"""Meeting the other"" was designed as a project with two related activities. First a training course was held, spanning 8 days in April 2015 and counting 24 participants, which was a concrete testing ground for organisers, youth workers and youth leaders alike of concept and methods in the field of Intercultural Learning.As a direct follow-up of this training course, the project included a 12-day youth exchange in July 2015 numbering a total of 54 young people, which allowed us to incorporate more young people into the the same concept and methods, but now with some of the participants from the training course as group leaders and co-facilitators.In many concepts of intercultural learning, the focus is often on preparing individuals for an encounter with something or someone that is different from their usual environment. When applying such categorisations of culture, we implicitly assume a ""strangeness"" for the encounter with people of a different cultural background - the meeting with ""others"".""Meeting the other"" was an attempt to elaborate on intercultural learning, and try to take it in an altered direction, mainly by choosing a different starting point for such meetings of cultures. Instead of focusing on the encounter of people of different backgrounds, we started from a basic human experience, and how we relate to something that is different from what we are used to. The general objectives of the project were:- To provide a chance for youth workers and young people to reflect on their encounters with 'the other' on different levels- To provide participants the chance to experience the topic of intercultural learning from a new and unusual perspectiveThe specific objectives for Activity A1 (training course) were:- To provide youth leaders and youth workers with new skills and competences to support youngsters in their personal growth by exploring alternative ways of acting and thinking- To discuss the consequences for concepts of intercultural learning from the perspective of 'otherness'- To form a team of group leaders and facilitators for the youth exchange and to give inspiration for new tools and methods, which will be put into practice by them during the second activityThe specific objectives for Activity A2 (youth exchange) were:- To support young people in their personal growth by challenging stereotypical perceptions and ways of acting- To give a chance to young people to reflect about personal topics through artistic forms of expression- To provide a possibility for young people to cooperate in multinational teams and to learn about the cultural diversity the world has to offerSome of the questions touched upon by both activities of the project seem somewhat abstract. Impetus is therefore on the organisers to be creative in the formulation of concrete methods which can encourage reflection around the topic among all participants. We will be working with methods of non-formal education, and will use concrete exercises such as ""Albatross"", ""One step forward"", ""Crossing the border"", and other concrete exercises with which we have positive experiences. A very important aspect is to be thorough in the evaluation of each day to facilitate proper processing among all participants of the sometimes heavy material. For that purpose we willset aside time every single day for group and individual reflection. A key impact on all participants was that they became more aware of perceptions, stereotypes, biases, etc. in themselves, in cultures, group dynamics, etc. The participants obtained a more complex understanding of what intercultural learning means, and different concepts related to it. As we provided ample time and support for new project development (during the Open Space sessions, as well as informal meetings), new projects have beeen initiated for follow-up and long-term cooperations between participating organisations were set up."

The aim of the topic of the project is to encourage young people to contemplate on stereotypes, to review them and to make conclusions on how stereotypes can influence our lives. Moreover, the project aims to inspire an intellectual thinking of young people on how stereotyping can be avoided in our lives. These young people will bring good lessons learned during the project into the countries and contribute to more tolerant and democratic society.The main objectives are these:1) to explore and name the existing gender stereotypes among youth in the different countries and make an analysis of them;2) to discuss the most common stereotypes and the ways how they could be changed;3) to name the rarest stereotypes and see their impact in our lives;4) to present the good practices on how the stereotypes might be combated; 5) to share views, values and expectations of one gender towards the other gender;6) to learn accepting the other gender's views;7) to exercise more meaningful ways of coexistence of boys and girls/ men and women.The project involves participation of 5 countries with 30 participants in total. Each country is represented by 5 participants and one team leader. The project partners come from different countries, which are geographically quite distanced from each other. It is assumed that the cultural and religious differences of the countries will better help to develop the topic of the project and to reveal the aims of the project. The project consists of the informal activities. These activities will be performed in mixed groups. In order to better reveal the topic of the project and to involve the participants of different ages into the activities the participants will exchange among themselves during mentioned activities. After the activities the reflection on them will take place, which help the youth to better understand what they have learned. These informal activities will foster the holistic approach of the youth to abandon the existing stereotypes between man and woman, they will broaden intellectual sophistication, tolerance towards different nations and practice English skills. The project applies the so called learning from others methodology. This methodology does not allow to grow the ego of the youth, encourages to accept different views, learn from each other and develop the holistic approach. The basis for this methodology was the topic of the project, which shall broaden the steady norms and escape from the existing stereotypes. After this project we would like to do a few workshops for the local youth where we include them into the activities and provide them with a possibility to spend their leisure time reasonably learning new things that may help in their future professional life. These workshops will let to look at the topic of the implemented project once again (review of stereotypes in regard to men and women, their roles in families, workplaces).

"During this training course we welcomed 30 young peer educators, youth volunteers and youth workers that wanted to deepen their knowledge about the use of theatre as a mean to discuss social matters. During this training course we encouraged the participants to explore theatrical methods in order to stimulate young people to become responsible members of society, help them to participate in decision making processes and engage in actions and activities in order to contribute to their society. Our main purpose, our heart and our motivation was to support them to find new ways to stimulate your youngsters to PARTICIPATE & ENGAGE because we truly believe that they have the power to make changes. Ignite for TRANSFORMATION! And.. theatre is an excellent method to use as ignition for transformation. In contrast to talking, theatre has the power to move directly into the heart and move people from within. Often you immediately get to the people’s core beliefs and motivation. The visual language of theatre allows people to understand each other quickly without getting lost in misunderstandings. Besides, playing theatre is a lot of fun and creates a safe space, being it a great method to serve as a platform to address societal issues in a light-minded way, without losing its importance. Since theatre is a process in which trust and cooperation are essential for success, it is a helpful and interesting method of exploring different ways of thinking, weighing pro’s and con’s in order to be able to work together as a team. Furthermore it is a way for people to become aware of their independency and self confidence. Through theatre people are more likely to discuss their own behaviour and to reflect on that, it does make them think about a lot of things, about themselves and other people’s points of view and validate their role in life and this society. Therefore it is a beautiful and very playful way of taking people “by the hand” in a process of self awareness and growth towards active citizenship. Since theatre is a safe haven, with no goals in convincing and arguing with each other, it is by all means an excellent platform to “play” with all sorts of societal issues - big or small - in a cheerful way. This training took place between the 6th and the 14th of June, 2015, in Ommen. The following countries where involved in this project: Ireland, The Netherlands, Romania, Turkey, Lithuania, Armenia, Italy, France, Russia, Ukraine and the United Kingdom. We welcomed in total 30 participants, 3 interns and 3 trainers in The NetherlandsObjectives: The 2 main objectives:-Knowledge on use of theatre as a tool to discuss social issues; knowledge and practice with different theatrical methods in order to engage young people; transforming youth & social matters into theatre-Provide the participants with the skills to express themselves, make themselves seen; make participants aware of their own presentation and help them improving it, provide participants with tools for effectiveness and credibility in speech, establishing verbal and nonverbal methods of expression, creating empathy and compassion and a open, out of the box mind set.Description of the activities, impact and results:The training course was divided in 2 parts. The first 3 days of the training course are dedicated to develop connections between participants and to work at the same time on more personal competences that are essential in theatre. These activities are described as ""interconnection"" in the programme. From day 4 we worked 2,5 full days with the ""Forum theatre"" method and we end these days with a Forum theatre performance. The performance was done at the Saxion Hogeschool in Enschede. After the training participants concluded that they are more aware, openminded and selfconcious. They got acquainted with severals methods of theatre which they already shared with youngsters and peers and bring up social issues for discussion. Not even 4 weeks after the training we received the first feedback of participants that used part of the theatre activities that they learned during youth exchanges and volunteering and animation activities with children and youngsters. Participating organisations gained this way, via their participants, new knowlegde on behalf of their organisation and therefor will be able to offer new methods in working with young people. At the same time we did found new partnerships for future activities. Alltogether the enthusiasm of the individual participants will hopefully lead to more activities in the local realities but also on an European level. Enabling young people to speak up and make themselves heard and seen. Ignite for TRANSFORMATION!"

Sex, Love and Erasmus+ is a youth exchange involving 44 people from countries within and neighbouring the EU. Teams from Estonia, Egypt, Russia, Tunisia, Armenia and Kosovo will join a British team for an 8 day exchange in Brighton, UK. Throughout the week they will explore relationships, with an emphasis on sexual minorities and barriers to inclusion in civil society and the labour market. Participants will be drawn from a range of backgrounds in order to create a group diverse not only for its national origins but also with regard to sexual orientation, religious belief, socio-economic status, family background etc.. The result will be a rich, vibrant discussion across groups that is almost unprecedented amongst youth organisations today. Young participants themselves will implement a range of working methods in order to explore the topic of sexuality and increase tolerance and understanding of the topic, in doing so broadening the minds of the young people involved and the wider community, thereby challenging negative attitudes that lead to exclusion. In parallel to this, the project will boost the confidence and competences of young people to enable them to better navigate their own lives and, ultimately, aide them in becoming active citizens and economically successful. The project will lay the foundation for future cooperation between unlikely societies under the topic of inclusion and forge links between EU and neighbouring societies through those topics that themselves often prevent closer cooperation. Participants will complete the project more skilled in debate and advocacy, more aware of issues leading to exclusion, and more motivated to do something about it. The strengthening of civil society is therefore the chief long-term outcome.

One of the ongoing challenges in youth work is the integration of disadvantaged groups in the society or in regard of the European youth work sphere, their involvement in international projects. There is a constant need for new and innovative methods, which would ease this process and also give them an inspiring environment to develop their potential. Artistic forms of expressions are very promising in this field for several reasons. Regarding the aspect of personal development, artistic methods are very powerful as they give an opportunity for self- discovery. In the process of creation, we always express more than we are consciously aware at the moment. Especially the spontaneous creations in an improvisation setting are very useful in this sense and the outcomes can be used as a mirror to reflect on your ‘inner world’. Apart from the benefit regarding personal development, they have the clear advantage of not relying on spoken language. This can be very helpful while organizing international encounters with people whose language skills are not good enough to get into verbal communication. Despite their usefulness and potential as described above, artistic methods are not very wide spread and far away of being in the standard tool box of youth workers. Especially in the EECA region this field is still underdeveloped and it would be therefore highly beneficial to educate multipliers in this field. The proposed training course “IMRPOVision – Inclusion trough Art” therefore wants to gather 26 youth workers and youth leaders from program and EECA partner countries to explore the potential of artistic forms of expression in (international) youth work setting with disadvantaged groups.The objectives of the project are:• To equip youth worker and leader from Program and EECA partner countries with the competences to use artistic forms of expression in their work with young people from disadvantaged groups• To give youth workers creative tools of personal development and self-exploration which they will experience on themselves and afterwards apply to their target groups • To form a network among like-minded organisations and individuals with an interest in long-term cooperation in the field of the training• To develop follow-up projects for youth from disadvantaged groups, which will make use of the new knowledge and competences gained during the trainingParticipants will be youth workers and youth leaders working for the inclusion of disadvantage groups in society. The methodology will be based on the values and principles of non-formal education and the main working methods are making use of creative forms of expression. The special focus will be layed on methods of improvisation in the field of music and movement. The project will result in the increased competences of participating youth workers to make use of artistic methods in the work with their target groups and on a long term will contribute to a more inclusive society.