NatureWISE was a project focused on creating a relevant learning experience for the multiple stakeholders involved. The aim of the project was to develop the connection with nature as a learning tool for all the actors involved in the project: volunteers, pupils, partner organizations, local community at large. The main objectives were: 1. Developing professional skills for the 7 volunteers involved in long-term volunteering stages. 2. Developing creative experiential outdoor learning contexts to facilitate learning and connection with nature to over 50 children benefiting from Green School educational programme. 3. Diversification of the alternative educational methodology on the 3 areas of educational activities (pedagogical farm, garden and kitchen) involving the 7 international volunteers. 4. Increase the organizational capacity of Green School to engage young international volunteers in current educational activities by the end of the project. The project lasted 17 months and involved 6 partner organizations (with roles of coordinating, hosting and sending organizations). The main activities involved 7 international volunteers hosted in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. The volunteering stages were planned for a duration of 6 months organized in two flows each of these including 4 volunteers, one from each of the following countries: Republic of Moldova, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Kosovo. The first stage started with 4 volunteers, 2 of them prolonging their stage from 6 to 12 months. Therefore, in the second stage 3 other volunteers joined the project. The main activities of the volunteers were focused on developing educational activities for children of the school, connected to natural environment - pedagogical kitchen, pedagogical garden and a pedagogical farm, as well as creating outdoor educational spaces that use nature as a base for intense learning experiences. The volunteers worked on developing a publication with alternative learning methodology that supports green pedagogy. Also they contributed in the development of a policy on reducing consumption within the hosting organization. In the the last part of their stage, the volunteers implemented personal projects, that directly respond to their interests and needs: a children's book with the aim of promoting love for nature and sustainability, a brochure with traditional medicine plants from the region, a cleaning action of a river side, a workshop promoting non-formal education. The project increased the volunteers' level of professional and personal competences and empowered them to become active citizens with capacity to manifest initiative and to transform ideas into actions. This, combined with improved foreign language competences is expected to conduct, later on, to an easier access on the European labour market. The project's impact was diverse and specific to each of the stakeholders reached: personal and professional development for the volunteers, development of alternative educational methodologies in Green School and interested schools, increased organizational capacity of working with EVS volunteers for the 6 partners, promotion of international volunteering opportunities to young people from the local community, increased degree of innovation in volunteering projects by connecting it to relevant topics at European level.

"<< Objectives >>Adolescence is a crucial period for developing and maintaining social and emotional habits important for mental well-being. Including healthy sleep patterns; regular exercise; coping, problem-solving, and interpersonal skills. An estimated 10-20% of adolescents globally experience mental health conditions, yet these remain underdiagnosed and under-treated. Multiple physical, emotional, and social changes, including exposure to poverty, abuse, or violence, could make adolescents vulnerable to mental health problems. Promoting psychological well-being and protecting adolescents from adverse experiences and risk factors that may impact their potential to thrive is critical for their well-being during adolescence.Multiple factors determine mental health outcomes. The more risk factors adolescents are exposed to, the greater the potential impact on their mental health. Factors that could contribute to stress during adolescence include a desire for greater autonomy, pressure to conform with peers, exploration of sexual identity, and increased access to and use of technology. Media influence and gender norms exacerbate the disparity between adolescents’ lived reality and their perceptions or aspirations for the future. Other important determinants include the quality of their home life and relationships with peers. Children and adolescents are especially vulnerable to sexual violence, which had a clear association with detrimental mental health.The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic had a huge impact on the well-being of young people. Fear and anxiety about a new disease and what could happen were overwhelming for young people. Public health actions, such as social distancing, made people feel isolated and lonely and increased stress and anxiety. However, these actions were necessary to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Coping with stress in a healthy way made our community stronger.Some adolescents were at greater risk of mental health conditions due to their living conditions, stigma, discrimination, or exclusion, or lack of access to quality support and services. Adolescents with mental health conditions were in turn particularly vulnerable to social exclusion, discrimination, stigma, educational difficulties, risk-taking behaviors, physical ill-health, and human rights violations. Mental health problems among young people varied from anger to anxiety and panic attacks, bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, depression, eating disorders, loneliness, etc.According to WHO, suicide and accidental death from self-harm were the third cause of adolescent mortality in 2015, resulting in an estimated 67,000 deaths. Self-harm largely occurred among older adolescents, and globally it was the second leading cause of death for older adolescent girls. It was the leading or second cause of adolescent death in Europe and South-East Asia.The objectives of the Erasmus+ youth exchange program Inner Engineering were the following:- To raise awareness and develop an understanding of the existing mental health conditions- To broaden the knowledge of young people about mindful practices and how mental health conditions could be treated- To make young people reflect upon their social and cultural background regarding the topic of mental health conditions and well-being- To explore the potential of healthy lifestyles and mindful practices in preventing risk-taking and self-harm behaviors- To establish a network of like-minded organizations and individuals who were interested in further exchange on the topic of healthy lifestyles and mental well-being- To raise awareness about the effect of mental health conditions, especially after the pandemic period, among different stakeholders by developing and disseminating blog posts and publications.<< Implementation >>The main activity implemented was the youth exchange program ""Inner Engineering"" carried out in Bakuriani, Georgia, from 09.06.2022-15.06.2022. The program gathered 40 young people from 8 EU and EaP countries, who had been pre-selected based on their potential to act as multipliers in their respective communities, previous knowledge, experience, motivation, and desire to work on the topic of mindfulness. The working methods used during the program were completely based on the principles of non-formal and informal education, with the help of which participants had a chance to acknowledge the importance of education, learning, and training outside the recognized educational institutions.During the selection process, preferences were given to young people with fewer opportunities, including those facing social and geographic obstacles, people facing discrimination because of gender, sexual orientation, etc.; people from remote or rural areas, and people from vulnerable families. The participants of the youth exchange program were motivated young leaders who wanted to lead their communities to positive changes and transform existing challenges into success. They wanted to work on various topics and issues such as healthy lifestyles, mindful practices, inclusion, equality, and integration and had a goal to create a safer space for future generations. All the participants and organizations involved in the program were interested in the topic of a healthy lifestyle and mindful practices and considered mental health concerns as a core challenge of today's world.<< Results >>By carrying out the youth exchange program ""Inner Engineering"", participants gained knowledge about the benefits of mindfulness as a tool for becoming free from distraction or judgment, and aware of our thoughts and feelings without getting caught up in them. New tools and methodologies helped them to learn how to promote mindful practices and healthy lifestyles among young people living in their respective home communities, and how to plan and carry out social campaigns. This youth exchange program increased their motivation to participate actively in social and political life. During the project, participants had a chance to learn how to conduct fundraising activities, whether it was an awareness-raising campaign, educational project, or public actions for preventing or treating mental health conditions in their countries.The main impact on participating organizations was the increased capacities of their participants. A strong focus of the youth exchange program was put on planning concrete follow-up activities on the topic of a healthy lifestyle. The benefit of participating organizations was the new innovative set of tools, materials, and resources, which resulted in a more effective, dynamic, committed, and professional environment within the organization. Moreover, participating organizations expanded contacts with partner organizations throughout the world. The project served as a starting point for future cooperation perspectives.Participants of the youth exchange program benefited from improved competencies, as they were able to design quality educational projects after learning about new methods and tools during the project. Young people had a chance to participate in innovative workshops, social campaigns, and fundraising activities organized by the participants. After participating in the above-mentioned activities, young people acquired important skills such as critical thinking, leadership, and teamwork. Acquired skills encouraged them to be involved in the decision-making processes concerning the healthy lifestyle and mental health challenges of the 21st century. Other organizations, educational entities, and stakeholders benefited from the publication produced during the youth exchange program. The publication summarized all the necessary information accumulated throughout the project, including non-formal education methodologies."

"<< Objectives >>The international project - ""Coaching for Youth work"" was a two-level ERASMUS+ project that followed the logical frame - starting with giving tools for working on personal development, continued by giving skills through the self-development process. The project was inspired by the Training Courses “Art of Midlines” and „Art of Peace “, which were of great success among the participants. Based on this motivation, the Applicant (APP) MY (Mosta Youth) and Receiving (RO) organization International Center for Peace and integration decided to upgrade the project, add a coaching part to it, involve new partners and provide opportunities for a wider group of participants. Therefore, the representatives of other countries had a chance to experience the same methodology and had a similar experience with a higher aim.By implementing this project, we wanted to prepare the participants to be able to coach the local youngsters they work with, using the knowledge and tools from the training. Main aims & objectives of the project was: • To stimulate the self-development process of the participants;• To increase employability and participation of youth workers, develop their professional skills and increase their efficiency;• To give the tools of coaching and supporting the youngsters in own communities;• To give the tools of empathic communication and conflict transformation for their daily life and work; • To build partnership and future cooperation on the basis of this project under Erasmus+ and improve the quality of local and international youth work;• To promote the respect of diversity, intercultural and inter-religious dialogue, common values of freedom and human rights, practice tolerance, break stereotypes and prejudices, and fight against discrimination.<< Implementation >>The project contained 2 stages of Training Courses, with different foci, involving the same youth workers:1. The 1st Training Course: 20 - 27 October 2019, Bakuriani, Georgia.The TC brought together 35 youth workers (including 3 trainers) from Malta, Georgia, Latvia, Spain, Armenia, Ukraine, Italy and Azerbaijan. Personal development is a lifelong process. It’s a way for people to assess their skills and qualities, consider their aims in life and set goals in order to realize and maximize their potential. Early life development and early formative experiences within the family, at school, etc. can help to shape us as adults, personal development should not stop later in life. This project was designed to help youth workers to think about their personal development and ways in which they can work towards goals and their full potential. 2. The 2nd Training Course: 8-15 February 2020, BAĦAR IĊ-ĊAGĦAQ, Malta.The TC brought together the same 35 participants from the same partner organizations, to continue the learning process.The activities we implemented during the training are: we provided participants frames and tools of empathic communication & conflict transformation which they could use first of all for their personal life, and secondly to improve their social work and engagement. Empathic communication focused on three aspects of communication: self-empathy (defined as a deep and compassionate awareness of one's own inner experience), empathy (defined as listening to another with deep compassion), and honest self-expression (defined as expressing oneself authentically in a way that is likely to inspire compassion in others).During the project we analysed dynamics of conflicts, but they were not approached directly neither politically. Participants got some main points and were offered new perspectives with which to look and work on them, on their own, all lifelong. Through the words of those that are dedicating or have dedicated part of their life to conflict resolution, participants got extremely useful instruments of challenges and achievements in peace building.This 2-level project helped to identify the skills needed to set life goals which can raise the confidence of young participants, enhance their employability prospects, develop their communication skills, how they relate with themselves and others and how to lead a more fulfilling, higher quality life. Plan to make relevant, positive and affective life choices and decisions for their future to enable personal empowerment. The requirements for the participation in this project was a commitment for the participants to attend both stages of the training. Therefore the general profile of the participants was the following:- Youth workers- Age: Above 20 - Gender balanced group- Readiness and availability to be involved in both stages of the project actively whilst dedicating time and effort to it.- Those, who have troubles in decision making, communication or conflict resolution- Those, who are working with the youngsters and are motivated to support their personal development- Those, who are interested in coaching- Those who are motivated to involve and develop new Erasmus + projects after the TCs.<< Results >>As the result of the project the participants gained and developed a set of new skills, competences, knowledge, raised awareness and changed attitudes towards personal development and youth work. They found out the strong and weak sides of their personality and life in order to work on their improvements, create clear vision of their future, real needs and preferences in private and professional life, make concrete action plans and get motivated to reach them.As a result of the two stage project participants:- learned new tools to “get out of the box”, enlarged their “comfort zone”, maximized their creativity and saw themselves and everything around as a possibility;- acquired the tools of coaching and supporting the youngsters in own communities;- employed the tools of empathic communication and conflict transformation for their daily life and work; - increased their employability and participation, developed their professional skills and increased their efficiency through reflecting on their personal and professional development goals and performance improvement objectives;- reflected on their intercultural experience of meeting with the representatives of different countries, cultures, backgrounds, religions, practice tolerance and break stereotypes & prejudices;- acted as the multipliers reproducing the tools and new knowledge facilitated in the project;- built partnerships and future cooperation on the basis of this project under Erasmus+ and improved the quality of local and international youth work.The main impact of the project was through ""Learning outcomes” of the participants: knowledge, skills, awareness & attitudes, that was acquired/ developed during the project."

<< Objectives >>The project topic was selected because, Health is the most important determining factor of human life and the invaluable wealth. According to World Health Organization, the health - it is a physical, mental and social well-being, and not just the absence of disease and physical defects. The improvement of public health is the basic condition for the development of society; It is assumed that the different factors are affecting to the health status:- Lifestyle and conditions - 48-50%,- Environment - 20-22%,- Genetic factors - 18-20%,- The healthcare - 12-14%.This is one of the main reason, why our project is targeted to healthy life-style, and we want to use sport activities as a tool for it. The promotion of healthy lifestyle is playing the major role for reducing the morbidity and strengthening the public health of society. Many diseases can be prevented through healthy lifestyle promotion. The fact is that modern society has extended lifetime, but humans move less and less, eat a lot unhealthy junk food and adhere to bad habits. An inspiration for this YE project was the previous Erasmus+ project “Power of Diversity” implemented in Georgia to provide multicultural platform for participants, to strengthen intercultural cooperation and confront discrimination. After the discussion and assessment of project outcomes, we came up with the idea to broaden the topic and make a project (this time in another country) dealing with healthy life including nutrition in connection with diversities within EU or particular country.Through the study and comparison of lifestyles, traditions and values, the participants will uncover the commonalities which traverse all cultures. The participants will compare and contrast these cultures and through multicultural team building and team work they will reach a spirit of inter-culturalcooperation, compromise, awareness and appreciation of the diversities. The project will be carried out in 3 regions of Spain between 1.09 - 12.09.2019: Three different organizations will be involved in the implementation stage. Herencia (Toledo), Belmez (Cordoba) and Puerto Sagunto (Valencia). All of them offers participants different environment, traditions and food. articularly, one region is famous with producing wine and all the culture is related to vineyards; another one is special for its geographical conditions having beach and mountains near each other that helps us to offer participants physical activities; on the last location participants will have a chance to do water activities as the municipality has a huge reservoir; also our partners have strong ties with local associations that will help us to do some sport activities and make an event about the history of the region. Consequently, participants will work in a three different environment that provide different ground for sport, nutritionist and cultural activities. This will help them to grasp the complexity of healthy life and to be aware of how to take responsibility over their health.The main objectives of the project are determined according to what we have focus on: healthy lifestyle, nutrition and sport. They can be listed as following:- To raise up the awareness about sport and healthy life-style; To give participants possibility to learn and share their experience - Identify importance of being physically active for health.- To promote sport activities and healthy life-style between young people and not only;- To let youth workers explore new methodology how to promote healthy lifestyle on their local level;- Share culture and identify how culture and other environmental differences influence one’s opportunities to live a healthy life;- Find differences positive;- Emphasize the role of personal goals to have completely healthy lifestyle and to take a full responsibility over it;- Identify the ways of being healthy and sharing culture;- Be aware of what does healthy eating generally include;- Determine nutritional needs and its importance;- Identify the importance of sport and practice it;- Get information about types of physical activities and doing them at a right time in a right way.- To help encourage inter-cultural cooperation and appreciation of the diversities within EU and EUECC countries,- To see differences in a positive manner by advancing individual development.- To explore cultural tolerance in multicultural environment by the power of non-formal education- To promote the cultural diversity.<< Activities >>During the YE it is planned to make different name-games, energizers, team-building activities, icebreakers, leaders meetings/evaluations, expectations-fears-contributions, presentation of each organization, trips, visit local families, traditional games, group cooking and other activities.The planned workshops and group discussion/presentations will concentrate on:- Cultures of each country;- Breaking stereotypes about other countries;- Overcoming barriers and fostering social cohesion between EU and non- EU countries- Promote the cultural diversity of rural communities.- Active participation of youth living in rural areas in international YE.- Healthy living - 8 steps to take today:The participants will work on theory and practical tools to live healthier. We would show participants that healthy living is within their reach, starting today. We would provide practical and easy steps that can be taken right now that will make today healthier than yesterday and pave the way for healthy living tomorrow, too. The participants will work and practice 2 steps per day.- Positioning Activity: Healthy nutrition/dietA healthy nutrition/diet is one that helps maintain or improve overall health. A healthy diet provides the body with essential nutrition. There would be provided general statements about healthy nutrition and participants have to decide if the agree/disagree he statement and make the decision agree/disagree side and neutral in the middle. After that will be discussion/sharing moment.- workshop: physical activities/sports:Being physically active can improve your health — today, tomorrow, and in the future. However, most people do not do enough physical activity. People of all types, shapes, sizes, and abilities can benefit from being physically active. Participants would share sport experience to other group members.- Creative workshop about reproductive health; World Café: Reproductive health ( HIV/AIDS, STIs, Hygiene)Reproductive health means the normal functioning of the reproductive system, and it implies the ability of any individual to have a perfect sex life and keep her generation to the desired time. All the men and women have the right to have access to high-quality information to secure an acceptable fertility regulation methods, in order to make an informed choice free. We would provide information about Sexually transmitted infections, including HIV prevention and treatment; accurate information and the safe, effective, affordable and acceptable contraception methods; Participants will be divided into groups and would be given different tasks about the topic. Later each group will have time for presentation and discussion. Will be organized the session with the method of “World Café” where will be discussed the following topics into mixed, switching groups, where each participant will have an opportunity to discuss each topic with others.The project will be carried out in 3 regions of Spain between 1.09 - 12.09.2019 and will bring 32 participants from 6 different countries - Belgium, Spain, Czech Republic, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Lebanon.As the project does not demand any specific skill or experience in the field, we decided to select them according to their background, motivation and need for the project.The general profile of the participants is following:- Youth coming from rural areas- Staff, volunteers/ members of NGOs- Youth with difficulties to adapt to the society (i.e. young people with immigrant backgrounds, from broken families, etc.)- NEET category (Not in Education, Employment or Training) and who are looking for opportunities to improve their skills and work in the youth field.The priority will be given to the participants with fewer opportunities and disadvantaged youth (by educational, economical, social, geographical point of view)As mentioned above, some participants/leaders are already selected (those who are involved in preparation process). For selecting the rest of the group, each promoter organization will organize info-sessions. After that the actual selection process will be held on 2 stages: 1. receiving theapplication forms filled by interested youth 2. personal interviews with the young people whose application forms will be most interesting/relevant for the project.<< Impact >>In the very beginning of preparation for the project, partner countries defined main objectives and expected impacts of the project on participants, as well as partner countries and societies participants live in, so that each activity is aimed to establish intercultural environment in which participants explore the ways to live healthy, understand the responsibility of each individual over his/her health and its impacts on national level, and will grasp the importance of cultural differences. We know that single approach does not work in the same way for everybody, that’s why we designed our strategy so that each participant will have an opportunity to do activities that perfectly fit him/her and this will consequently raise the positive impact on participants.Theoretical or practical knowledge and experience will have short and long term impacts on participants and the environment they will go back to their countries after the project as they will be the ones who “spread the word” among their society, local schools, organizations through making presentations, workshops, activities about the YE project to share the experience with others. Understand the importance of living healthy and knowing how to do it, what does healthy lifestyle include, is crucial thing for everyone as this is the probably the best thing we can make for our future. Thus, the knowledge and experience participants will gain will have a long term impact on them and others they will inspire. Working in intercultural environment will also help participants live easily with people having different views, lifestyles and each individual trying to act so is a huge impact on the society s/he lives in.Project will have a very important impact on partner organizations as this kind of project is one of the best ways to make strong ties with future partnership. Having a huge experience of working on several project together help organizations to raise the quality and impacts of future projects. Along with the huge experience on international level, project will provide some tools for the organizations to implement more and more activities in national and local levels.

With the project “Empowering those on the field” we aimed at strengthening the capacities of organisations working with and for young people to foster youth participation in nonviolent conflict transformation and to give young people a voice for shaping Europe`s future.For this purpose, the project had the following four objectives:•To increase the conceptual understanding of the participants in approaches to conflict transformation in the youth sector•To strengthen the competences of the participants in developing youth-led peacebuilding and youth empowerment activities through an exchange of practises and experiences and a joint learning process•To create local and international follow-up projects for youth-led approaches to conflict transformation•To build links for international partnerships between the involved project partners and participants to strengthen youth-led grass-root approaches to processes of conflict transformationThe project`s main activities accompanied by support measures were the following realised between January and October 2018:-Online course on essentials of peacebuilding clarifying through readings and assignments for reflection key and basic terms and concepts in the realm of peace work-Training course on conflict transformation and youth-led peacebuilding exploring with the participants approaches peacebuilding and conflict transformation, understanding of youth peace work and exchanging approaches and methods for community-based youth empowerment and conflict transformation workThe project involved a total of 34 youth workers, activists and young leaders from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova, Spain, Slovakia, Italy, Hungary, and Denmark. The project achieved the following results:-youth workers, activists and young leaders developed their competences in peacebuilding and youth empowerment work-10 follow-up projects were developed by the participants on different topics covering a wide area of issues relevant in the youth field e.g. ethnic conflict, discrimination, gender, youth participation, inclusion of migrants/ refugees, corruption on the educational sector, and environmental issues-2 follow-up projects were developed by the project partners on further enhancing international educational learning opportunities in the youth field-3 new partnerships in the field of peace work with a strong youth dimension were created between the participants and the partner organisations