"The EVS project ""Spielend Leben lernen"" allows a participant from Turkey (Beste Salman) and a participant from Denmark (Marijus Ankjersterne) to engage as longterm volunteers at the Aktivspielplatz Raitelsberg e.V. (AKI). The activities offered at Aktivspielplatz Raitelsberg e.V. (AKI) adresses children and adolescents living in the district of Stuttgart called Raitelsberg, who are mainly from socially vulnerable families and often have a migrant background. The leisure activities invites them to be creative. The activities primarily focusses on movement in nature, sports, dealing with and taking care of animals as well as activities that promote creativity and one´s own initiative. To learn and strengthen team spirit, solidarity and inclusion instead of exclusion are central issues in the project. During their volunteer service, the volunteers learned how to implement pedagogical methods in the work with visitors of AKI in order to acquire social competences and strategies for non-violent conflict solution in a playful way. Through active involvement in the daily routine at the AKI the volunteers helped fostering an awareness for the diversity of European cultures and the opportunities of non-formal learning. AKI consciously promotes tolerance, mutual respect and the interest in someone that might appear alien at first sight. AKI considers the cooperation with young volunteers from different European regions as an intercultural enrichment and as such, it is very much welcomed. Even though the EVS was planned for 12 months, the volunteer from Denmark due to personal reasons ended his service after six months."

Project includes 3 activities: training course that was implemented 29/10/2016 – 05/11/2016 in Belgrade, Serbia; local capacity building activities that were in all partner countries, particularly in EU candidate and potential candidate countries, and seminar that was implemented in Belgrade 12/03/2017 – 18/03/2017. Project was hosted by CET Platform in cooperation with partner organizations from (Olawa) Poland, (Ptuj) Slovenia, (Djakovo) Croatia, (Andrijevica) Montenegro, (Skopje) Macedonia, (Caserta) Italy, (Trikala) Greece, (Nr Mitcheldean) United Kingdom, (Frankfurt am Main) Germany, (Eyup) Turkey, (Sofia) Bulgaia, (Prizren) Kosovo, (Narva) Estonia, (Miklusenai) Lithuania, (Galati) Romania, (Banja Luka) Bosnia and Hezegovina, (Tirana) Albania. Project aims to build capacities of involved organisations and other relevant stakeholders in Western Balkans, EU candidate and potential candidate countries and EU member states to promote European values and European citizenship among youth trough non-formal education, formal education and other forms of youth work. As well to create a new wave of European values education and activities particularly in Western Balkans trough influence on regional youth work in relation to trends and experience in youth work in European Union.To achieve this aim, project has following objectives:- To educate youth workers, junior trainers and other staff of involved organisations about European values and European citizenship, tools and methods in youth work, communication with decision makers and other stakeholders- To establish and enhance partnership among youth workers in EU and Western Balkans, as well to provide them with competences and opportunity to develop national, regional and European project and activities through Erasmus+ and other means.- To implement series of local and international activities in order to deeply discover and analyse situation in EU and WB regarding education on European values and in cooperation with decision makers and other stakeholders- To provide possibility to exchanges examples of good practice among involved organisations, including experience in youth work and on that way rise quality of youth work in WB and EU- To help youth organisations in Western Balkans in influencing youth policy national and regional levels according to local needs and European youth policies.- To develop and provide involved organisations and other youth workers from Western Balkans with tools and methods for promotion of European values and European citizenship among youth including trough activist that involve online youth work.Non-formal education methods were used during the project. Most important results of the project that were used by partner organizations and other stakeholders are ToolBox that includes all methods, tools and tips for implementation of local, national and European activities.

<< Objectives >>Different Cultures, Different Humour? Seriously!? Are we joking?! No, we are not!AL Teatro, has a theatre company, resorts to humour, irony and other comedy tools, in several theatre plays, to denounce and question diverse severe social problems. We find it more effective than some more serious approaches.Sometimes unnoticed or unconscious, other times indirectly or in a really direct way, humour strikes us, and takes a significant place in our life. All cultures, societies and individuals have Sense of Humour. Scientific researchers claim that laughing is very good for your health and even accelerates patient recovery times. Other psychological and sociological research’s regarding humour indicates that it can affect our life in a positive way, but, on reverse, it can also have negative effects. Much of the importance of humour has not been understood properly yet. Humour can be summarized as making gags, sharing certain images, telling jokes, sharing humorous stories our just saying the right sentence in the right time or in the right place, but it´s much more than that. With “Different Cultures, Different Humour?” project we would like to discuss, analyse, and try to understand how Humour is perceived and how its presence exists in different cultures, how different cultures react in different situations. The ten partners organizations come from all different sides of Europe: North, Central, South, Southwest and Southeast Europe and from Mesopotamia. In this way we are trying to have diverse types and senses of Humour. We aim to use humour, which is one of our common and universal traits, to understand and prosper the role of it in our culture and works alike. We believe that humour has an important role in the changing process of common misunderstandings, prejudices and any negative thoughts and behaviours regarding different cultures. For this reason, we would like to prioritize it in international projects. We want youngsters and youth workers to get in contact with various types of humour and be able to use them in future activities and projects. We also would like to analyse the role of humour in social media, used by every young person everywhere, beside debating the link of humour to different countries’ social, cultural and politic life.But we would also like to discover and develop Humour’s role in a more practical use, combining it with Non-Formal Education Methods and some Artistical and Theatrical Methods, and putting humour into use in the ice-breaking games, team building activities, group working, discovering the leadership skill, presentations techniques, effective communication methods, among other activities. As humour brings people together and constitutes the basis of effective learning methods has not been analysed enough yet in the youth work, and we would like to draw attention to its function and significance and develop some new tools for the future youth projects and youth work.<< Implementation >>“Different Cultures, Different Humour? - Training Course” plans to bring together a total of 24 youth workers, 10 with fewer opportunities, from 10 different countries, in in Serpa, PT, on the 14th to 21st of June 2023.All participants are working directly with young people with diverse backgrounds. In this project´s activity, we will engage with a group of 24 youth workers, including 3 facilitators (two from the applicant organization and one from the Turkish partner organization). All facilitators are very experienced, both in youth work as well as in international youth projects. Since we want to have different approaches from different age groups, we plan to have participants from different generations, all over 18 years old. The youth workers belong to several age groups, from late 20’s to late 50’s, from less to more experienced, so, we will achive a very fruitfull intergeneration exchange. The main purpose is to gather participants that are proactively working or developing projects for a near future with and for youth in their countries or abroad. The background of the participants is very diverse within each national group, so, the international group will be even more heterogeneous, what will largely enrich this TC. The programme and contents are organized to allow the maximum participation of the group using active and participatory methods. Each partner organization will participate as a group of 2 people (except Portugal - 5, and Turkey - 3) and we expect to give a chance to, at least, 10 participants with fewer opportunities who are able to communicate in English. These participants will be from immigrant background, different religions, LGBTQ+, etnical minorities and with social or economical disadvantages. About country balance, the ten countries involved in this project, many of them are situated geographically apart, cover almost all european regions. The countries involved in this TC are: Portugal, Turkey, Poland, Italy, Czech Republic, Greece, Croacia, Spain, Latvia and Romania. The methodology will be based on the interest, needs and expectations of partner organisations and participants. The acquisition of knowledge, new skills and the exchange and challenge of each other’s attitudes and experiences are very important for the success of this TC, designed as a mutual learning process in which, using diverse artistical, creative and interactive methods based on the principles of non–formal education, where participants can compare their approaches between each other’s. This will provide the Youth Workers with valuable tools to explore and develop in their daily work with young people.<< Results >>With “Different Cultures, Different Humour?” project we seek to learn and educate ourselves more about definitions and forms of different types of humour, and how humour functions in different countries, whilst raising awareness and building up positive attitudes regarding this humour, in a serious way. The programme and contents are organized to allow the maximum participation of the group using active and participatory methods. A combination of the different creative and interactive methods will be used by the facilitators. We expect that the programmed activities will create a new attitude and will develop creative and artistical skills in youth workers, to be used with young people, in order for them to become more active members of their societies. The main impact on the participants will be the attitude that youth will have towards others, especially those who have a different cultural background. Although this impact cannot be quantified, it will affect the long-term attitude in their communities. In a direct way, all participants will be much more sensible about Humour and its diverse inherent forms and techniques.On this TC the participants will get a clearer view about the roots, daily living and diverse situations in different countries, definitions of some main concepts about Humour. They will experience different types of non-formal education methods, in order to be able to apply them back in their organizations and communities, in their daily youth work, along with new activities, in a humorous way, developed and created by them. These tolls, related to creative and artistical activities, will be helpful to foment respect and tolerance, to solve conflicts, to diagnose and analyse eventual problems, to debate and to try to find solutions, always with a pleasant and playful environment. Videos, posts and social media tools will be created during the project and they will be published in international project networks, and will be spread in the social networks of partners and participants as uploading to webpages, social media groups, etc. We plan to reach at least 3.000 young people, youth workers, decision makers, etc. with it.

"Das Projekt ""Europäische Integration - Mehr als Überwindung von Ländergrenzen"" war ein Projekt im europäischen Freiwilligendienst und sollte jungen Europäern und Menschen aus Deutschland die Sicht auf andere Kulturen, deren Akzeptanz, Toleranz und respektvollen Umgang näher bringen. Da die ausländischen Teilnehmer für 10 Monate ihren Lebensmittelpunkt in Deutschland hatten, ging es auch um den Kompetenzerwerb zur Bewältigung des Alltags in einem fremden Land, mit fremder Kultur, Regeln und Traditionen, fern der Heimat und der Familie. Das hieß auch, sich Situationen zu stellen, die eine große Herausforderung bedeuteten. Das war bei allen zu beobachten, insbesondere bei Aurianne Vitaux. Sie kam, gerade 18 Jahre alt geworden nach Deutschland. Ein Ergebnis war die Stärkung des Selbstbewusstseins, der Verantwortung für das eigene Handeln, der Teamfähigkeit und Fähigkeit zur Selbstorganisation. Für die TeilnehmerInnen wie auch für alle Beteiligten bedeutete die Teilnahme an der Aktivität, sich mit den eigenen Wünschen, Vorstellungen und Vorurteilen bezüglich der Tätigkeit in den Einsatzstellen, des Lebens in Deutschland, dem Land auseinanderzusetzen und Änderungen zu zulassen. Die 6 jungen Menschen im Alter zwischen 18 und 26 Jahren kamen aus der Türkei, der Ukraine, Weißrussland, Russland und Frankreich. Sie waren in den Bereichen der Jugendbildungsstätte, wie Kita und Hort tätig, das waren die ""Jugendbildungs- und Begegnungsstätte Hirschluch"", im ""Heilpädagogische Hort"", in der Kita ""Glücksbärchen"" sowie ""Arche"" und ""Globales Lernen an Oder und Spree"". Die Aufgaben der Freiwilligen umfassten u.a. die Arbeit in den Kindertagesstätten und dem Hort; die Gestaltung des Alltages, Durchführung von Projekten sowie das Erlernen von Liedern, Geschichten und Märchen aus den Heimatländern der Freiwilligen; ebenso die Unterstützung bei Ausflügen und der Gestaltung der Ferien> in der Arbeit in den Jugendeinrichtungen; Hauptaufgabe den Kontaktaufbau zu den Jugendlichen, ständige Kommunikation unter Mithilfe von Spielen und Aktivitäten; Organisation von AGs, Fahrten, verschiedene Projekte oder Projekttagen. Sie lernten in ihrer Einsatzzeit, die verschiedenen Methoden im Umgang mit dem Klientel ihrer Einrichtungen kennen. Ihr Ideenreichtum, die Kreativität und der länderspezifischen Hintergrund bereicherten die Einrichtungen. Weiterhin sammelten die Freiwilligen Erfahrungen in den Wünschen und Zielen von Menschen in Deutschland und konnten sie mit ihrem eigenen Leben bzw. der Lebensweise in ihrem Heimatland vergleichen. Alle Beteiligten erhielten einen Einblick in ein Land, dass sie vielleicht nur als Touristen im Urlaub kennengelernt haben oder bisher noch nicht bereisten. Die Teilnehmer erwarben soziale und kulturelle Kompetenzen. Mit der Unterstützung der AnleiterInnen lernten die Freiwilligen das Planen und Durchführen von eigenen Projekten. Die jungen Menschen wurden an alle Arbeitsbereiche herangeführt und somit in deren Praxis einbezogen. Die Einrichtungen hatten auf diese Weise die Möglichkeit, ihrem Klientel in enger Zusammenarbeit mit den Freiwilligen, Europa näher zubringen. So war es keine trockene Theorie, sondern ein gemeinsames miteinander Erleben. Die Teilnehmer wohnten gemeinsam in 4 Wohnen mit weiteren Freiwilligen aus Ungarn. Sie lernten auf diesem Wege nicht nur die deutsche Kultur, sondern auch die Kulturen Russland, Weißrussland, Ungarn, der Ukraine, Türkei, und Frankreich kennen. Sie lernten das Miteinander und Zusammenleben in einer Gemeinschaft, was oft zu größeren Herausforderungen für sie wurde, kulturell, aber öfter persönlich. Nach ungefähr der Hälfte der Einsatzzeit wurde eine Zwischenauswertung mit allen Freiwilligen durchgeführt. Dazu fand einerseits ein separater Kultur- und Begegnungstag statt. Der sich ausschließlich mit dem Rückblick auf das erste halbe Jahr befasste und den Zielen und Vorhaben, die nach dem EFD geplant wurden. Bei vielen jungen Freiwilligen mussten Anträge für Folgemaßnahmen gestellt werden oder Anträge auf Verlängerung der Aufenthaltstitel. Ebenso fanden auch Zwischengespräche mit den Einsatzstellen statt, um über den aktuellen Stand der Arbeit, sowie Erfüllung von Zielen und Wünschen zu sprechen. Am Ende des EFDs fanden ein gemeinsames Abschlussgespräch zwischen AnleiterInnen, Tutorin und den Freiwilligen in den einzelnen Einrichtungen statt. In diesen Gesprächen wurde auf die Zwischenauswertung bezuggenommen und die evtl. neu vereinbarten Ziele und Wünsche geschaut. Ein Blick wurde auch auf das ganze Jahr genommen von Beginn, die dort formulierten Ziele und Wünsche, den Weg während der Einsatzzeit und das Ende. Auf diese Weise konnten die Entwicklungen, das Erreichen von Zielen und die Erfüllung von Wünschen und Vorstellungen sichtbar werden. Vielen Freiwilligen wird ihre persönliche Entwicklung erst im Vergleich ""Gestern und Heute"" deutlich. Das Gespräch war Grundlage für die Erstellung des Youthpasses, das jeder Freiwillige zum Ende der Dienstzeit erhielt."

As youth workers, youth leaders who work in rural areas we experience a vast lack on information on mobility projects for young people. In small villages, settlements, islands, remote areas the possibilities don’t come so fast to the young people like in big cities or close to the capitals. Rural youth needs to be motivated and supported to participate in international youth events and encourage them to bring back their experiences and developed competences to local level in order to improve rural areas. One of our first tasks as rural youth workers, youth leaders are to develop and improve our youth work competences to make international youth work opportunities as Mobility projects for young people and youth workers according to the proposals of Erasmus + programme more visible and attractive for our target groups. Bring the information such a way for them that they can feel encouraged to participate, they can understand that participation is essential for them and for their local communities as well. Rural development can truly happen if young people participate in European level, experience being European citizen, feel to be active citizens then they can practice these in local level for the sake of their rural areas. Rural youth have to recognise that their opinion and thoughts are important to the decision makers in their rural communities, they can initiate a dialogue with youth policy makers, and they can establish youth councils to represent them, they can cooperate with youth organisations, and other civil society organisations which can support their ways of 'learning to participate' from an early age. As rural youth workers, youth leaders we wanted to improve their youth work competences in order to achieve this participation level of our target groups in the sake of rural development. The overall aim of the training course was to develop understanding and awareness of youth workers, youth leaders for the impact of international youth projects to the local community in rural areas and the efficiency of the active participation of young people within international and local youth projects. To build a bridge between the gained skills and knowledge of young people in international level and for using these skills and knowledge in the sake of local community in rural areas. To develop skills and competencies of youth workers, youth leaders with active participation of young people for transferring international experiences actively into local projects as rural development. We applied for only one activity: ”ACTIMPACT: ACTive-participation-citizenship-IMPACT” - Training course on rural development by active participation and European citizenship through local and international youth activities which will was held in 18-25 November 2018, Cristuru Secuiesc, Romania. Our participants were rural youth workers, youth leaders who were directly working with rural youth by using non - formal educational methods in youth clubs, youth departments, schools, social and youth services, etc. The training course was built on non – formal educational approached. We used experiential learning then assess the learning processes and learning outcomes of participants. Competence development was focused by our programme flow based on the needs and expectations of our partners and participants. Our training course was learner centred. Methods we used in order to achieve the objectives and support the competence development of our participants: individual work, pair work, mixed small group work, case studies, presentations, brainstorming, small local actions, idea and project development, self – assessment, feedback, dialogue space, etc. Our main results and impact:-ACTIMPACT Manual including:oSuggestions how to make impact on local communities by youth exchanges, EVS and youth workers’ mobility projects in rural areas. oExamples for active participation of rural youth. oDefinitions on cultural, social, economical and political approches of citizenship.oDescriptions of the small local action plans on European citizenship and Erasmus+ programme for young people aged between 16-18 years old with photos. -Local small actions and workshops for rural youth in order to promote European citizenship and Erasmus+ programme-Info days for rural youth workers, youth leaders in order to be involved into Erasmus+ programme and make impact on their local communities.