<< Objectives >>There is a clear need for young people to establish personal tools and methods they can use to ease their busy lifestyles, supporting them to maintain a sense of inner peace throughout their daily life. And as Serena Fleek puts it, ‘’When we have inner peace, we can be at peace with those around us. When our community is in a state of peace, it can share that peace with neighbouring communities.’’ Science has proved that unexpressed emotions can lead to physical pain, and through conscious body movement we can find ways to let them out in a safe way.And as we develop embodied self-awareness, we can learn to navigate our emotional and physical wellbeing in ways that not only prevent future problems and health issues but also help us to connect more fully and openly to other people and also to the world (environment) around us.With this project we want to create a safe space for 25 participants to learn and grow together, enhancing self-empowerment and self-awareness and share different tools, methods and activities connected to mindful and conscious body movement with each other.It is important to create a loving, caring, compassionate connection with our bodies, so we want to provide mechanisms for each participant to find a still/movement activity that can be used to enhance their connection with their body and the present moment when they need it.We want to implement a dissemination plan for sharing our experiences online with the target groups of the partner NGOs, and a minimum of 5 follow-up activities in each country passing further the methods and ideas of Stillness in Motion to their communities and in their realities. Linking the project to the Erasmus+ objectives, we want to improve the level of the 8 key competences and skills of young people, including those with fewer opportunities, support them in the acquisition of learning outcomes (knowledge, skills and competences) with a view to improving their personal development, their involvement as considerate and active citizens in society and their employability in the European labor market and beyond. We also want to reach out to marginalized young people, promoting diversity, intercultural and interreligious dialogue, common values of freedom, tolerance and respect of human rights by including all of them, whatever their background is, in all phases of the project. Additionally, promoting a sense of belonging within the participants will motivate them to become more involved and active in their societies and take action. Further, self-confidence is a unique competence that will help them improve their learning performance and enhance their employability. It will enhance intercultural awareness and dialogue, fostering social inclusion and solidarity. << Activities >>The activity of the project “Stillness in Motion” is an international youth exchange that will take place between 18.04.2020 and 27.04.2020 (including travel days) in a rural property located in Sant Joan, Mallorca, Spain. The exchange will bring together 25 participants, including group leaders, from 5 different countries: Spain, Latvia, Czech Republic, Estonia and Romania.These participants are youngsters between 18 and 30 years old who are involved in their sending organisations or wishing to get involved. Some of us are facing lower opportunities, such as economic and social obstacles related to school drops out and lack of integration in their communities.Something that we have in common is the wish to change the way we live our life. We are lacking connection with our bodies and wish to improve it, so we are interested in expanding our understanding about what mindful movement means to each of us and explore new mindful movement and/or other awareness practices that can be used for raising self-awareness in our daily life.Also, to be able to make even a small change and see results, we need to integrate this practise and make it a daily ritual.We also want to create or find a network of people that is interested in this topic in our communities and in the European level. We have a strong wish to gain intercultural experiences and find like-minded peers with whom to share and receive support.<< Impact >>We expect to have reconnected with themselves and our essence as human beings living in a community and meet other young people who lack the connection we have just experienced, share it with them and cause an impact on our local communities, mainly in our social circles.We expect to have discovered what balance means for each of us and how can we be aware of ourselves and others’ needs. Get familiar with the theoretical aspects of how we can get out of our minds and focus on our bodies when needed, taking down physical borders and expose our fears. Having gained tools to learn to feel balanced in our daily lives, exploring and becoming aware of our internal rhythms and connection with our bodies will help us increase our self-esteem and self-empowerment. Also, we will have learnt how to prioritize time for ourselves (with ourselves) listen to our intuition and their needs, and act accordingly.We expect to have found, at least, one body awareness method/practice that helps us and continued practising it after the YE and project.We will have created a community and a support system that can check up on our progress and motivate us to keep practising and learning after the YE and project. In the long-term, we expect to have improved also our decision-making skills and emotional management, being less impulsive and anxious and taking the time to meditate our decisions.Also, being aware of the way we communicate with ourselves and others, creating effective and affective networks that help us live according to their values and needs and express them. Regarding the participant organizations, we expect them to improve their existing partnerships and make new ones, as well as expand their networks of young volunteers with strong, self-confident personalities and who have gained all the knowledge, tools and inspiration to spread it within the organization. We want to raise awareness on the importance of the topic of the YE and improve the competences used in their work related to it, having new tools and ideas to apply with their target groups. The aimed impact on a larger scale and reached people is to create curiosity among the target groups of organisations about the benefits of body-conscious movement, engaging them and sharing with them some of the tools learned. Also, to join the activities of partner organizations and experience similar projects and activities in order to expand their development.

"<< Objectives >>Design your Environment = Design your Life is a project that aims to support community building and improve physical and mental health while raising awareness about the environment and climate change. We want to create an opportunity for participants with fewer opportunities to explore powerful tools of habit formation and environmental design. The project was written to respond to the emerging pressure on young people to succeed according to European social norms. In combination with unhealthy relationships with social media, more and more young people fall into a comparison trap with a rise of anxiety, self-doubt, and a distorted perception of how to live a fulfilling life. With the comparison trap, they create self-images that they are not good enough if they, for example, don't have a perfect sportive body, build their own company or have a high-paid job, live an entrepreneurial life, graduate from university and travel the world by the age of 30. The solution to cope with this challenge is presented in personal development. But there is a catch to that. Our generation believes we can do anything in life if we want to. We need to get up earlier, hustle and study more to achieve our dreams. It becomes tough to keep up with our fast-paced society. In deep conversation with the partners and from observations from our work with the youth, we identified that youngsters are starting to sacrifice a healthy and sustainable long-term approach to personal growth to succeed and keep up with their self-exposed expectations in the short term. We call this issue ""the dark side of personal development.” This short-term thinking approach creates many problems in the future, like burnout, depression, and physical issues.With our project, we want to explore an often-overlooked realm of the personal development process that can solve the presented challenge. It is the realm of sustainable habit formation and environmental design. We want to find answers to the following questions:•How do we design our environment that makes it easy to make healthy and sustainable decisions in the short term and create abundance in the long run?•How do we design our environment where good habits ""get in the flow"" of our normal behaviors to make it easy and implementable for everyone?•How do we design our environment that subtracts negative influences to make unhealthy decisions hard?The objectives of the project are the following:To bring together ten young people (age of 21-30) in the APV while making sure that 30 % of the group is with fewer opportunitiesTo bring together 25 young people in the YE (age of 21-30) while making sure that 50% of the group is with fewer opportunitiesTo create a platform for mutual inspiration and exchanging ideas about how to use the tool of habit formation and the design of our environment to secure healthy and sustainable personal growth.To support partner organizations in broadening their network and acquiring new skills and tools to work with the target group.To enhance the sense of initiative, creativity, and organizational skills of the participants by allowing them to design the whole environment of the exchange and deliver workshops and activitiesTo develop participants' social, civic, and intercultural competencies and skills to support their personal and professional growth and future opportunities.To create five articles promoting the Erasmus+ program written by the national teams and published on the online platforms of the partner organizations and potentially in the local or regional newspapers and personal socials.To share the impact of the 30-day-habit-building challenges of 25 participants + 25 people from outside the project.To share an after-movie of the whole exchange, spread the results, and inspire people to design their environment in a healthy and supportive way.<< Implementation >>The project consists of 2 main activities: • Advanced Planning Visit (APV): August 2022, Kevelaer, Germany • Youth Exchange (YE): August-September 2022, Kevelaer, Germany • Participating countries: Estonia, Germany, Greece, Italy, and Spain.APVParticipants: • Number of participants: 10 – 1 group leader and 1 participant per country (30% of the participants will be young people with fewer opportunities) • Profile of participants:•group leaders (21+ years old) are youth workers, volunteers, or members of organizations that work with young people with fewer opportunities•participants (21-30 years old) fit the criteria of the target group (youngsters with fewer opportunities); they have a strong interest in self-development, community building, alternative lifestyle, sustainability, and a high motivation to participate in the exchange actively.The A.P.V. aims to bring the participants together to collect information about their background and needs, introduce the topic of habit formation and the design of our environment with its potential to secure healthy and sustainable personal growth, and define the framework of the Y.E. During the A.P.V.; the participants will design and facilitate activities and workshops for each other. They will have a chance to give their feedback and propose possible improvements to enhance the quality of the Y.E. The A.P.V. also aims to initiate a debate about the follow-up phase and to create a draft plan for the implementation of the dissemination activities after the Y.E.The objectives of the A.P.V. are the following:•establishing the first personal contact between the participating parties of the project •introducing the topic of habit formation and the design of our environment with its potential to secure healthy and sustainable personal growth•presenting our experimental working method and project setting•gaining information about the partners working context and the participants' needs•designing the program of the Y.E. based on the information about participants•discussing the implementation of the dissemination activities•supporting proactivity, creativity, organizational and supervising skills of the group leaders and participantsY.EParticipantsNumber of participants: 27: 2 facilitators, 4 participants + 1 group leader per country (50% of the participants will be young people with fewer opportunities) •Profile of participants: youngsters (21-30 years old) who are facing economic, social, or geographical obstaclesThe Y.E. is designed as a community experiment. From the beginning, the participants step into the role of creators of their environment. The exchange is planned to start with substantial team-building ability. With everything the venue offers, the participants have the task of designing their space for the Exchange for the next ten days. This process will also bring them into their first interaction with the possibilities of the venue and the grown nature around them [the existing environment they need to work with]. This day will empower their belief that they can change anything in the following days of the project in the best possible way fitting their needs. The hosting organization and facilitators' leading role is to be supportive and open to new creative ideas on how to design the exchange and its environment. It is a place to experiment and learn from each other. The following days of the exchange are filled with a mix of some inputs about the objectives of the project, a lot of open spaces for the participant to share their knowledge [in the form of workshops/group activities], and many opportunities to experience different habits regarding our main topics of nutrition & nature, physical health and movement and disconnection from technology to reconnect to ourself. We will set out two to three days for each subject to dive deeply into the sphere of opportunities that lies within.Through participation in the YE, the participants will learn how to:•connect to themselves, to others, and the group •design, organize and deliver a workshop •live and work in a multicultural community•they will learn how to create an environment that makes an active, healthy lifestyle easy•they will learn how to create an environment that makes the consumption of healthy and high-quality foods easy•they will connect to their core values and use them to design their environment & create a community that could lead to a fulfilling life<< Results >>Our project will focus on the impact of the three main topics mentioned below.The first topic is our relationship to Nature and Nutrition. The project will impact the participants in the following way:•They will learn how to create an environment that makes consuming healthy and high-quality foods easy.•they will experience the slow food movement by cooking together and creating conditions for learning basic cooking skills and healthy methods of cooking•they will gain awareness about the nutritional value of foods and how to create balanced and tasty eating habits•They will experience the intentional consumption of seasonal & local foods by picking vegetables and fruits from our organic permaculture garden.•they will reconnect again with nature and create an understanding of how the food grows, which we can buy in the supermarket•they will practice mindfulness and intuitive eating, which is a powerful tool for being aware of your physical and emotional needs and promoting a balanced lifestyle•they will gain awareness of sustainability and the pollution factor of wasting foodThe second topic is the connection to our body. The project will impact the participants in the following way:•They will learn to create an environment that makes an active, healthy lifestyle easy.•They will explore the powerful tool of group sports and learn how increased physical fitness can enormously enrich the quality of life.•They will understand the importance of the longevity of physical structures such as bones, joints, tendons, and muscles in movement practices. To make it sustainable in the long run.•Creating the proper habits and forming a supportive community inevitably creates a fitness identity.The last topic is about disconnecting from technology to connect to ourselves. The project will impact the participants in the following way:•they will experience a group digital detox for at least eight days of the project duration othey will gain awareness about their automatic patterns of using technology, which often negatively influences their overall life satisfactionothey will collectively create space for a deeper connection to the other participants of the projectoFrom the learnings of this experience, they will create an environment & habits that make the mindful and intentional use of technology easy.•They will experiment with habits like journaling, meditation, creative visualization, and reading to strengthen their mental ability to cope with stress and psychological issues.•They will connect to their core values and use them to design their environment & create a community that could lead to a fulfilling life.The expected impact on the partner organizations is that the youth workers will develop new tools and methods to improve the quality of their work with the target group. The partner organizations will learn precisely how to design their work environment more enriching and excitingly. It will help them create more valuable workshops, lectures, and open classes. Healthy working habits could significantly reduce the risk of burnout in youth work. Things like having a community, asking for help & support, effective time management with breaks, honesty, boundaries, clear expectations, and creative freedom are crucial for a sustainable work environment for youth workers & organizations.The tangible activities and results of the project are the following:- Five articles about the YE written by the national groups and published on the websites, social profiles of the partner organization, and potentially in the local or regional newspapers and personal socials- 25. 30-day-habit-building challenges with intense impact on one person organized and initiated by the participants in cooperation with their partner organizations- Film of the whole exchange"

<< Objectives >>The reason why we wanted to carry out this project is because all the organisations involved in this project have recognised the same needs and our active youth involved in the creation of the project showed a very positive response to it. Exchanging meaningful conversations with our partners and with our active youth involved in the creation of this project, we explored our visions and connected over the importance of developing empathy and compassion, especially under conflict situations. We perceived that among the youth we work with there is a lack of conflict resolution skills - they never had the chance to learn how to communicate empathically and compassionately with others and maybe even more importantly within themselves. And this derives in other major conflicts in their daily lives such as exclusion, discrimination, segregation and violence.In order to address these needs, the aim of Embodying Compassion was: -To provide young people including those from marginalised backgrounds with the context for them to exercise empathy and compassion; exchanging tools to transform conflicts by fostering intercultural dialogue, enhancing tolerance, respect and sense of belonging to a community and therefore preventing violent radicalisation of young people and leading to social inclusion.The specific objectives of Embodying Compassion were:-To promote inclusion, diversity and intercultural dialogue among 26 participants from 5 different countries, within an intercultural and diverse group including youth with fewer opportunities.-To prevent violent radicalisation of youth by promoting nonviolent communication and conflict transformation tools among the 26 participants of this project.-To explore all together empathic ways of expression (including innovative embodied ways), increasing compassion among those 26 participants and empowering them to express themselves with tolerance and respect towards others.-To facilitate the co-creation of a safe context where all the 26 participants can feel accepted and experience a sense of belonging, while providing tools to export this safe environment in the participant's daily life.-To raise awareness about multiculturality in Europe and promote the Erasmus+ programme and EU values among youth.<< Implementation >>The main activity of the project “Embodying Compassion” was an international youth exchange that took place in Mallorca, Spain between 30/04/2022 and 10/05/2022 (including travel days). The participating countries were Spain, Estonia, France, Italy and Greece each one contributing with 4 participants and 1 group leader, and one extra participant from Spain, making it a total of 26 participants. Regarding the background of our participants, in order to achieve inclusion we aimed to have a really diverse group. We believe that Inclusion can not be achieved by gathering people from the same background, even if the target group is at risk of exclusion, since we would be creating Exclusion ourselves. Therefore, we had youth from as different backgrounds (cultural, social, economical, geographical and educational) as possible, having a balance between participants with fewer opportunities and participants with more opportunities.<< Results >>The central purpose of our project “Embodying Compassion” was to provide 26 young people including those from marginalised backgrounds with the context for them to exercise empathy and compassion; exchanging tools to transform conflicts by fostering intercultural dialogue, enhancing tolerance, respect and sense of belonging to a community and therefore preventing violent radicalisation of young people and leading to social inclusion.We aimed at having a positive impact on our participants, on the organisations involved, on the hosting community and its members, and on the local region.[More information on the impact our project had is detailed on the “Impact” section of the final report]

<< Objectives >>The set objectives of BEATS were:1. To create a safe space for 25 participants to learn and grow together,2. To share and explore different mindfulness, movement and music practices and tools that can help us foster our sense of connection with others,3. As the main result of the project, to host and facilitate a well-planned, fun and meaningful Facebook live stream sharing our discoveries with the followers of partners and participants,4. To implement a minimum of 1 follow-up activity in each country promoting the topics and values of the project.After the project BEATS, we wanted to see that participants and our partners understand the importance of social cohesion. That they have become more aware of their current reality and are motivated to adopt some changes for better in the future. We were hoping that the participants will have gained new or different perspectives on body movement, music and mindfulness and the sense of connectedness with others that they can bring. We aspired that they will have become more mindful of their bodies, feelings, and the environment around them, that they will have reconnected with their inner rhythm, explored the world of expression through music, movement and mindfulness in various ways. Overall, we hoped that by implementing this project we would not only contribute to the growth of 25 individuals but create ways to spread our message with the larger world outside of our youth exchange. This project would increase the internal sense of connection within ourselves, contributing to the social connectedness of the group and later society, reducing stress and anxiety levels that are present in our communities. We wanted to inspire people to take actions that favour their physical, mental, and emotional health, the well-being of other society members and ultimately - our whole planet.<< Implementation >>We implemented the youth exchange BEATS compiling mindfulness and body movement practices together with music as a tool for fostering the well-being and connectedness of our communities. The project incorporated methods based on community-living to support group dynamics.The BEATS youth exchange was approached with a pre-prepared program and guidelines for workshops, some of whom were facilitated by the group leaders. However, our intention was to create a safe space that is based on participants' own initiative, sharing and co-creation, therefore we had a lot of space for participants to come up with their ideas, and turn the experience in any direction they desire, following previously set guidelines.The project BEATS gathered 25 participants from 5 different countries. Partner organisations, Associazione Vagamondo from Italy, Asociacion Dinamica from Spain, Roes Cooperativa from Greece, Mindful Journeys from Latvia, and Economeq from Romania, each formed a national team accompanied by a group leader. The participants of the project BEATS were young people that for some reason felt disconnected from themselves, their bodies, environment, or people around them. The expected profile of the participants were:willing to share and explore different practices linked between mindfulness, movement, and music,seeking to learn how to create and maintain sustainable, nurturing relationships with other people in their communities,coming directly from partner organizations or wanting to be involved in their activities,wanting to gain an intercultural experience and a feeling of belonging in a small community,willing to use what they will learn in YE back in their homes and organizations.More than half of the group were young people with fewer opportunities - mainly economic and social, but also geographical obstacles.<< Results >>We believe that the learning outcomes acquired by the participants will continue to live on as they continue their life, and the experience of the youth exchange will be often brought back to their memory, with new reflections and revelations occurring even years after the event.During the youth exchange we got to regularly interact with the locals of the Bajāri village, and lots of interesting and meaningful interactions happened, that the locals keep talking about even months after the youth exchange. The village has become much more welcoming of international people, which is important for that region, as the Accommodation Centre for Asylum Seekers is located nearby and refugees can often be met in public events in the closest villages.The project involved young people facing fewer opportunities, allowing them to travel abroad and meet peers from other countries. Participation allowed them to develop their intercultural competences (e.g. tolerance and dialogue with people coming from different cultures and backgrounds), as well as practice and become more confident with their foreign language skills.The project also had a positive impact on the local community (the expanded community of Mindful Journeys, not just from the village, but other cities as well). As a final result of the youth exchange we hosted a larger public event (that gathered around 15-20 guests) sharing our discoveries with a larger public and extending the sense of connection and belonging outside of the YE group. Also, the participants transferred the learning outcomes from the project BEATS to their families, friends, local communities, and most importantly, their daily lives. They were responsible for the follow-up phase, inspiring their social circles to become more mindful about this topic.

<< Objectives >>The project of Art Tribe aims at supporting development of creative and inclusive communities self-managed by young people. By providing them the short-term experience of living in a space like that during the youth exchange, we want to demonstrate how creativity shared in a non-judgemental inclusive community with the same interest can be a nourishing aspect of everyday life, making young people happier and more satisfied as an important part of their journey of self-development and self-awareness. This experience should have a long-term impact on youngsters´ sense of initiative to be able to create similar spaces back home for their peers within the local communities, which will benefit not just the individuals but bring opportunities also for the partnering youth organizations. To support this whole process, we will create a long-lasting online art community whose members share and support each other in being creative not just during the project period and main activity but also afterwards. Thus the objectives of this project are: - create a short-term experience of living in an inclusive non-judgemental community where youngsters can share their art interests and learn from each other- empower young people with competences for building of art communities by creating one themselves- raise awareness of youngsters about art and creative activities being an important and nourishing part of their lives - support intercultural learning exchange of youngsters (both non-marginalised and with fewer opportunities) by giving them a chance to participate in the Erasmus+ project and share their passions and culture with their peers from other European countries- create an online art community which outlives the project itself and serves as a connection point between participants and partner organizations for sharing project results and good practices.<< Implementation >>We plan to implement one main activity - Art Tribe Youth Exchange. It will take place in Northern Hungary, in a small village of Baskó. All together 25 youngsters and 5 team leaders from 5 countries (Hungary, Czech Republic, Latvia, Portugal and Spain) will meet in the venue of Baskói Tábor from 12th to 19th of August 2023. The participants invited to the youth exchange are in the age of 18 to 30 years old (18+ for group leaders) and they have diverse art interests and different levels of art skills to ensure the learning exchange among them. The participant selection process aims at inclusivity and equality, therefore each participant group will involve a minimum of 2 participants per group with fewer opportunities (mostly social, economic and geographical barriers). The youth exchange programme working methods are based on principles of nonformal education and they reflect the needs of the participants and partner organizations, project objectives and planned learning outcomes. The suggested programme follows four main art forms (music, dance, body expression/theater and visual arts) and consists of different art activities and creative methods to provide safe inclusive learning space for the youngsters, where they support and learn from each other, where they get supported to deliver the activities themselves and where reflection of learning process plays a crucial role. Taking into account the diversity of the participants´ background, the methods will present a flexible tool for all participants to fulfill their expectations through an intercultural learning experience in a safe community, which we will create together. An interactive street art performance is planned as the final event of this youth exchange. Based on what they learnt from each other during the programme, participants will decide and prepare together a special performance, which they will perform in public in the streets of Baskó and to which local citizens and youth will be invited. The whole performance process (preparation, execution and reflection) will be led by participants and documented and published as a main activity product and dissemination material.<< Results >>The participants will get to be a part of an art community building process - they will be provided with a space, tools and skills to create a community, where they will support each other on the learning and self-development journey. During the whole project period, participants will learn new skills from each other which can motivate them and inspire them - on this journey, they will get to experience various art tools and methods designed to help them reflect on their needs and establish better contact with themselves and the environment they live in. Being able to express and specify their needs properly will guide them naturally to become more self-aware and confident and also to acknowledge their own value which could have a positive impact on their self-esteem. It is expected that after getting more self-aware and confident and experiencing the community building process and the project management in general, they will want to get more active and involved in their local communities and organizations and they will not be afraid to initiate, plan or conduct different activities and projects for their peers back home. Last but not least, the project will enhance their intercultural awareness which will be based on the experience of Erasmus+ youth exchange - meeting peers from different EU countries and social backgrounds and spending a week with them, living together and supporting each other.The partner organizations will benefit from receiving new active volunteers, who will gain new competences and bring new methods to use on the local level in their youthwork, having the potential to become future youth leaders and also to develop their own Erasmus+ projects. The follow-up activities, which the youngsters will be supported to organize, will have a direct impact not just on the invited participants (families, peers, other youth organizations and wider public), but also on the partner organizations - main benefit is foreseen to be attracting new active members and supporting the visibility of not just the organization itself, but also of the project and Erasmus+ programme and funding.Big part of this capacity building process will be one of the main results of the project - the online art community platform. While ensuring a long-lasting impact of the project, not just the youngsters but also the partner organizations will use the platform to benefit from sharing of project results and good practices both during the project period and after. It will provide a space also for project reflection and evaluation, experience exchange and support of all involved stakeholders in building local art communities.