"SCI's vision is a world of peace, social justice and sustainable development, where all people live together with mutual respect and without recourse to any form of violence to solve conflict. SCI's mission is to promote a culture of peace by organising international volunteering projects with local and global impact. The No-More-War group was formed in 2010 to recall and reinforce SCI's orginal commitment to help build a peaceful, anti-militarist and pacifist world, and a peaceful, worldwide volunteer movement as an alternative to military service. SCI deeply believes that all conflicts can be solved peacefully without resort to violence and this is the message that we try to convey and put into practice in our daily work.By implementing the project ""Think, Learn & Transform - The role of international voluntary service in promoting peaceful transition & solidarity in Europe"" we wanted to create a platform which provided a space for European peace activists who work in the area of international volunteering and education to develop their understanding of different aspects of the current security crisis in Europe. as well as to further educate, train and empower each other with methods how to plan, organise and implement initiatives dedicated to peace. The seminar also provided the opportunity to exchange views on current challenges which organizations face in their peace work and get new inspiration to work together as a network of likeminded peace activists.The specific aims were:- To gather together active staff & volunteers of the international voluntary service movement & equip/empower them with further knowledge, methods & comptences to deliver high-quality volunteer projects- Identify and determine the main challenges & obstacles to be addressed, as well as the particular problems & needs of the voluntary organizations & civil society actors active in the region;- Elaborate together non-violent & alternative and/or complimentary grass-root solutions to those traditionally practiced- Develop new, innovative projects in the voluntary service sector to promote real peace, sustainable development, social inclusion, active citizenship etc., as well as cross-border cooperation;- Support concrete actions in solidarity with the victims of war & violence & those suffering from discrimination & social exclusion. . The project was implemented in three stages:a) An opening thematic seminar from 17.01 - 24.01 in Berlin, Germany: ""Peace and Solidarity - Make It, Don't Break It""b) Implementation of a series of actions/activities elaborated & planned at the opening seminar (March-Sept.)c) ""Trade Fair"" from 25.09 - 02.10 in Poznan, Poland - Presentation & evaluation of the activities, new ideas for extending & enhancing the future quality of cooperationWhat mainly prompted us to take action, was the deepening military conflict in Ukraine and growing estrangement or even hostility between Russia and the European Union, increasing antagonisms within the EU as well as the growth of extreme right-wing movements & populist authoritarian governments in response to the increased influx of refugees caused by wars, human rights' violations & poverty elsewhere in the world, In the course of the project the following topics were addressed both in the trainings & the resulting activities:- Peace concepts - creating a common understanding- Culture of peace and non-violence- Peace activism – best/worst practices; aims/targets and challenges in peace work today- National identity, stereotyping, prejudice & discrimination- History, memory and reconcilliation.- Hate speach and propaganda techniques, role of propaganda in past and current international conflicts.- Peace building – current issues: conflict between Ukraine and Russia, „refugee crises”, situation in Balkans (current tensions), Brexit and EU crisis, right wing extremism in Europe, situation in the Middle East, USA elections- How to create a culture of peace and non-violence transversal to different perspectives- Implementation of gained knowlegde and experience, planning follow-up activities- Workcamps and long-term volunteering as major tools for HR & Peace work- Presentation of carried out local and international follow-up activities and exchange of practical experienceMany of the participants were personally involved in situations related to the main themes of the project, which led to vivid and emotional discussions. The confrontation of different perspectives induced deep reflection and, often, a change of mind about some controversial issues. The reflection and evaluation of these experiences became a starting point to plan future events, which took or will place next year in Poland, Germany, Finland, Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, Serbia, Kosovo, Belgium, Georgia, Italy and Hungary. These local initiatives will try to propose a positive solution to the challenges facing Europe today as the tensions and conflicts in Europe are still growing,"

"In 'Planning Exchange and Arrange Collective Engagement' two major impulses to the work of IAL will be given.EUROPEAN VOLUNTARY SERVICE - PLACEMENT OFFICER AT IAL OFFICEA volunteer at the secretariat will give solid bottom to IAL's capacity. The volunteer will help to make the exchange of volunteers to go smooth, offer support, logistically and administratively to create more engaged projects, study themes and returning volunteers. All this will give the participant improved organisational skills and raised awareness of how international voluntary work can create a better, fairer world. Additionally she will build up a network, both locally and internationally that will hopefully stimulate her to stay active for international solidarity and peace, after the program ends.EXCHANGE PLATFORM MEETINGBy organising this evaluating, inspirational and knowledge-sharing meeting in Sweden a significant contribution to development of international voluntary exchange projects will be made. It literally is a platform in the form of a seminar for youth workers responsible for organizing international voluntary projects in collaboration with local NGOs and communities, as well as youth workers who are selecting, preparing and evaluating experiences of young people joining these local projects. The European youthworkers have a need for this platform, especially regarding the young people sent to regions of the world called ""the Global South"" but also within Europe and neighbouring countries. The objectives of the platform are to exchange best practices, evaluate evaluation-tools and projects as well as to share ideas and visions for the further development of international voluntary projects and sending young people to voluntary projects in the Global South. Also it offers space to discuss the recent global refugee crises and to come up with initiatives to counter it. As outputs collections of best practices and shared tools are expected. The results of the implementation of this outputs will be a better quality and higher impact of international voluntary projects, a clearer position of non profit international volunteering organizations towards commercial offers and reinforced capacity of the partner organizations as well as personal development of participants towards a broader understanding of their every day work with young people volunteering abroad. All in all, when all elements hit the target, we hope to see more active citizenship at our target group, European youth."

"<< Objectives >>The “From Dreams to Actions: together for a peaceful future” project aimed to build capacity and empower 30 European youth workers from 12 countries to gain essential competencies and experience which would support them in becoming active citizens and peace envoys, and who would implement on the local level various types of actions about and for peace and non-violence.Our specific project objectives included:- To promote European values of peace and non-violence, democracy and freedom of speech;- To promote active participation and citizenship, civic engagement and a sense of ownership of/ responsibility for societal processes;- To facilitate the transborder exchange of ideas and experiences among youth workers from a range of both EU and non-EU countries;- To raise the possibilities of people within the European volunteering movement to get active in peace activism through a variety of forms;- To bring non-formal peace education to the streets and online spaces of Europe and as a consequence increase public understanding of peace, responsible citizenship and participation;- To increase the quality and amount of youth projects for peace, inclusion and non-violence.<< Implementation >>The project lasted from 1.05.2020 to 30.04.2022 and build the capacity of European youth workers from 12 project countries. To reach the project aims, the Training Course ""From Dreams to Actions: together for a peaceful future"" was organised online between 15 September and 3 October 2021 with 30 participantscoming from 12 countries - Albania, Armenia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Finland, Germany, Kosovo, Moldova, Poland, Portugal, Serbia and Spain.It was a training course for peace envoys where we showed that even though there is one aim for peace-buildersand peace-keepers, there are many paths to reach it. The participants ‘taste’ these different paths and got equipped with the knowledge and skills needed to start country actions. The training included:a) Common time dedicated to expanding knowledge on peace and its different levels;b) Parallel session (upon the choice of participants) related to different ways of working for peace, including among others:- street actions and campaigning,- communication campaigns in social media;- advocacy and lobbying for political change,- civic engagement through peace education;- peace in daily life: supporting non-violent interpersonal relations;- working on the Peace Cards for facilitators of peace-building activities;c) Common online action during the International Day of Peace (21.09.2021);d) Preparation of follow-up actions to take place in participants' countries.Additionally, the participants organised follow-up actions (workshops, discussions, educational events, celebration of special days, movie events) organised and implemented on a local level after the training. They brought further the knowledge and inspiration for being a peace messenger, acting for peace and thus bring a positive change in the communities.The project was intended for the following categories of participants:- Youth workers or young people who are active (or plan to become) in their own communities in the field of peace education, peace-building, and active participation/citizenship;- Youth workers working mainly in groups of fewer opportunity background;- Persons with fewer opportunities (facing social, economical, or cultural challenges and obstacles) who wanted to take a more active role in their local communities as volunteers in the peace education field or other strands of peace activism;- Coordinators, staff, young board members and volunteers of partner organisations looking to initiate activities for the promotion of peace and non-violence (locally and transnationally);- Educators and facilitators within non-formal learning projects.<< Results >>The two tangible results of the project are:1. The SCI Peace Cards - a tool to spark a discussion on peace, non-violence, and activism and are available in various formats:- as a Padlet gallery - https://padlet.com/SCI_International/SCI_Peace_Cards- as a downloadable pdf - https://sci.ngo/wp-content/uploads/SCI-Peace-Cards-with-instructions.pdf?- as an interactive game - https://wordwall.net/resource/22496102/sci-peace-cards?ref=embed-image- as a physical copy of printed cards, to be ordered through the SCI website.2. Street Action Kit: including the tips on how to organise street actions: https://sci.ngo/resource/street-action-kit/In addition, there are a few levels of impact of the “From Dreams to Actions” project. Additionally, we see the following impact of the project:1. Impact on the participants – 27 persons (calculation basis: 30 participants minus 2 trainers and 1 logistic support person from SCI):- participants have increased self-confidence after the project on the topic of peace;- participants are able to apply concrete ways and live in peace on 3 levels – intrapersonal, interpersonal and with nature;- participants understand the European values of democracy, freedom of speech, peace and non-violence;- participants have a broader understanding of various forms of civic engagement, like advocacy, lobbying, the European Citizens' Initiative and other possibilities for political change at both local and international levels;- participants have knowledge and understanding of diverse ways to build peace and support peace;- participants feel confident to organise a street action for peace themselves;- participants feel inspired and believe each of them can be an actor of change for peace;- participants feel a sense of trust and support within the network of activists for peace (youth workers, educators, volunteers) that will be formed through the project;- increased number of future joint educational projects among the participants, including Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps projects within the next funding perspective;- increased employability of participants, including the ones with fewer opportunities.2. Impact on 12 participating organisationsThe impact on the participating organisations is:- increased quality of workshops, seminars, actions, campaigns and other peace-themed activities, through the acquisition of innovative learning tools (including the Peace Cards) and the increased professional competencies and capacities of the participants;- strengthened positions of providing peace education to local youth;- higher involvement of young people and local communities in their activities;- more networking opportunities and stronger collaboration among the participating organisations, basis for the future joint projects under the Erasmus+ and not only;- new projects commonly developed and implemented by the partners;- opportunities for involvement of active members (youth workers, educators, activists, volunteers) of the partners' organisations, and also being a resource for future educational and peace-building initiatives on behalf of the partner organizations and the local community.3. Impact on other groupsThe project also had an impact on the local communities in 12 European countries of the partner organisations.These were participants (young people, students, youth leaders, volunteers, youth workers, educators, activists, and colleagues) of the follow-up activities and other non-formal and informal actions, organised by the project participants.Thanks to the project, they all were offered engaging and learning opportunities on the topic of peace activism which were also in line with the principles of non-formal learning. They became more aware and responsible for their own behaviour and actions as well as empowered for taking ownership and active involvement in bringing a positive change for peace on a personal, local and international level.4. Although it is difficult to give a precise estimation with regards to numbers, we can assess that the project impacted:- 30 youth workers, activists, volunteers – participants and trainers of the Training Course – from 12 countries;- 12 organisations implementing various educational and volunteer activities for peace;- not less than 5000 people were reached by the Online Actions organised by the TC participants on 21.09 (International Day of Peace);- no less than 800 persons, local youth, volunteers, colleagues, partners, and members of partner organisations from 12 project countries who benefitted from the follow-up local activities, online and street campaigns, and nonformal education activities organised after the training course."

<< Objectives >>NA<< Implementation >>NA<< Results >>NA

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.