programs were tried out within the project frame, afterwards improved and adjusted were easily used in similar organizations. In addition, volunteers had activities involving local youth which helped to reveal the link between volunteering and employability. All the activities were based on non formal education principles and were directed to increase employability of volunteers and variety of motivating and practically useful activities for children, families and youth in remote area of Lithuania.

“Raising the capacities of youth NGOs for rural youth participation in democratic life – VOTE!” project aimed to raise the capacities of youth NGOs working with rural youth to encourage youth active participation in European democratic life and elections. We believe that active youth participation and in particular rural youth political participation can be an added value for the development of our countries and communities. For this reason, the consortium from 14 organizations representing different European countries decided to develop a long-term cooperation project on capacity building of rural youth political participation. The project aimed to contribute to the capacity building of youth workers from civil society organizations, particularly the ones working with rural youth and public authorities at the local and regional levels to be able to increase the level of youth democratic participation. At the same time that focus also on the capacity building of youth leaders from local rural communities. In order to reach our project aims we had defined the following specific objectives: a) To increase the capacity of NGOs working with rural youth to influence policy at local, regional, national and European levels;b) To empower local organizations staff to better involve young people in the decision-making process of their projects and activities;c) To increase the political influence of young people in their communities by active participation in the processes of political elections;d) To improve local and national youth policies and the competencies of local stakeholders to work together (cross-sectorial initiatives) and with rural youth in developing new projects;e) To develop instruments that can support youth NGOs that need to start working with rural youth;f) To raise the level of awareness within the communities in Europe about the impact of the young generation, particularly addressing rural youth;On the local level, the project had a significant impact with the implementation of training courses, local youth initiatives and development of the action plans for raising the capacities of rural youth.The priorities this project addressed:- Promoting the take-up of practical experiences in education, training and youth work in rural areas;- Supporting the production and adoption of Open Educational Resources in diverse European languages on youth political participation (elections on local, national, European levels);- Stimulating active participation of young people in democratic life in their communities, supporting their local initiatives and active participation in elections.

<< Objectives >>Fake news and disinformation are very common nowadays, young people are the most vulnerable and targeted groups who consume and produce the information online. It causes misleading and raises intolerance and discrimination among young people towards the various groups including minorities, refugees and etc. Youth work as a field with the mission to bring peace and tolerance has to address those issues by interfering with positive measures, need to empower its actors, youth worker and organizations in order to address the problem effectively.The project aims at contributing to the prevention the intolerance and discrimination caused by fake news and disinformation in social media and beyond by the youth work in the participating organizations and countries/communities via empowering youth workers. The project objectives are as follows:•explore and promote the tools (digital and offline), activities and methodologies to combat the fake news and disinformation•develop participants competencies, in media literacy and critical thinking to analyze and evaluate the impact of media images and messages on youth work and society•Promote intercultural diversity competencies and understanding among the participants and at their communities•carry out and disseminate educational toolbox/manual for youth workers for combating fake news at their communities/countries via follow-ups•explore further possibilities of projects and cooperation on this topic within the framework of the Erasmus+<< Implementation >>To meet the objectives of the project we plan to implement a nine days long training course for the youth workers and carry out follow-up campaigns to address the issue.The project considers the involvement of 32 youth workers aged 18 to 35 years old, from 8 program and non-program countries (4 & 4). The profile of youth workers are:•School or university-based youth worker•Community youth workers – working in a community within the project or program•Center based – working in youth centers•Detached / street-based - Mobile youth workers or sometimes they are called outreach based, the ones that are operating outside of formal establishments, more flexible in time and space<< Results >>As a result of the project, we will have empowered youth workers and organizations in eight countries. A practical toolbox for the youth workers will be developed, which will be spread both within the participating organizations and youth workers and beyond on local, national and international levels. We expect that project will impact positively young people’s attitude towards consuming and producing online and offline information. The number of shared fakes and disinformation, aiming at intolerance, violence and radicalization, will be reduced in the targeted countries and communities, subsequently, the level of peace and tolerance will raise.

<< Objectives >>The implementation of the youth project “Youth leader path” aimed to create a concrete path of development for youth workers by using the ETS competence model for youth workers to work internationally. It aimed to increase the capacity of the involved youth workers to work with young people, to integrate them into their organisations and to create strategies for engaging young people in the community using a rights-based approach. The mobility was guided by three specific objectives that focus on acquiring deep understanding and knowledge of the social rights framework and the policy fields that are relevant to young people in rural communities; strengthening participants’ competence to design, run and evaluate non-formal education and training activities at local and European level, using the ETS Competence Model for Youth Workers and a rights-based approach; and enabling and supporting youth workers and their local organisations to design educational projects that address obstacles in the access of young people from rural areas to social rights.<< Implementation >>The youth worker mobility was a 4-day seminar that took place between 30th October-2nd November 2021, in Paris - France. The activity gathered 24 youth workers who already have some experience with youth work but wanted to take their competences to the next level and to play more active roles in their organisations. It is an activity that aimed to increase the capacity of youth workers to engage with young people, to integrate them into their organisations and to create strategies for involving young people in the community using a rights-based approach<< Results >>The seminar is expected to help the involved youth workers gain a better understanding and awareness about the main topics of human and social rights that are relevant for rural youth, and what mechanisms are in place to protect these and to deepen their competence to design, manage and evaluate youth projects at local and European level. The main output of the seminar will be five project proposals through which the participants will act as promoters and multipliers of the knowledge acquired during the project to the benefit of their organisations. Last but not least, the seminar will strengthen the rural youth organisations and movements. We envision these organisations as strong, resilient, and resourceful spaces where rural youth can gather and develop themselves personally and as engaged members of their communities. These rural youth organisations will strengthen the rural communities as areas where young people thrive and care about advocating for their rights and the future of their communities.

Study visit, main focus troubled youth and immigrants. The aim of this project is to get to know the organization´s activities, visit different youth centers urban and mobile. Especially to see how they work with troubled youth and immigrants. The people who will host us have many year of experence working with youth and in the description of their organization they have clear goals and objectives about working with this target group. Our partner´s focus is the same as us, so we are gonna make a platform for both parties to discuss methods and ways to work with these target groups. This project is gonna benefit both partners greatly both in the work with youth and also in sharing knowledge and experiences with colleagues. The result of this trip will benefit your work greatly, we will be more focused and more professional in our work with youth. We hope that this visit will lead to more cooperation between Armenia and Iceland. We will also put pressure on our self and other organization in Europe to schedule more learning programmes will be available for youth and youth workers in Europe specific about these subjects and call out for more discussion between countries in Europe about these target groups.