"Longterm EVS project ""Zavod O – Kids in Action 2"" has connected and improved cooperation between five daily centers in the wider area of Škofja Loka, Slovenia: MDC Blok (Youth Daily Care Center Blok), PUM (Project learning of Youth), Daily Care Center DCΩ, Daily center Podlbnik (all in Škofja Loka) and Daily Care Center Škrlovec in Kranj. First two are run by an NGO, DC Škrlovec, DCΩ and DC Podlubnik work under the Center for Social Work in Kranj and Škofja Loka, which are governmental institutions.Despite slight organisational differences they all have a common target group, which is children and youth between the age of 6 and 16 years and their families. The fundamental idea of all five Daily Care Centers is based on the desire to offer a program of activities to the generation/ group of young people with different problems, who spend their free time aimlessly and in a disorganized way, in idleness and boredom, who are deprived from normal family life experience.They give children and youth a place, where they feel comfortable and safe, where they can develop their social skills and get quality support considering their behavioral, emotional, learning and other difficulties. The program aims to provide support to learners with specific learning needs and to those with adolescent problems. Support is provided both at the individual level – working with each individual, as well as in cooperation with parents and with the whole family. The program includes group work and activities with adolescents, cooperation between different institutions, educational assistance, advisory work, holiday camps, daily excursions. All these centers are extremely similar to each other,they have similar practice of work and practicaly same target population. That is the reason why we came to the conclusion, that the cooperation between those centers should be streighten by hosting a common EVS project with 5 EVS volunteers from Spain, Germany, Turkey, Russia and Ukraine. Each of them was supposed to be included in the work of each Daily Care center for the period of one year, from september 2015 until september 2016. They would be involved in Daily centres' activities such as holidays activities, camps for youth, school support, leasure activities, administrative tasks. They would help the performing personel with public promotion and they would became acquainted with the theory and practice of preventive work in Slovenia etc. However, funding was approved only three volunteers, so the role of 5 volunteers was for 4 months performed only by three volunteers. At the next deadline we have aplied new project named Kids in Action 2.1, which was approved, so at the begining of 2016 we started to host two more EVS volunteers, which expanded the team of Kids in Action 2 volunteers.Not only the volunteers who were hosted gained from the project, but also local young people involved as activists in our organizations. As they participated in an international team, they learned from one another in a multicultural environment. Through it they gained for such a small town as Škofja Loka, yet very much needed European dimension of viewing the world. At the same time, the Erasmus + program was presented and promoted among local youth, which we tried to motivate to participate at any of the existing programs in the future. In this way, through the examples of good practice, we made significant impact on the increase of mobility of young people. In addition, the project aimed to positively influence and spread the values of the EU among other residents of the local community, many local residents were indirectly involved in the project through collaboration with various organizations and individuals."

"Longterm EVS project ""Zavod O – Kids in Action 2.1"" deepened the cooperation of five daily centers in the wider area of Škofja Loka, Slovenia: MDC Blok (Youth Daily Care Center Blok), PUM (Project learning of Youth), Daily Care Center DCΩ, Daily center Podlbnik (all in Škofja Loka) and Daily Care Center Škrlovec in Kranj. First two are run by the NGO, DC Škrlovec, DCΩ and DC Podlubnik work under the Center for Social Work in Kranj and Škofja Loka, which are governmental institutions.Despite slight organisational differences they all have a common target group, which is children and youth between the age of 6 and 16 years and their families. The fundamental idea of all five Daily Care Centers is based on the desire to offer a program of activities to the generation/ group of young people with different problems, who spend their free time aimlessly and in a disorganised way, in idleness and boredom, who are deprived from normal family life experience.They give children and youth a place, where they feel confortable and safe, where they can develop their social skills and get quality support considering their behavioral, emotional, learning and other diffilculties. The program aims to provide support to learners with specific learning needs and to those with adolescent problems. The support is meant to be provided both at the individual level – working with each individual, as well as in cooperation with parents and all family. The program includes group work and activities with adolescents, cooperation among different institutions, learning help, advisory work, holiday camps, daily excursions. All these centers are extremely similar to each other,they have similar practice of work and practicaly same target population. That is the reason why we came to the conclusion, that the cooperation between those centers should be streighten by hosting a common EVS project with 5 EVS volunteers, activities of which would last for one school year.Volunteers of the project Kids in Action 2.1 expanded group of 3 EVS volunteers of already existing EVS project named Kids in Action 2, so the above mentioned short term objective were realized.Volunteers of Kids in Action 2.1 were included in the work of hosting Daily Care centers for the period of 8 months, from january 2016 until september 2016, when also activities of Kids in Action 2 project end. During this period volunteers were involed in Daily centre in; free-time holidays activities, camps for youth, helping youth with school tasks, free-time activities in Daily center during the school year and other activities; helping to performing personel with administration, team meetings, meetings with mentor, dealing with media, getting familiar with theory of preventing work with youngsters and with social care sistem in Slovenia etc. All the included institutions have proven to be very perspective environment for EVS volunteers to show and improve their own abilities and skills, to grow in their knowledge, to be a part of sucessful work-team, to show or to develop their self-initiative which is one of the most likable characteristic in our institution. EVS volunteers of the project were equally and fairly included in the working team. All issues considering work, developent, ideas, progress or problems were discussed individauly or on the weekly meatings. The project raised the quality of youth work and created opportunities for joint projects and further successful work, not only on the local level, but also at the regional. The aim of all in project included youth organizations was to get new skills and experiences, to increase the level of tolerance, mutual acceptance, understanding, respect. Volunteers acquired new skills, improved academic success, improved their employability and career prospects, they developed their self-confidence and independence, they gained a sense of entrepreneurship, strengthened intercultural awareness, they internalized the values of the EU and increased the motivation for continuing education, both formal and informal.Not only the volunteers who were hosted gained from the project, but also local young people involved as activists in our organizations, as they participated in an international team, where they learned from one another in a multicultural environment. Through it they gained for such a small town as Škofja Loka, yet very much needed European dimension of viewing the world. At the same time, we presented and promoted Erasmus + programme among local youth and motivate them for participating at any of the existing programs in the future. In this way, through the examples of good practice, we had significant impact on the increase of mobility of young people. In addition, the project aimed to positively influence and spread the values of the EU among other residents of the local community."

Wider Horizon aimed at increasing inclusion and employability of young people with fewer opportunities (YPFO) across Europe.Due to the several challenges they face – social, economic, educational, handicaps, geographical, cultural – they are hardly accepted in their societies and in the majority of volunteering projects which are taking place across Europe, or any other projects within Erasmus+ frame. We gave a push to these young people to become independent and active citizens. We wanted them to use their potential which can bring its energy, power and inspiration to the shores of European society. The objectives of Wider Horizon were: 1. Increase the EVS mobilities of YPFO who never participated in any kind of European projects; 2. Create a safe and healthy environment where 30 YPFO can develop a structured daily routine; 3. Develop the employability and working skills of 30 YFPO by volunteering in the local community; 4. Develop a sense of European citizenship through living in an international community; 5. Get acquainted with the Dutch culture and its values through volunteering in local organisations 6. Promote Erasmus+ and youth volunteering. Wider Horizon involved in total 30 participants coming from 14 different countries: Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Macedonia. Wider Horizon consisted of a two groups doing a short-term EVS period, one group of 15 persons between 28/02/2018 - 27/04/2018 and one group of 15 persons between 02/05/2018 - 29/06/2018.During their EVS placement the participants did voluntary work at local and regional organisations in and around Ommen such as farms, pet shelters, camping sites, second-hand shops. Every Wednesday we had mentor meetings with the entire group and individually. Also workshops were organised on the Wednesdays to support their learning process. We used experimental learning, informal learning, intercultural learning and media as tool. The main results out of Wider Horizon are: • Increased inclusion of young people with fewer opportunities by creating a total of 30 mobilities; • The volunteers developed their social skills and their sense of European citizenship by living in an international community; • Increased the employability of the volunteers by working 4 days/week with local organisations; • Increased their capacity for being autonomous through a daily routine and managing their budget on a weekly basis; • Developed or increased daily life skills: cooking, shopping, going to work on their own, dressing according to the weather; • Organized, at least, 1 event for promoting EVS and volunteering by the participants in their countries; • Create 1 info pack about Erasmus+ especially designed for the target group; • Strengthened the network of youth organisations working with this target group; • Increased the visibility of the work done with the target group at local, national and European level. The long-term benefits of Wider Horizon are: • A swift on the accessibility of young people with fewer opportunities into “normal” opportunities, leading to empowerment and proactivity and more participation in society; • More inclusive projects in Erasmus+; • Growth and strengthening of youth organisations working in this field and expanding their network; • Reduced discrimination in all its forms, leading to a more cohesive European society • Bringing EVS and Erasmus+ closer to the core values of inclusion and equity that European Union and its society stand for.

"The main activity of the project ""Story by Story for building Community"" was Training course for youth workers and youth leaders. The TC was held in Stāmeriena from 12th until 18th October 2018. The project gathered 24 participants from Latvia, Romania, Ireland, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Finland and Croatia who are professionaly involved in social, educational and youth work that have experience in working with young people with fewer opportunities (NEET group, imigrants and refugees, youth from rural areas, economical challenges etc.).The central element of the project ""Story by Story for building Community"" was Inclusion. Many problems of the modern society have appeared because people are disconnected from one another. Through our project, ”Story by Story for building Community” we developed the capacities of youth workers to create transformational and sustainable learning environments for supporting youth inclusion in social life. We used innovative methods and practices based on Storytelling in order to foster deep experiences that will generate reflection and ultimat transformation. The aim of the Project is to develop the capacities of youth workers to create transformational and sustainable learning environments for social inclusion using Storytelling method. Objectives of the Project: 1.To enable 24 youth workers to get to know and experience the non-formal method of Storytelling; 2.To enhance the skills of 24 youth workers in guiding young people with fewer opportunities on the path of social inclusion using the method of Storytelling; 3. To increase the motivation of 24 youth workers to work with youth with fewer opportunities for their social inclusion; 4. To create a bridge of transferability of both theoretical frame and the methodology of the Storytelling method towards the community. Bringing together youth workers with various experiences and motivation to learn we created an open, productive and creative learning environment. In the second part of the TC participants tried out gained competences by planning and implementing activities with 45 high school studens (age 13 - 16, at least half of the stundents were considered to be with fewer opportunities) in Aluksne high school. After the TC participant organizations and individual participants dissaminated results by organizing meetings with other professionals and sessions with youth with fewer opportunities in order to use gained competences in their local environment."

"<< Objectives >>With this project we wanted to address 3 layers of the great crises that exist and is happening in the world at the same time:1. The global climate crises affecting humans, fauna and flora of earth and threatening the future of the planet;2. The humanitarian crises related to social injustice, immigration, refugees, exclusion, racism, economic disparity and varieties of bigotry etc.3. The existential crises (especially among youth) - the loss of meaning and purpose in life, the so called ‘youth disconnection’ due to the loss of genuine models.Through this project we wanted to address elements of the humanitarian crisis and the existential crisis especially, therefore the inclusion of young people at risk in the realm of social and professional life was in the centre of this project. Many challenges of the youth of nowadays society are happening because youth have become increasingly isolated and disconnected from one another. Young people were and still are directly effected by the consequences of these crises and us (all the partners in the project) as youth workers we felt and feel their infiltrations and frustration in our every day work with the youth, and now even more in the after math of COVID19 pandemic and the outbreak of a war in the neighbouring countries. The ideas that we set out are still current and important to keep on addressing. Through our project we aimed to develop the resources and competencies of youth workers in mentoring, using one to one mentoring in youth work, in order to create meaningful and purposeful learning environments for supporting youth at risk in their inclusion in personal, social and professional life.The specific objectives of our project were:1. To increase the knowledge related to social connection and professional inclusion of young people at risk for 24 youth workers during the project period.2. To enhance the skills in guiding and empowering through one to one mentoring methodology young people at risk on the path of professional inclusion and social connection for 24 youth workers, during the project period.3. To increase the motivation of 24 youth workers to work with youth at risk for their social and professional inclusion, during the project period.4. To equip 24 youth workers with innovative and quality non-formal education methods and tools that foster the inclusion of youth at risk, during the project period.5. To provide youth organisations and youth workers with opportunities for cooperation, common initiatives and peer support, fostering quality improvements in European youth work.Main part of the project was intended to contributed to further personal and professional development of the participants – people that work with youth. Results we wanted to see were:- The development competencies (mentoring, art of listening, story telling etc.) of people that work with youth towards social inclusion and thus improved youth work quality that organisation provides and better quality “services” that youth receive; - Increase motivation to diversify and make more effective the methods of working with youth – applying methods explored in participants daily youth work;- Risen the awareness and capacity to use methods that increase one to one youth work, mentoring in daily youth work;- Increased confidence of participants to find their own way of working towards more understanding and inclusive community;- Bringing greater awareness how non-formal learning, experiential learning approach works and skills to apply it in youth work context;- Exchange of experiences between participants and organisations on the local realities of youth work and social inclusion topic;- Gaining new contacts and enhanced international cooperation of organisations;- Having at least 8 concrete ideas for follow-up steps created by participants (on how to share the ideas from the training), implemented activities after the TC and project ideas (possible international cooperation ideas) that will later on be implemented;- Having at least 8 meetings of passing-on knowledge to colleagues organised by participants which leads to raised confidence of organisations that they are “going with the time” and constantly looking for new ways to work with youth.- During the beginning stages of this project at least 3 partner organisations were planning to develop Strategic partnership project under ""Erasmus+"".The ultimate target group for this project ware young people with fewer opportunities (young people - disabled, refugees, migrants, people from families at social risk, unemployed youth and young people with financial difficulties).<< Implementation >>We implemented training course for youth workers (A1). The training course included typical elements which derive from the principles of non-formal education such as: get to know activities, ice breaking games and team building activities, writing expectations, Youthpass guidance, daily reflection and final evaluation activities. Apart from those, the training course also contained the following content related elements: understanding what social and professional inclusion is when working with youth at risk; skills in non-formal methodology in mentoring youth people at risk; knowledge on a diverse range and innovative non-formal methods derived from non-violent communication, nature connection, the art of listening when working with youth, especially the ones at risk; skills in using holistic education in the mentoring processes in order to achieve more impactful transformations in the lives of youth for reaching their full potential; development of sustainable follow-up action plans that enhance the impact on hard to reach youth’s lives both on local and EU level. The main activity took place in guest house “Melderi” Ape parish, Latvia and between 4.10.2022. and 10.10.2022. The training course tackled mentoring through the elements of experiential learning, self-directed learning and non-formal education. The trainers provided for the participants a comprehensive arsenal of non-formal educational tools through which mentoring could be cultivated in personal, social and professional contexts. All that was practised/experienced in pair/group activities, theatrical games, dancing exercises, discussion methods, outdoor-nature based learning, group work, co-creating art work activities. The aims of the sessions in the training course were focused on developing the resources and competencies of youth workers in mentoring, using one to one youth work, so a meaningful and purposeful learning environments could be created for supporting youth at risk and their inclusion in personal, social and professional life.We gathered 24 participants from Latvia, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Portugal, Greece, Italy and Iceland, that are professionally or voluntarely involved in social, educational and youth work fields. Most of them are currently working with young people and has at least 1 year experience in it. Several of them were working with youth with fewer opportunities. Our partner organisations held the responsibility to select participants from their organisations in the preparation phase of this project. We also published open call in Salto-Youth web page to have a bigger selection of applicants for this activity. Due to the military conflict that was and still is accruing in Ukrain the participant list changed quite drastically, and we had to make some adjustments regarding the participants and countries/organisations they are coming from as some of our partner organisations were not able to provide for this project the needed amount of participants. Which we also agreed upon with our NA. It was planned to have 3 participants per country, but as we had to take in the situation in the world and we ended up having 5 participants from Latvia, 7 participants from Romania, 1 participant from Slovakia, 2 participants from Slovenia, 3 participants from Portugal, 2 participants from Greece, 1 participant from Italy and 3 participants from Iceland. The main criteria for selection was the involvement in youth work (those who are professional involved in youth work had priority), motivation to grow as a person and learn during the TC, ability to communicate in English for smooth working process, and ability to do follow-up activities. Participants were from the age of 22 till 48 years old. 18 of the participants were females and 6 identified as men, for us it was more important to choose participants for the project that would be fitting with our set out criteria (as mentioned above) rather then having gender balance.<< Results >>After the training course participants implemented own designed follow-up activities in their organisations. 11 follow up activities happened after our main project activity was implemented, 3 participants from Romania made 6 follow up activities, one participant from Portugal made one follow up activity, 2 follow up activities in Iceland led by one participant, one follow up activity by Italian participant in Italy and one follow up activity in Latvia. The follow up activities in Romania were:1. Sharing with the community the impact and main gains from the training course, in the direction of self-discovery, using the practices of drawing and writing, using mirroring, deep listening, taking control of the situation in a very gentle way. Participant also used a meditation she have created in the time she was in the training course in Latvia when we gave the time for participants to facilitate activities. It involved 9 people and they were in the age of 22 till 34. 2. 3 follow up activities by one participant:- Workshops about the TC for colleagues from Asociatia DA Coppiilor din Uricani-Hunedoara , 8 adults and 20 teenagers took part in it. - Presentation for colleagues from school where 35 teachers took part.- Two presentations about the TC for the students of the school where he is working, involving 25 students from the ninth grade(aged 15-16) and 29 students from the eleventh grade(aged 17-18)Many of the involved students come from disadvantaged economical areas and some of them come families with fewer opportunities.3. 2 follow up activities by one participant: - Sharing experience with fellow primary school teachers. Creating meetings for them in which participant presented his experience from the training course. - Creating activities with his students in the months of April and May about finding inner peace, finding joy, embracing the nature and what it has to offer to us. 45 pupils participated in the ages of 8 till 10. Part of the pupils come from poor living families and they live in poor conditions at home. The follow up activities in Portugal were:1. One follow up activity of open sharing circle with 10 more people that are working in non-formal education and with 5 young people in the age group of 20 -28 years, that have social and economical difficulties. The follow up activities in Iceland were:1. One participant made several activities:- Sharing with 20 of her colleges of the mentoring approach that was used and gained in the training course. - After the training course she has done several sessions implementing in them the gained knowledge of the training course with 10 different young people in the ages from 8 till 20 in her art therapy practice. These young people are struggling with mental difficulties, anxiety, depression, autism, low income in family, social anxiety, sucicidal thoughts. She has been art therapy in nature beforehand, however, the training course has strengthened her connection to herself and nature even more and she feels even more motivated to continue working with her clients. The follow up activities in Italy were:1. With the association where he is volunteering he organised a discussion activity for about 35 14-year-olds from Italy on the topic of nature, sustainability and personal growth.These discussions have brought up a lot of feelings in the participants and they have expressed their emotions about sustainability and their relationships with nature and how it all connects to finding inner well-being. The follow up activities in Latvia were:1. Alūksnes un Apes fondation organised a zoom event to share more about the project, spread the main ideas and knowledge gained during the training course giving them practical tasks, dividing them in breakout rooms and giving individual tasks. In this event 12 youth-workers and people who work with other people in their daily work from Latvia participated. We created a manual on ideas and tools of how to improve one to one communication between youth worker and young person, how to use mentoring approach in youth work, specially with disadvantage youth that is on our main organisation web page and shared through FB page. The manual consists of very concentred information regarding ideas behind mentoring, the key elements of mentoring and in addition to that, we created a printable and foldable pocket -zine in order to keep track on someone who is mentored, to have it on hand when needed and available to take nots, mark down questions or development of the person who is mentored. The project has contribute to further personal and professional development of the participants. Participants learned how to guide and facilitate learning process and use various methods and tools to create meaningful and impactful learning activities specially for disadvantaged youth. Participation have increased their confidence to find their own way of working towards more understanding and inclusive community."