"<< Objectives >>""Development of art-based youth exchange"" will be a seminar whose aim is to bring an innovative contribution to youth work by developing and promoting the art-based youth exchange projects though non-formal methodology and with a wide network of practitioners.In our current partnership we have already been working with arts in our youth exchanges for more than 18 years now, and the methodology we have employed in these projects has been part of Drums for Peace (DfP) working environment since 2001. Drums for Peace is an association network registered in Denmark and consists of 7 partners coming from 5 EU countries. Our aim will be reached by achieving the following objectives:1. facilitate a 1 day theoretical framework during which 14 youth workers and trainers will define the concept of art-based youth exchange, will explore the ways in which this methodology applies to the context of each of the involved country and will exchange best practices that can be promoted with the stakeholders.2. 14 youth workers will work together for one day to create a guideline on how to implement the art-based youth exchange projects with as little resources as possible but still featuring a quality learning experience for the young beneficiaries3. offer the 14 youth workers one day to work together on developing 5 project application drafts which will be promoted with external partners/new partners for network expansion purposes and which will be further developed and submitted at the February 2020 Erasmus+ application deadline. << Activities >>Activity type: mobility of youth workersDates: 10-12th of January 2020Participants involved: 14 youth workers, youth project coordinators, volunteers, youth workshop leaders, NGO and youth center leaders, of age 18+We have planned 3 days full of activities which will be structured so as to have the outcomes obtained during day 1 secured and structure the information in a guidelines form in the day 2, while in the day 3 we will already work in new projects ideas. This will make it easy for a smooth and logic shift between the days.Therefore, the first day of the seminar will start off with the general evaluation of the projects that have happened within DfP, especially since 2017. This will also include the used methodology& communication among members. It will be tackled things that members want to improve based on the experiences they had in certain projects. There will be as well unsolved issues that some may want to debate on together with their partners. After the evaluation part we'll carry on with the defining the concepts of art-based youth exchanges in the context of non-formal education. We will explore how this methodology has been adopted and worked out by each partner in their own countries, what obstacles they have met what are the workarounds. Then we will start identifying bodies interested in our work, on both public and private levels, in our partners' communities.Next on will be a session about what have been the results of our latest KA2 strategic partnerships and for this we will use the report results from the research undertaken through these two large scale projects. We will mostly be interested to learn of what are the correlations between arts and youngsters' improved school performance, increased social skills and positive attitudes regarding multicultural meetings. Also, the coordinator of EfA project, Bo Otterstroem, will hold a workshop on how to make the youth exchanges more inclusive through a better budget management and opening up to NGO-schools partnerships.In the second day the participants will work more practically, in that they will pair up in 4 teams that will create a guideline on best practices in the management of quality art-based youth exchange. This type of project is quite a special one, in the way that although the young people feel shy in the beginning of the exchange for they need to speak up in a foreign language in front a a big group, that changes right away after they start dancing, doing circus activities, singing etc. They manage to get rid of their fears because artistic expression makes them feel free, they find arts as a new way of communication and this truly works out, as they become more tolerant with each other, get back their confidence faster after they have failed and their social skills improve by a lot in a matter of days. Also, as we mainly work with 13-18 year old youth, it's been well known as a not very easy group target for a facilitator, to work with, but our artists are key people in this process and the participants simply love them. The workshop leaders are experienced in conflict solving and in working with children by employing very efficient approaches based on direct communication and trust. At the end of the exchange there is the final performance moment, when the participants will put on a show together with the artists, presenting what they have learnt through a mix of choreography in front of totally stranger audience. And this specific part of the DfP exchange is a huge reward to the youngsters, as they are solely responsible for this achievement of putting everything together in one final result. At the end of this hard work their work gets appreciated and respected with crowd cheering and applauding which boosts up their self esteem and motivation to be more active in their lives. With all this in mind, plus the aforementioned research reports, our seminar's youth workers will decide on best practices and recommendations for anyone who wants to adopt this methodology in their work with youngsters.In the last day the youth workers will work on identifying potential stakeholders are interested in this participatory arts method and will also come up with project proposals draft which are to be further developed back in their countries and which should also involved the new potential partners from their communities.<< Impact >>Through this project we aim to increase the working quality within our DfP association, as well as outside of it indirectly. This is to be done by developing the competencies of our partners whom, by taking advantage of them and by the help of their own organizations, will develop the social and personal life of the youth back in their countries. Through knowledge and experience exchange our participants are expected to update and improve their skills, capacity of work in the youth filed, acquire better leading aptitudes and be more motivated to develop more diverse international youth activities with their teams. They will also benefit from this 3 day seminar as they will work in an international environment, using English as communication language and they will have the chance to see our Youth Center's potential in regard to international projects organization.This meeting will also strengthen DfP's networking capacity as a powerful association of organizations that interact with each other based on trust and successful cooperation. Through this seminar we promote and innovative methodology, the benefits of working in a partnership like ours and this will secure more quality projects, safe venues, trustful people and thus more happy beneficiaries for any of our member organization.Then any participant after having attended our seminar will be able to further benefit their organization back in the country, with their gained competencies in the area of youth work and youth projects. This will be done more concretely as a result of the project proposals session during the seminar. We expect to have at least 5 DfP projects submitted for the February 2020 application deadline, that will hopefully involve most of our partners. Our partner organizations and their representatives are our direct target groups in this seminar, but this doesn't make the indirect target groups less important; through our work we actually aim at reaching young people, youth centers, schools and NGOs from the communities of our partners and Liepaja. They will be the final target groups that should benefit from our work too, and this we hope it will be done through bringing more international dimension to their localities, by providing our partners with resources, know-how and a strong network. We expect that this project will increase the international dimension in Örnsköldsvik, SE, putting it on the map at national level, as regards international activities with youth. Thus, the participants will come from 5 countries and this will benefit our Youth Center too, as14 foreign youth workers will have the opportunity to see our working conditions and facilities here and to see what is our potential as regards youth projects implementation. It will thus have a positive impact on the local community level, since the project promotes opening to European perspectives, which are to enhance Örnsköldsvik's international presence, especially with regard to youth development. As we'll struggle to make this project a visible public event, we do hope that the presence of our DfP guests in our city will help that more NGO's and schools here we'll step by step get more interested and involved with the opportunities provided by EC's Erasmus Plus program. Regionally speaking, as we already mentioned the seminar will promote cooperation with other cultural partners, while at European level the project will foster international cooperation between organizations in relation to innovative education, cultural understanding and acceptance. It will bring benefits in the local communities of our partners, as these will use the learning obtain during the seminar in making their work with their local youngsters more creative and efficient, bringing positive impact on the youth's self development."

"Challenge 2 Change is a youth exchange focused on the topic ""The Challenges of EU"" and the role of the young people is to discuss the topic, analyze the challenges and present them through media products: press, radio and video. 42 young people from Bulgaria, Italy, Greece, Spain, Portugal and Romania will take part in the project with an interest in the project and its activities. Some of them are exploring the EU's challenges, and in particular the events that have taken place in recent years with their positives and negatives for society and the EU as a whole. In the implementation of the main activities are provided workshops, in which the young people get acquainted with the term ""media literacy"", media types. They will discuss the challenges of the EU, meet with PR and radio host to discuss how to produce a successful media product. An open exhibition with photos of the participants prepared before the main project activities will be prepared and will reflect their personal views on the EU's challenges. The objectives of the planned activities are: intercultural dialogue in a safe environment, exploring new cultures, enhancing media literacy and activating active European citizenship, enhancing personal competencies. By fulfilling the objectives of the planned activities, we believe that we will achieve the objectives of the project, namely: youth to discuss topical issues of European citizenship, to realize that, despite cultural differences, they have the same values, become more tolerant to the different, with the manifestations of racism, discrimination and xenophobia, to be active Europeans involved in building civil society, but in a way more accessible to them, namely through the media. Methods that will be used in the project are energy jets, ice brewing games, role plays, discussions, application of theatrical techniques, etc."

"""We are Europe"" is a 9-day youth exchange in Ruse by 40 participants from Spain, Greece, Romania, Turkey and Bulgaria on theme "" European citizenship "" . From 1st to 9th of September young people will discuss , debate, develop , visualize and enrich this topic . They will work in several mixed groups , each of which will produce a short film (up to 3min . ) On "" European citizenship "", write your proposal for youth anthem of the European Union and will prepare an information campaign on theme ""European citizenship "" . Through discussions , role plays , workshops , sports activities and other methods of non-formal education, youth will rediscover meaning of the term "" citizen of the European Union."" Within the project, each of the participating countries will present their country and their organization. At the end of the project the young people will hold a final discussion on the topic and organize information campaign entitled "" European citizenship "" in the city of Ruse ."

Today young people face new challenges related to the interconnectivity of people and countries around the world. The recent trends of globalisation make a significant impact on the lives of youth and the local communities they belong to. Dependency on issues in other regions and increasing diversity in a local society requires rethinking what new competences young people need nowadays. Furthermore, current trends require a more active civic participation of youngsters towards meeting challenges of the global society including the growing inequality, injustice and climate change. To be able to act towards meeting today’s global challenges, youngsters need to start perceiving the world as one community and be able to find their own role in coping with today's major global issues. This can only happen when young people perceive themselves not only as citizens of their country but as citizens of the world. Young people need to understand how they benefit from being a part of a global society and become committed to meeting the global challenges contribute to the global development. They need skills to critically assess the issues and identify their approaches in local, national, European and global contexts. They need to understand the roots of global issues, their consequences to the local and global society and be able to take an active civic role towards making the world more just, peaceful and sustainable. Youth workers need more capacity-building so they can help young people to enhance their global citizenship competencies. They need to be equipped with tools and methods so they could help youngsters to explore the links between the global issues and their daily lives, as well as to motivate them to take an active role towards sustainable changes of the world. The present project is meant for fostering global citizenship of young people based on their personal responsibility and active participation towards global development, based on the tools, philosophy and methods of “Six Steps to Global Citizenship” (http://globalab.org) . The objectives of the project are: 1.To improve the quality of youth work in Europe by introducing innovative ways, tools and techniques of promoting global citizenship among young people; 2.To support the professional development of those active in youth work on promoting personal commitment and active participation of young people towards global development by mainstreaming the concept of global citizenship in youth work in Europe. The project will build a community of 20 youth workers, youth trainers and leaders of youth organisations from 10 European countries committed to creating a just, equal, peaceful and sustainable world. They will gathers in Cagliari (Italy) on 22-28 October 2018 for a 7-day international training course meant for raising awareness of its participants on the global interconnectedness and building their capacities necessary for promoting the concept of global citizenship and fostering active participation of young people towards global development. The project promotes the importance of global citizenship for every young European. By proposing an innovative way for promoting active participation among young Europeans in challenging the issues of global development, it expects a more active engagement of young people in civil life at local, national and international levels. The project will allow its participants to explore deeper the issues of global poverty, inequality and injustice, migration, including the ongoing refugee crisis, human rights violations and child labour in global technology and garment industries, climate change, etc. The project will provide guidance how to address these issues in the daily work with young people and strengthen their commitment to cope with them. Such approach of the project will have a positive impact in a long-term perspective. The daily youth work practices of the participants of the present project will help to build a wide community of young people across Europe committed to dealing with challenges and threats that Europe is facing today. The project will also help to strengthen the role of youth work in tackling the major global issues and contribute to the local, national, European and global policies of ending extreme poverty, fighting with inequality and injustice and fixing the climate change.

"Тhe topic of the project is ""Youth information"" - it is training for 30 youth workers, representatives of 10 youth organizations from six European countries. The main objective of the project is to enable youth workers to meet, gain new knowledge and new skills necessary in order to raise the quality of their work, to share best practices in this area, to write standards for working of the youth workers with youth information and to create an information network with the participating organizations. The training will be held from 6 to 12 October 2016 in Rousse and will be led by experienced trainers who will use interactive methods, typical for the non-formal education field. As a result of their participation in this training, youth workers will create a basic concept and action plan for working with youth information in their organizations, which will be based on generally accepted methods which are imposed at European and international level. The discussion platform which will be created during the project will become a source of youth information not only between the participating partners but also among other European and international organizations."