"<< Objectives >>Young people are now seen as active players in organisations or in community life. They should have the opportunity to express their needs and to find ways of satisfying them. Although it is undoubtedly a problem that young people are increasingly failing to vote in elections, there are some studies which indicate that participation in different forms may actually be on the increase, for example, pressure groups, civic initiatives, consultative organs, and so on. These forms of participation are just as important to the effective functioning of democracy as voter turnout at elections, if not more so. That’s why we see CIVIC MONITORING as a tool for active participation. Civic monitoring is monitoring led by citizens and civil society actors; process of public scrutiny of public interest issues and political and economic power center. Main aim of this project is to empower youth workers to use Civic Monitoring as a tool in order to support and motivate young people for active involvement through the following specific objectives: *to raise awareness of importance of active involvement*to understand the relation between lack of information and low level of participation among young people*to explore broader understanding of citizenship. To be able to provide young people these forms of participation, youth work is an essential part of it. Youth workers need to be educated and skilled to be able to monitor and educate young people on different forms of participation.<< Implementation >>Through the project we will carry out the activity of Mobility of Youth Workers) for 27 participants from a total of 9 countries: Croatia, Latvia, Georgia, Ukraine, Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Spain and Portugal. There will also be 2 trainers and 1 facilitator from the applicant organisation. The training will be held in the municipality of Žumberak (a member of LAG Vallis Colapis) from September 16-23 2022. under the assumption that the epidemiological situation allows it. During the activity, different methods of non-formal education will be used. Participants in the training course will be youth workers from partner organizations as their employees, members, volunteers or associates. There will be 3 participants from each country, who are already working with young people in local communities and who need more knowledge, skills and support in the field of active citizenship and also who need new tools for their everyday work. Participants will need to be of legal age (with no upper age limit) but in the case, we will have a 17-year-old motivated participant, we will accept him with the obligatory parental consent.People with fewer opportunities (with geographical and economic obstacles) will also participate in the activity. By participating in this project they will get the experience that they will be able to present to potential employers in the field of youth (civil society organisations), and will also be able to consider self-employment. After the training course is finished, participants will continue to cooperate with partner organisations in the field of CIVIC monitoring which will contribute to the sustainability of project results and strengthening of organisations in work with youth people.<< Results >>As the main result, we will present the CIVIC monitoring tool for youth workers and young people that they will be able to use in their daily work. Non-formal methods in the field of active participation for youth workers and young people, which we will present with the aim of strengthening the knowledge, skills and opportunities of young people’s participation. The result will also be the fact that through this project 27 youth workers will be trained and a total of 9 organizations that improved and strengthened their capacities in the CIVIC monitoring field.The impact of the project will not only remain on the participants, but the participants will use their acquired knowledge through exchange of experiences, tools, knowledge with other youth workers, and will also transfer what has been learned to young people, but also within their private relationships - partner, family, friends - to other people with whom they are in daily contact. Participants will be able to strengthen and increase the quality of learned tools and methods and improved competencies, the life of their own local community through:-transfer of acquired knowledge to other youth workers and young people - participants will hold a presentation of the project in their local community after the training, including the values that the project promotes. - practical use of the tool: measuring participation of young peopleAt the local level and regional level, the follow-up foresees the realization of local workshops and activities to empower youth workers in working with local youth. Competences gained and shared during the training course and after it, will support young people in their quest of active involvement or on becoming more self - aware of their strengths, capacities, and goals. The participants could decide to adopt the methods and tools to the local needs or they could create new tools taking inspiration from them.The project is also a great opportunity for many more stakeholders who can be involved in the project (other associations, individuals, joint activities, etc.). It should bring new energy for the community, i.e. new content in the community and it raises the possibility to start some new initiatives after this project on the principle (""this is a great idea, we can do that as well"").The desired effect at the national level is a greater influence on decision-making bodies, a membership in networks / associations dealing with inclusion, implementation of initiatives at the national level in accordance with the theme and tools of the project, participation in the development of strategies At the European level it will contribute to a greater opportunity to apply for new projects to the EU program and funds, to inclusion in international networks. It will raise the visibility of the project by publishing on the Erasmus + dissemination platform, the desired effect is that as many organizations as possible see our project and get acquainted with activities as well as to be their inspiration for further work.Besides the competences of participants, the project strives to strengthen capacities of every partner organisation and increase the visibility of partner organisation's work, which adds to the visibility of the whole civil society work. International projects are a window to the world (especially for the applicant organisation), while for partner local communities impact is expected through dissemination, promotion and local activities. Moreover, considering the profile and the experience obtained from the project’ fields by the vast majority of the partner organizations, the follow-up phase will be of extreme importance in our case because of the implementation of a new tool, Civic monitoring. This training course will improve the partnership between each partner and applicant organization, as well as among each other in order to create a stable partnership platform for implementing projects within the field of work of each organisation. As well as on the local level, it brings the opportunity for regional level stakeholders to be involved in the project."

"<< Objectives >>""Youth Energies 2.0 - Creating a European Youth Participatory Agenda"" is a youth participation project that aims to support the youth participatory process, with the goal of providing them with opportunities to learn how to participate in civil society through pathways of learning, dialogue and sharing. Specific objectives:- To bring together young people and decision makers at different levels to foster dialogue at the European level and contribute to the development of ideas and recommendations; - Promote legal and normative recognition of the figure of the youth worker at the European level; - Promote youth participation in the democratic life of the European Union;- Adopt innovative and new tools in the design and implementation of youth policies;- Support, through local activities, the development of digital skills and media literacy in order to improve conditions for access and participation in democratic life. << Implementation >>LOCAL ACTIVITIES: set at 5 per national group, there are: conferences, simulation activities, radio podcasts and/or interviews, itinerant meetings on the territory, ""cafe Europa"" type formats intended as informal moments of in-depth study and dialogue between young people and policy makers.INTERNATIONAL ACTIVITIES: international seminar for training and exchange of best practices entitled ""International Meeting for the future of youth work in Europe"" ONLINE ACTIVITIES such as online pools and surveys for the identification of topics and issues of interest and specific relevance to young participants. The local working groups will consist of between 5 and 12 participants; the same participants will be encouraged to participate in the international activity of the project which will involve a delegation of 5 participants per association including 2 decision makers and 4 young people under 30. << Results >>The project involves the production of two main contents: a collection of proposals and recommendations on the topic of youth recognition and youth policies to support it; and as a second outcome a summary video within which we will bring together the good practices and interviews conducted by the participants during the course of the project. These are two outcomes that can be considered tangible by virtue of the fact that they can be easily shared in different formats.The impact of the project can be measured on different levels: local, national, European and international according to a ""local to European"" principle."

"In a context of internationalization of companies and teams, in a context where needs to adapt and know how change (with the coronavirus crisis), the local and global challenges of entrepreneurship can find solution thanks to intercultural skills as a possible source to answers the problems.Indeed, the basic principles for developing intercultural skills are: openness to otherness (curiosity, empathy), self-knowledge (and evaluation of one's own models), negotiation between one's own beliefs and those of others (without wanting to identify with the Other), interaction and analysis competence (to act together with a view to common objectives)They use four categories of resources:* interpersonal skills, such as the ability to center yourself, to review your distrust of others* knowledge on the functioning of social groups, on their values* a ""knowing how to understand"" aiming to correctly interpret foreign sources* a knowledge to learn new knowledge and to know how to mobilize them in real time in a communication situation.If intercultural issues are not taken into account, they can lead to failure of any cooperation, through misunderstandings and misinterpretations of different behaviors. Taking them into account means increasing your chances of becoming an innovative entrepreneur at local or international level.Through our ""ILE"" project we want to show that intercultural skills are ""bridging"" with the skills necessary to develop a sustainable entrepreneurial activity, which knows how to adapt and cope with change.Our project is the establishment of a training course on intercultural learning and the development of key skills for a group of trainers (4 countries, 2 representatives for each of the 4 modules) working in the field of vocational training for adults.The first aim of our training course is to provide ""learning trainers"" with tools to understand the challenges of intercultural learning, by truly experiencing cultural diversity.The second is to understand the mindset that an entrepreneur must develop in the face of change. To achieve our goals, we have defined 4 strategic modules to carry out an intercultural apprenticeship training for an entrepreneur.Participants will need to acquire and understand the basic skills of intercultural learning listed above.But also:reflect and acquire the meaning of intercultural processes in problem solving.• share skills and experiences on the use and place of interculturalism in the work of adult education.• learn and understand the concepts of learning methods used in educational activities.• be able to develop and experiment with new methods to improve daily work and more specifically in connection with interculturality.• be capable of creativity to bring out and animate activities.To acquire and develop these objectives we set up 4 stages, in the form of modules:- module for definitions of key words, creation of a semantic field in languages, linked to intercultural learning and the concepts to which they refer (Culture, identity, language, stereotype, prejudice, discrimination)-Module on ""resistances"" and obstacles to intercultural learning.-module on incentives and methods promoting intercultural learning.- ""tool emergence"" module and creation of new projects on intercultural training."

"<< Objectives >>Nowadays youth work plays a very important role for youth development. Youth work encompasses a broad range of activities (social, cultural, educational, sports-related and political) carried out with, by and for young people through nonformal and informal learning. Youth work provides out-of-school education, as well as leisure activities managed by professional or voluntary youth workers and youth leaders. During the Erasmus + project in Malta in 2019 some of partners met together, discussed the necessity of this project, where participants could see, discuss and exchange the good practices of youth work, to share experiences, to learn from each other and in this way to develop youth work in Programme and Partners countries. The main AIM of the project ""Reality of Youth Work"" was to present youth work in Latvia, exchange of experience with partners, improve working methods with youth from different backgrounds and strengthen cooperation of Programme and Partner countries in the field of youth. Project was for youth workers, leaders, municipality representatives from the youth departments from Programme and Partner countries. Partner countries gave the added value for the project as the youth work in Partner countries is less developed and participants learned from the best practices and used it for the development of youth work in their realities.Participants of this study visit also got a chance to build partnerships and plan new joint initiatives. Moreover, there was an opportunity to learn from the local youth initiatives, as well as to share the best practices in terms of successful youth engagement in Europe.Objectives of the study visit were following:•To learn about the reality of youth work in Latvia, Latgale region;•To support understanding of youth work realities of participating countries;•To improve working methods of organizations with youth from different backgrounds;•To learn about youth work in towns and rural area and to compare them;•To foster partnership building between organizations from Programme and Partner countries;•To explore the added value of the European dimension of youth initiatives;•To facilitate the acquisition by participants of communication, teamwork and project management skills of internationalactivities and networking;•To understand the impact and social change a youth center can have within the local community;•To increase the strategic thinking of youth workers in order to create long-term interventions for personal andprofessional development of young people.<< Implementation >>Project was for youth workers, leaders, municipality representatives from the youth departments from Programme and Partner countries. European Association ""World-Our Home"" hosted 29 participants from 12 organizations from - Azerbaijan, Jordan, Spain, Georgia, Israel, Moldova, Germany, Russian Federation, Greece, Croatia, Portugal and Latvia. Partner countries gave the added value for the project as the youth work in Partner countries is less developed and participants could learn from the best practices and use the gained knowledge for the development of youth work in their countries. Participants of this study visit also got a chance to build partnerships and to plan new joint initiatives. Moreover, there was an opportunity to learn from the local youth initiatives, as well as to share the best practices in terms of successful youth engagement in Europe.In Study Visit there were used the following non-formal education methods: the main methods were study visits to the different youth centers, meetings with young people, deputies, youth workers; interactive real-life learning experience; follow-up project development, networking, discussions and understanding of reality of youth work in Latvia, Latgale region; the acquaintance activities - the individual, couple and group tasks, which aim was to let participants to get to know each other closer - the names, interests, occupations, role in the organization, motivation to participate in the project, etc.; the ""ice breakers"" - activities in the groups which were carried out at the beginning of a project to break the ice between participants and create a positive atmosphere in the group; the team building activities which made an attractive way to join the group; brainstorming, during these activities participants generated a lot of ideas on the subject of the project; there were short activities (energizers) to give the energy to participants, especially in the morning, presentations, speeches; the intercultural evening during which every group presented their country and its culture to other national teams; as well as round-table discussions, debates, workshops, evaluations, reflection time.<< Results >>Through this project we wanted to show the participants our work with youth in Latvia and Latgale region. Youth policy in Latvia is quite developed and recognized and we wanted to share our experience and good ideas with partners from Partner and Programme countries. The project had the impact on all the target groups - project participants, partner organizations and young people with whom youth workers/participants involved in the project are working. Study Visit was organized with the aim to give participants the experience, knowledge, tools, examples how to improve the youth work, how to improve their professional and personal skills and at the same time to meet new colleagues from different countries, to learn from the good examples of youth work in Latvia, Latgale region. Project had an immediate impact on all the participants providing them with the international experience, new ideas, knowledge and skills that will help them in arranging and organizing the qualitative youth work at local and international level. Project participants got new ideas for innovations in their work from the study visit, which had impact on the participating organizations for more successful work with young people. Furthermore, all the participants were youth workers who are directly involved into youth work and youth programs in their own countries. In this way all the knowledge and experience gained in the project were shared with youth throughout their work in organizations in their native countries. So the main target groups were young people and their youth workers from European and partner countries.We saw a clear need for more cross border discussions, study visits and peer learning, especially for organizations from Partner countries, on how to work with systematic quality development in youth work. We wanted to make this project for strengthening the trust and building a real partnership at the international, national and regional levels to foster mutual respect, tolerance and understanding and learn from each other as well from our best practices. As a result of the project participants improved their competences, linked to their professional profiles such as youth work, knowledge and skills in Erasmus + programme. Participants saw the good practice in work with youth, working methods in Latvia, Latgale region and in such way every participant got a lot of practical advises and skills by the methods of non-formal education. Youth workers learned how to understand youth with fewer opportunities better and to facilitate them to their personal, social and educational development. They learned from each other and learn from the good practices in youth work. Participants recognized their own strengths and weaknesses in the work with youth. They were able to reach more young people, to understand their needs and to recognize the problems. Participants developed their management skills, creativity, got relevant knowledge, skills, experience, as well as they built a strong partnership among their organizations with the aim to work successfully together in the field of youth and in Erasmus+ programme."

SWIF is a project which aimed to develop a methodology of intercultural social volunteering based on three pillars: activity and practice design for inter-group connections and support, a guide to building an intercultural team of volunteers able to work in any context and environment, and strategies for student mobilisation in social volunteering practices and their multiplication. In the process of developing the methodology, all the objectives of the project were attained: special centre beneficiaries learnt new approaches toward their expression and development, volunteers learnt new ways in multicultural co-existence, matching group interests, organising teams and training peers thus leading to their own ability development, and students learnt new practices of interaction which can make a difference in the success of social integration. Furthermore, there is the objective of special centre beneficiary empowerment and autonomous practice of development, with the support mechanisms generated by SWIF.