The project “XCHANGE 2.0 - exchange of international youth leaders in International Voluntary Service” involves 13 partners from 8 countries and one European network where all are members – Alliance of European Voluntary Service Organisations. The coordinating organisation is Young Researchers of Serbia. Workcamps are their common denominator.Workcamp movement is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2020. It has always been avant-garde and innovative, so to exist this long. It used to involve women at the same level as men in times when most European countries didn’t allow women the right to vote. It declined to have any military or religious activities in workcamps, when it used to be the default. It has stood for solidarity in many times of crisis, precisely because of the dynamic nature of international youth volunteerism. Projects like XCHANGE help explore new innovative ways for the movement to address the needs of young people and youth organisations. XCHANGE is about the exchange of youth leaders, as a response to a common challenge of decrease in number of youth leaders in the movement.In the period between 4/12/2018 and 14/06/2020 the consortium provided a theoretical (training) and hands on experience (practice phase) to 15 youth leaders from Serbia and 20 from partners’ countries. The leaders coordinated 26 local community projects (workcamps) involving 350+ young volunteers from all over the world and later on continued to influence the volunteerism policies as active members of boards, working groups, pools of trainers, thus shaping the IVS movement as a peace movement.Objectives were:OBJ 1: raise the level of key competences and skills of youth leaders for the task of coordinating international volunteer projects (workcamps) abroadOBJ 2: Foster an international/intercultural supportive environment and mentorship system for practicing youth leadership abroad, deeply linked to local communities’ realities in countries other than one’s ownOBJ 3: raise awareness of the the practice and benefits of international mobility of youth workers for better social cohesion, intercultural understanding and more inclusive practices on local levelOBJ 4: support and facilitate strong and clear partnership and agreements among 14 organisations involvedActivities:• Kick-off meeting, January 2019, online• promotion campaign, recruitment of leaders, January-April 2019• two international trainings of youth leaders in IVS, April and May 2019, Serbia• practice phase: youth work abroad, 35 youth leaders exchanged between Serbia and other partners during the workcamps season of 2019• Support system for youth leaders by HOs during their practice phase, in all countries• promotional campaign -dissemination of results from the practice phase: upgrade of the web documentary www.youthleaders.online with a blog, translation, new stories from leaders, online among partners throughout the project• evaluation with leaders and SOs and certification September-december 2019, nationally• Evaluation meeting of partners, November 2019, online

"We are witnessing a longevity revolution; in 2060, one in eight Europeans will be 80 years or older. Very old people will thus not be a small minority in our societies but a significant citizen group. General perceptions of very old age are mainly associated with limitations, loss (e.g. abilities, possibilities, autonomy) and health and care issues.The ACT80+ partnership believes that the attitude towards the very old has to be changed and the focus from inabilities shifted to opportunities and strengths. Therefore, the vision of the Active 80+ project was a) to facilitate and provide access to informal learning opportunities for old people with functional limitations or care needs and b) to combat negative stereotypes about this population group as regards being restricted to the role of consumers of services.Since the access to social and public environment of very old people is often limited, professionals and volunteers working with them belong to their most important contact persons. Their support in detecting and re-developing hidden strengths of very old people they are involved with and their encouragement of very old people to engage in meaningful activities can be crucial in providing access to learning and ensuring greater independence and enjoyment of later life. The core idea of the ACT80+ project was to develop a research-based training concept and train care staff and volunteers to function as coaches for people 80+. Coaches supported older people in developing and realizing their own ideas of learning and active citizenship (""projects""). Therefore, the ACT80+ project involved the following target groups: A) Experts and very old people as interviewees: At the beginning of the project, in all partner countries and at European level, interviews were performed with key actors, including citizens at very high age, experts, policy-makers, researchers and practitioners. Their comments and feedback have been considered in the development of the training concept (Training Package ACT80+). B) Staff and volunteers of health and social service providers (as training participants and coaches)C) Very old people with funcional restrictions or care needs (as older learners and (co-)initiators of projects)D) Organizations (health and social service providers, associations representing the needs of the older people, adult training-providers) & other relevant stakeholders at national and European levelExperiences gained in developing and realizing the research-based (see European Benchmarking Report O1) training for care staff and volunteers working with people 80+ were summarized in the Handbook for Trainers (O4). Furthermore, the partnership elaborated the Handbook for Practitioners (O5), which addresses volunteers and paid staff of health and social services providers, empowerment groups, older people’s organisations and associations willing to coach, empower and work with people 80+ interested in learning and meaningful activities. This publication is meant to inspire and provides many practical examples of projects that emerged from our Active 80+ trainings in the partner countries.In order to nudge also changes at structural level, the ACT80+ partnership elaborated policy recommendations at the EU, national, regional and local levels (O6). The Erasmus+ project was carried out from October 2014 to September 2016 and involved six partner organizations in five EU-countries: Austria (queraum. cultural and social research - EU coordinator; Austrian Red Cross), Germany (ISIS), Italy (Lunaria), Lithuania (Senior Initiatives Center) and the Netherlands (OVN-NL - Oudere Vrouwen Netwerk - Nederland). All partners involved in the ACT80+ project • are experienced in planning, realizing, managing and disseminating European projects, • are active in the fields of socio-gerontology and the promotion of active citizenship and civic competencies of older people, familiar with the issue of active citizenship and lifelong learning of very old people• are experienced in developing and implementing training concepts• are well networked at local, regional, national and European level and• share long-term collaborative relationsThe ACT80+ partnership is convinced that, the project contributed to the change of perception of older people 80+. The main outcomes, such as the Handbook for Trainers, the Handbook for Practitioners and the Policy Recommendations as well as comprehensive dissemination activities in all partner countries raised awareness for the issue and encouraged stakeholders in care homes, welfare organizations and at political level to continue their activities in this field and /or transfer the ACT80+ approach to their contexts. Additionally, experiences gained and outcomes of the ACT80+ project enriched discussions at European level."

The partnership brought together Youth Volunteering Organizations from 12 Countries (Italy, Belgium, Spain, Finland, France, Czech Republic, Turkey, Ukraine, Russian Federation, Serbia, Korea and Mexico) 2 Research Institutes and 2 Volunteering Networks (the Alliance of European Voluntary Service Organizations and the Italian Volunteering Centres Network). The YNGOs are active in the promotion of International Voluntary Service programmes, and involve in volunteering and exchange projects around 5000 youngsters every year. These programmes include workcamps of 2-3 weeks and medium and long term projects of 2-12 months and impacts on hosting local communities and on volunteers who experience informal learning in intercultural and collective contexts. The network of the concerned organizations has 85 members and partners, able to involve around 18.000 young volunteers in Europe and worldwide. The active local communities in Europe, mainly isolated or disadvantaged, are around 1750.The YNGOs and their volunteers needs to improve the capacity of recognition of these experiences, so to answer to different expectations and purposes. Youth organizations aim at bridging the educational effect of volunteering with formal educations systems and work sector, and to enhance the accountability of this specific informal learning setting. Volunteers are still not able to show what they have learned in terms of soft skills and meta-competencies and cannot fully exploit the voluntary service experience to improve their educational paths and employability.

In 1920 the first international Workcamp was organized. On the former battle field of Verdun. The first act of peace through volunteering. After one hundred years, European nations live in co-existence. It’s time to remember the basic principles on which the Workcamps were established. Peace, solidarity, intercultural understanding, cooperation between nations. Year 2020 brings unique chance to promote the values on which modern Europe stands on.European leading experts in international volunteering join their forces for using the 100th anniversary of international Workcamps to promote the values of international volunteering, as well as empowering its impact. Objective of The 100th Preparation project is to share good practices, know-how and experiences, in order to create Action Plan for implementing new innovative tools and methods for mobilization of young people to get involved in voluntary activities.Six organizations from different countries of Europe (France, Czech Republic, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Serbia) teamed-up for this project. The project consists of one transnational meeting which will create the space for setting up the cooperation between the partners. All participating organizations will then work together, to assemble the Action Plan.The Action plan, as the main outcome of the project will be put into practice of participating organizations after completion of this project. All shared ideas, tools, practices and methods will be presented to entire movement of international Workcamps, so we can all use the power of 100th anniversary to promote the values of modern Europe, whose foundation was made in 1920 in Verdun.

AGORA’ is a Strategic Partnership project in the field of innovation, aimed to develop tools and pedagogical approaches to fight young people social exclusion, and specifically gender-based discrimination, in public spaces settled in isolated areas, by promoting EU values and active citizenship. Thus the project will have a specific focus on “public spaces”: areas potentially open and accessible to everybody where young people can encounter, gather and socialize. They can be the setting both for exclusions and ghettoisation, as well for the concrete practice of democracy and participation. Still the isolated areas we aim to involve in Italy, Romania, Greece, Spain and France, are marked by exclusion, becoming the stage for racism, sexism, bullying and different displays of discrimination. “Isolated area” stands for a big variety of spaces from the suburbs of big cities, “left-out” neighborhoods in small town, more remote or rural areas. AGORA’ will bring concrete actions in these spaces through the implementation of different specific objectives: to build up the local diagnostic to detect the reasons behind gender-based discrimination among young people; to share the existing tools and approaches to promote participation and inclusion; to up-scale them within a newly formed pedagogical perspective, to create an educational package to detect the youth gender-base discrimination and intervene; to empower young people and local communities from isolated areas and to transform them in promoters of new grass-rooted actions.Participants are: TG1 (youth workers, educators, activists), we expect to involve as direct beneficiaries an average number of 300. They do cooperate with their organizations in educational activities. In several cases they are active in urban, suburban, isolated and very populous areas where are more relevant the cases of social exclusion, bullying, racist and sexist discrimination. In the case of the TG2 (young people), we expect to involve as direct beneficiaries an average number of 450. They are youth aged between the 15 and the 25 years old, living in urban, suburban and rural, isolated areas where the youth workers, educators, activists are active. The following activities will be implemented: •A1.Transnational Project Meeting: Kick Off meeting for project coordinators •A2.Country Field Research: to build the local diagnostic and detect the reasons behind youth gender-based discrimination •Intellectual Output1-I.O.1: Toolkit with tools and interactive methods to detect the warning signals in the youth gender-based discriminative behaves and to understand the causes behind the display •A3.-A4. Training Courses: to share and test the existing tools, methods and approaches, to evaluate and up-scale them •A5.Tools Harmonization: to upgrade and systematize the tools and approaches shared•A6.Tools Testing through Street Actions (I.O.2): to test the efficacy of the tools upgraded and fine tuned, using them to activate public spaces in isolated areas •Intellectual Output 2-I.O.2: Handbook on tools and interactive methods, within a newly designed pedagogical approach, to promote gender equity within groups of young people in public spaces•A7.Multipliers Events in Public Spaces: to widespread the I.O.s produced among different relevant stakeholders•A8.Transnational Project Meeting: Evaluation meeting for project coordinators •A9.Follow Up: to wide-spread the project outcomes and implement actions in public spaces, revitalizing isolated areas.AGORA’ foresees the use of different working methods part of a pedagogical approach which combines field and desk researches, non formal education with Street Clowning, Body Movement, Labyrinth Theatre and Social Cabaret, to create an educational package to promote gender equality among groups of young people coming from isolated areas. This approach and package, within a newly designed pedagogical perspective, is marked by a strong flexibility, being based on the participants and learners feedbacks. It is shaped to guarantee the creation of tailor made and coherent learning processes for individuals, groups and local communities. The tools included in the I.O.1 and I.O.2 will be shaped accordingly to a permanent upgrading and up-scaling opening to the possibility of being adapted in different socio-cultural backgrounds taking into account the different specificities and needs.AGORA’ will lead to the following outcomes: better understanding of the reasons behind the young people gender-based discrimination; upgrading and up-scaling of the tools to fight gender-based discrimination; competences development of youth workers and activists to better favour inclusion; enhancement of youth participation and transformation of youth in change-makers; creation of a sustainable informal network and enhancement of interactions among partners to strengthen the capacity of youth work to respond to key societal trends and challenges.