"""HANDS - Help Applying Non-Discrimination Solutions"" is an EVS project, that took place in Sandrigo and in some of the surrounding towns of the Province of Vicenza –Italy–, in which Cooperativa Margherita (the hosting organization) gives its commitment. It gave the chance to 4 youngsters coming from Greece, Belgium, Spain and Germany to volunteer for a 9-month period (from October 2014 to June 2015), within care-centres, measuring themselves with activities for minors, elderly and persons with disability.The name of EVS project “HANDS” has a specific connection to the practical involvement that concerned the volunteers, and recalls the basic principle of collaboration, that was a fundamental for their EVS experience. - As first connotation, this word has been related to the services the volunteers gave in the different areas: from the kitchen to the garden, manual activities with disable people, spare-time activities with the elderly, help in the school-job for the minors and the chance to help with practical arrangements. The EVS Programme allowed the development of a context in which the different languages, cultures and experiences were mixed up together as if they were part of the same recipe, overcoming the differences in order to give the final dish as a result. The kitchen, in this meaning, is seen as the perfect place in which the volunteers and our services’ users can get in touch one another through collaboration and help towards the result. Europe can be built also behind the stoves!- ""To give our HANDS dirty"" means literally help, to be part of the society in a careful and active way, getting involved into the activities. We think that it was important that the volunteers had the opportunity and actually gave their contribution in building up the daily program for the services they participated in by sharing ideas, proposals and organizing-skills. They faced a new society, environment, association and culture, and they left their fingerprint on the people they met and on the activities they run within the Cooperative, getting involved into the social life, the events and the community of the town and, mostly, cooperating between them and with Cooperativa Margherita in a productive way . - ""To share the HANDS"" is the invitation to be open-minded toward people, conscious of the great value of the joined path: to be part of Margherita is an active and meaningful way to help the community’s growth. This allowed the participants to explore forms of mutuality, and promoted the welfare not only of people in disadvantaged situations, but of the entire population. It meant, and still mean, entering the network, learning, sharing experiences and offering our own abilities and inclinations to build up real meeting places for the inclusive development and empowerment of people."

"The project is a training course that will bring together 24 professional and voluntary youth workers plus 2 traininers (Finnish, Irish), to work in a non-formal setting on the topic of ""role of a youth worker in refugee crisis"". The need for such training activity comes from a shared and expressed concern of our partnership and individual youth workers. The 8-day training course will approach the topic of refugee crisis from the ""personal and professional values of individuals"" point of view. The partnership feels that it is crucial to build such value based understanding and foundation, before youth workers can truly and decisively take action, create methodologies and approaches where the young people (that our participants work with) can start to approach the fast changes and ambiguity caused by the refugee crisis in a positive and constructive way, rather than having conflicting and radicalized responses. In short, the context is that we believe that a supporter of young people in these positive processes needs to be able to comfortably approach the subjects on personal / professional level, before they can authentically, implement such activities for their young people.The concrete objectives of the project will be to:- Explore the topic of refugee crisis in order to support participants to gain a clear understanding of the core values underpinning youth work and have the opportunity to relate these to their individual values.- Create a supportive space where the participants have an opportunity to share and discuss if the current response to the refugee/migrant crisis has resulted in ambiguous and contradictory interpretations of local / national / EU values.- Competence development of participants in relation to understanding of conflict – its causes and effects, and having the opportunity to further develop their skills in responding to conflict through the constructive use of conflict in diverse situations.The project has one main activity, ""Implementing youth work values and visions - Role of a youth worker in refugee crisis"" -Training course, an 8-day training course / seminar in Hyvärilä youth centre, Nurmes, Finland, bringing together 24 participants supported by 2 trainers, from 8 countries (Finland, Slovenia, Italy, Spain, Greece, Ireland, Portugal, France) from 19th - 26th of September 2016. The venue, Hyvärilä Youth Centre, offers a great combination of an ideal working environment and inspiring nature surroundings. Preparations (as described in before in the application), will start in August 2016, coordinated by Hyvärilä coordinator and the team of trainers (Irish & Finnish trainers experienced in the field setting up the flow).The methodology of the course will be based on the principles of non-formal learning and learning to learn (self-directed learning). The methodology is aiming to bring together the knowledge, experiences and approaches of the individual participants, also taking in to consideration their personal needs and preferences in the learning process. This means that the program is adapted on the go, based on the requests and expectations of the participants, yet keeping the general aim and focus of the training intact. The different cultural, organisational and educational backgrounds of the participants will be seen as an important source for learning and further development. The programme will combine (small) group work, individual and peer-time, short inputs by the trainers and a wide variety of methods and tools to guarantee that different styles of learning will be met. The training course will allow a specific opportunity and space to develop value based youth work action plans on individual and organisational level (stratetig planning) that we hope to be put in to practice as a direct consequence of the training course in the participants / organisations local realities. These action plans (supported by the learning from the training course) will especially have the focuses creating impact on the the attitudes and actions of young people and local communities the participants work in. Underlining factors will producing approaches positive / constructive dialogue and inclusion of refugee (young) people as a part of the local level youth work and community living. As a direct impact of these action plans created, we foresee the following benefits for the target groups the participants work with (young people):- Young people, regardless of their status, nationality or the values they hold, will be treated in an inclusive manner by a youth & community sector which upholds its core values in the delivery of services to all young people.- Young people will be in a position to grow and develop in a Europe which embraces diversity and promotes equality of opportunity and inclusion for all people, and in particular for those who are vulnerable in society."

The project EVS -Discovering the modernism year in Cartagena-Youth Programs-is part of the different programs of socio-cultural intervention aimed at youth promoted by the Youth Council of Cartagena.It is a group EVS project where three European volunteers from Italy, France and Greece have participated.The duration of the EVS Activity has been nine months, from October 1, 2016 to July 1, 2017.The main themes that have been addressed in this project are Youth (participation, youth work and politics ofyouth), information and communication technologies and the teaching / learning of foreign languages, all subjectscross-cutting issues that have been present in the programmed activities.This program aims to create a social space to carry out cultural exchanges and create a European dimension toall levels, working democratic values, youth participation in our society, European citizenship,etc items that help the development of a European conscience.The intervention of the volunteers has also been carried out in social places in neighborhoods where activities are carried outaimed at the prevention of social exclusion, that is to say avoiding as much as possible discrimination based onsocio-economic, cultural, religious, etc.The present project consists basically of two main activities, which are framed in the following programs: Bolsa Idiomas, ESN (Erasmus Student Network), Botika del Libro, Implica2, Correspondents IES, Mandarache Award. These programs are included in the areas of sociocultural animation, non-formal education, multilingualism, participation and youth work.The methods of work have been those of non-formal education, work techniques and activities that encourage andencourage youth participation, the social framework, socio-cultural animation, the promotion of culture among young people, etc.There has been an impact at the local level in the Cartagena community where an exchange and dialogue has been generatedintercultural among and with young people, motivating knowledge, respect and approach to other cultures.Among the possible benefits we highlight the added value and higher quality to the operation of the programs thatthey frame the activities of the volunteers and the possibility of developing other international mobility projects in the Program Erasmus +.

"""EVENOUT – European Volunteers ENable to reach OUT disadvantaged people and youth"" was an EVS project planned to take place in Sandrigo and in some surrounding towns of the Province of Vicenza –Italy– in which Cooperativa Margherita (the Receiving Organisation) runs daily care-centres for disadvantaged and/or disabled people, children and youth. It involved 3 volunteers from Greece, Spain and Armenia for different length of stay ranging from 8 to 12 months starting from September 2016. As participants, they measured themselves performing activities in support of Margheritas’ direct beneficiaries as: minors, youth, elderly and people with disability.The volunteers were involved in the services managed by the Cooperative, sharing daily life with the centres users. They have been guided by their Tutors in participating and managing laboratories, workshops and learning activities; but they also shared simple moments, as the lunch and free time, directly with the users.In the centres for minors, the volunteers have been an important resource to improve the quality of education. In relation to people with physical/mental disabilities, they collaborated within the manual laboratories and some small home-tasks, to propel their creativity and autonomy. Moreover, for the whole duration of the project, they played an important role, since they provided external cultural inputs in building up the daily programs and activities, sharing ideas and proposals. Through the activities the Tutors shared our unique work style based on the principle of “Domiciliarity” (home-care), which means to recognize the importance of the family and the whole context within which each user has been grown up and in which he/she still lives. This, as a methodology, implies the involvement of the family in planning and developing each individual project, to allow the best combination between the fragile daily routine of the users and the surrounding society and environment.With “EVENOUT” Cooperativa Margherita enhanced the participation of the youth in social activities allowing the interaction of the volunteers with disadvantaged people, but it also stimulated their proactivity. Thanks to new headquarters and enhanced possibilities, the volunteers had the opportunity to design and contribute to the creation of brand new activities, which allowed to reach out more people (especially youth) on the territory. They had the opportunity to create events, laboratories and workshops involving the users of the centres and the citizens, experimenting what it means to be part of the society in a careful and active way. Particular attention has been devoted in giving proper answers to the needs of the territory, providing occasions for awareness raising and active citizenship. The project affected firstly the volunteers, because they acquired new skills and competencies, learning a new language and improving their sensitivity to social issues and active citizenship. At the same time, Cooperativa Margherita had the possibility to create new improved and modern ways of operating towards its target groups, and all the partners involved increased their capacity to operate at the EU/international level. Finally, the territory benefited from the project because the direct users of the Cooperative as well as its local network composed by associations, private and public bodies, institutions and citizens, had the unique possibility to enter in relation with new people and cultures and acquire a wider view of the World, getting in touch with the European dimension. Moreover, the project promoted common European Values of tolerance, solidarity and diversity stimulating a dialogue between the local community and Europe.Within “EVENOUT” the different languages, cultures and background have been mixed together with the specific care tools that volunteers learned from the contact with the users generating a contamination between the style of the Cooperative and those of volunteers. Cooperativa Margherita proposed this project with an open mind toward all the parties involved, conscious of the great value of the joined path. The mutual help was the core principle and meant to work in network learning and sharing experiences, offering own abilities and inclinations to build up real places for social inclusion.After the project, we can say that our initial hope that the project had to go EVEN OUT from the Cooperative itself has been fulfilled, making it an occasion for every person involved to understand that out from our daily context there is a world, which can enrich us with new perspectives, experiences and values."

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.