"BACKGROUNDResearch shows that young people living below the poverty line face multiple barriers to access education, employment, housing, etc. To be poor is a very stigmatizing experience, which affects self-esteem, confidence and personal security. Thus, low income is a strong predictor of low educational performance, lower aspirations for the future and finally social exclusion. The 2013 Annual Growth Survey showed that poverty and social exclusion are major obstacles to the achievement of the Europe 2020 objective of inclusive growth. There is a lack of extensive knowledge on how young people experience poverty in the different member states and much to learn about how the dynamic nature of poverty and youth intertwine. A better understanding is urgently needed for achieving the Europe 2020 goal of “at least 20 million fewer people in or at risk of poverty and social exclusion"". OBJECTIVES, NUMBER AND PROFILE OF PARTICIPANTSYES Forum, the European network of organizations working with and for disadvantaged young people, having members and affiliates in 18 EU member states, led the strategic partnership “Our life. Our voice. Young people and poverty”. We placed young people’s views at the heart of this project to explore their attitudes to poverty and what it means for them to live in families struggling to make ends meet from day to day. By listening to the young people experiencing poverty we wanted to bridge the gap between policy and practice. We provided fresh ideas for both actors in the field of youth services and youth work as well as policy makers on what real support should look like and how to better target resources to disadvantaged young people’s needs.The project partnership involved 6 partners and the YES Forum, as the coordinating organization. We implemented the project in 5 countries, different with regard to welfare system, historical development, and economic performance. We collaborated with partners coming from the UK, Italy, Germany, Finland and Romania, covering different regions of the EU. All participating organizations have had strong experience in delivering services for those experiencing poverty, listening to young people and influencing policy to improve the lives of those in or at risk of poverty. To reach a large audience ranging from youth work organizations, service providers, policy makers and public authorities, we involved another strong European network, active in the field of street work, Dynamo International. Through the activities of the partner organisation in the life-time of the project, we have reached 1.700 young people. Through extensive dissemination activities, as described in detail in the section ‘dissemination’, we reached around 6.500 multipliers across Europe. ACTIVITIES AND METHODOS USEDThis strategic partnership was built on a model established by The Children’s Society, a YES Forum member from the UK. We transferred this method and applied it within the strategic partnership by setting groups of young people with an interest to explore poverty. These groups of 12-15 young people were accompanied by youth workers applying interactive and participatory methods to get an insight into the experience of young people in poverty (IO1). The young people themselves created discussions on different perceptions of poverty and as a result formulated their recommendations against poverty and what real support should look like (IO2). At regional and national events, they met with representatives from youth organizations, service providers, local authorities, and policy makers to discuss their suggestions. The methodology used for engaging those young people who might be hard to reach was also published in a tool-kit for practitioners (IO3). The activities then culminated in the final international conference organized by the YES Forum together with Dynamo International. This event was held in Brussels, presenting the project findings in creative and interactive ways, devised by the young people to reach the various actors working with disadvantaged young people across Europe, ranging from professionals of youth and social work to decision- and policy-makers at EU level.RESULTS, IMPACT, LONGER TERM BENEFITSBy applying this participatory approach the project filled a gap in the discourse around poverty, where often the focus at national and EU level is on statistics and the definition of poverty rather than the day to day experience of young people. Local authorities and those responsible for developing services and policies for young people benefited from our substantial knowhow in including those young people who may not otherwise be engaged in established platforms for policymaking in the youth field (e.g. youth councils, youth organizations)."

Main idea of the project were gypsys community. The goal was to teach the participants to apprehend different cultures, and to appreciate diversity. To show, that gypsies can do many other things besides dancing and singing. They are interested in young peoples problems in general, and can express their opinion. Through projects activities they learned basics of journalism, developed skills in communication, learned how to edit photographies, and to work with video camera and microphone. The final product is a printed magazine.International exchange attended by 38 participants from Slovakia, Romania, Hungary and Turkey. 26 of them are with fewer opportunities.First activities were focusing on getting to know each other, team-building, and presentation of attending groups. During discussions, they improved communication skills, and to be tolerant and perceptive. Other methods were workshops, simulation of newspaper work, buzz groups and reflexion.Participants will improve their communication skills, to work with audio-visual technology, will experience work of a journalist, will develop their creativity.We will promote positive attitude towards different cultures in the eye of the public, through medialization, will ignite the will of gipsy youth to participate in regional work, and will focus on needs to actively join the fight against racism and xenophobia.In long term cooperation we expect them to practically use their newly gained experience and skills, followed by another mutual e-magazine distributed in electronic form.

"Young people are the ones hit hardest by unemployment and precarious employment. At the same time, all EU and national elections in the last few years have revealed increasingly low youth turnout combined with growing Euroscepticism, as dramatically illustrated by the Brexit referendum. The complex situation of young people in transition to adulthood thus calls for trained and experienced European youth workers. Driven by YES Forum’s membes, YES Academy addressed this issue by contributing to achieve a greater impact of the Erasmus+ Youth Inclusion and Diversity Strategy by:• Creating a more inclusive environment, with more and diverse young people participating in civic activities throughout Europe• Enabling organisations working with and for vulnerable young people to be a more effective force in making it easier for them to actively participate in society• Increasing the capacities of youth workers and their organizations in working with young people and fostering greater cooperation and synergies among youth organisations and other stakeholders throughout the EUThe project idea came from our partner organizations and their ongoing interest in increasing civic participation of disadvantaged young people. All the project partners brought strong expertise in working with young people affected by various disadvantages (e.g. educational, psychological, economic inequalities) in their own communities. Ranging from school social work to street-based youth work, our partners aim to prevent, resolve and avoid the worst effects of exclusion while helping young people to flourish. Through 4 major events conducted over the span of 16 months and involving 115 participants from 15 EU countries, the YES Academy project innovatively combined a process-oriented learning approach prioritising youth worker’s reflection and exchange of experience to create tools for sustainable approaches in working more effectively with young people across Europe:-Through a Contact-Making Event in Germany, the first activity built a common approach based on mutual understanding and fostered the exchange of experiences on promoting youth engagement, active citizenship, participation and social inclusion, preparing the ground for an action-oriented report on how to be more effective in reaching young people.-The second activity, an International seminar held in Brussels, continued the learning activities while providing the space for a dialogue between project partners, representing the youth field, and European policy and decision-makers – the European Parliament and the European Commission in particular – as well as public bodies involved in youth social inclusion, youth unemployment, and active citizenship.-The third activity, a study visit in Finland, was co-organised with After Eight, an organization with a long standing experience in the development of youth active citizenship, participation and social inclusion. The event offered an in-depth look into After Eight’s measures, projects, methodologies and political, financial and administrative infrastructures targeting youth. The event also enabled further exchange of experience between youth workers, resulting in a Good Practices Guide for the Promotion of Active citizenship and Youth social inclusion-The last Contact-Making Event in Germany facilitated transfer into practice. The action-oriented report on how to be more effective in reaching young people was finalised and prepared the ground for future projects following this objective. Policy recommendations on Erasmus+ were also finalised thanks to the partners’ gathered feedback.The tangible results of the project include (all available under ""Downloads"" here: goo.gl/CtAhD9) :• An action-oriented report that summarized the next steps in order to better promote youth active citizenship and participation through concrete project ideas, leading to several Erasmus+ project applications by YES Academy partners on the 4th October 2016 deadline;• A Good Practices Guide for the Promotion of Active citizenship and Youth social inclusion, based on the experiences and case studies shared during the project in order to share them with youth workers throughout Europe. • Policy recommendations on Erasmus+ to help public institutions better support youth and social work across the EU in the future, thanks to feedback from project partners, all grass-root organisations involved in Erasmus+ Youth.The learning results for youth workers were:• Deeper knowledge of structures and support measures for young people and youth organisations at EU and national levels• Qualitative support for the dialogue between the European youth sector and stakeholders in the field of European youth policies with a focus on youngsters with fewer opportunities;• Greater knowledge of good practices related to the social inclusion of young people and the promotion of active citizenship, leading to the concrete implementation of new"

The CONTEXT of our project was that the concept of the ‘Children's Town’, which is implemented in various cities in Germany and enjoys a high acceptance at regional level, will be implemented in the future in other European countries according to the concepts they developed on their own. The basis for this was the Children’s Town project ‘Bärenhausen’ (Bearsville), which in the last 10 years has been organised and carried out by the partner Stiftung Evangelische Jugendhilfe in cooperation with St. Johannis GmbH. This concept was presented to the transnational partners in theory and in practice and then discussed in detail. II. OBJECTIVE AND THEMATIC APPROACH: St. Johannis GmbH placed the Children’s Town, which entails elements such as political education, non-formal learning and participation of children, at the heart of the transnational cooperation and presented the Children’s Town project ‘Bärenhausen’ in practice and theory as an example; the participative Children’s Town concept was enriched and renewed by the ideas of the European partners (European ideas). On this background, the partners created their own national concepts and presented them in their region. Two partners implemented their concepts and carried out three Children’s Town projects. The partners entered their national concepts on the online platform ‘Wiki’ that was further developed during the project duration. All facts and figures were collected here; the Children’s Town ‘Wiki’ was made public at the end of the project period in order to give other organisations ideas and to support them with information when they develop their own similar projects. III.NUMBER AND PROFILE OF PARTICIPANTS: 4 transnational and 2 national partners participated in the project. The project is aimed at managers and professionals in the field of child and youth work who were and are active in the field of open and non-formal education for young people. All participants had a fundamental interest in professional exchange, the further development and testing of concepts new to them and contributed experiences in participative work with young people. IV. DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITIES: Cooperation agreements and learning agreements were concluded between the partners. The project leader visited the partner institutions, learnt about the structures of existing offers and checked and controlled the regional project work. He organised and carried out the transnational partner meetings and blended learning activities, detailed the work and time schedule as well as the quality assurance plan and presented these for discussion among partners. He worked out methods, strategies and standards for the realisation of the Children’s Town project and presented these for discussion among partners. The results were taken up in the local regional structures for the development of national concepts; A total of three Children's Town concepts were implemented (Sweden 1; Romania 2). He coordinated the development of the online platform ‘Wiki’ and the publication of the results of the national concepts and results. He conducted a survey among the participants and project partners and evaluated the results. The evaluation of the overall measure was also realized by the project manager. The cooperation partners selected potential regional, local and national partners and organized regular meetings during which the documents produced were reviewed and further proposals developed on the methods, strategies, standards for the implementation of the Children’s Town. V. METHODOLOGY: To reach the goals we used the following methods a) 4 project partner meetings (transnational partner meetings) with introduction, coordination processes, comparison of the elaborated documents, decisions were taken and strategies were revised, b) 2 transnational blended learning activities with key notes; inputs were given based on the realisation of the Children's Towns in Bernburg and Sweden through observation, work shadowing, questions, workshops and evaluation. During evaluation, new approaches and methods were developed, which were then incorporated into the national concepts. c) Development of the online platform ‘Wiki’ used for information transfer. VI. RESULTS: Realisation of C1 with transfer of basic knowledge. The partners have created their own concepts on the basis of the practical participation in the project and realisation of C1. The partners have adapted the concepts to their local framework conditions and disseminated and presented their Children’s Town concepts in their countries. Two partners have organised and realised their own Children’s Town project: the Romanian partner implemented two Children’s Town projects and the Swedish partner one project. Our Italian partner was about to implement his concept for a Children's Town when Covid19 measures put a temporary end to this. On the basis of the practical models, the partners have further detailed their concept development. Presentation of the concepts and discussion.Realisation of C2 - Concept development ‘Children’s Town’ based on practical models. Within the project term the online platform ‘Children’s Town – Wiki’ was developed where all data and facts for the implementation of a Children’s Town project were gathered. All partners involved entered their results and knowledge on this platform. The Kinderstadt ‘Wiki’ was opened to the public at the end of the project term in order to give suggestions to other organisations.VII. Longer-term EFFECTIVENESS is given by 1. the implementation of the results in the realisation of the Children's Towns in all partner countries; 2. via project information on the internet, in the press, during Y.E.S. Forum general assemblies; 3. dissemination of the national concepts in the partner countries as well as through Y.E.S. Forum on the European level; 4. ‘Wiki’ platform opened to the public.

"The young people taking part in the activities of iPCR decided to exchange the experience with partners from abroad. The theme of the project is inclusion and migration issues. As migrants, national minorities and Gypsy population are often in situations where they might be marginalized or could fall into poverty, it is very important to include them in society and create equal chances for every one by including them in social, economic and cultural life. From the other side there are opportunities for the young people in difficult situations (unemployed, school drop outs etc.) who could take advantage of migration by using the mobility programmes such as Erasmus+, European voluntary service and gain new skills abroad and in this way improve their chances to be fully involved in European society. That's why they suggested to prepare Youth exchange ""Europe - a place for everyone"" which will take place 16. - 22. 7. 2018 in Obručná, Rimavská Sobota area. The aim of the submitted project is to find out similarities and differences of the attitude of the young people towards immigrants and ethnic minorities, in the international settings. To learn how to tolerate the difference and understand it as an opportunity to self enlightenment Project's specific goals are: - to create the atmosphere of trust and friendship, strengthening of the team spirit - to inform about possibilities of how to join Erasmus+ programme; to promote nonformal education and voluntary service - to look for the reasons, why are other cultures often perceived negatively - to realise, that variety is based on unconditional equality - to deem necessary actively help suppressing displays of intolerance and discrimination, aiming at lowering the risk of radicalisation - to create a brochure with the results of the surveys about attitudes of young people towards this topic, with simple explanations of basic concepts and described activities of the project. This international Exchange will attend 32 young people aged between 16 - 22 years, and 5 leaders from Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary, who wants to gain new information about this topic, and see the ways of how the partner countries are dealing with it. Activities done during the Exchange will be focused on know each others and icebreaking, intercultural learning, team work, skit preparation, making of leaflets, videos, brouchure and evaluating activities. Used methods will be: brainstorming, discussion, teamwork, role play, energizers, buzz groups. This project and Erasmus+ Programme will be both diseminated during the exchange by activity in the town of Bratislava, which will help to boost up the interest of the public in this topic. It will all be presented in the project’s results. After the project is over, all partner organizations will disseminate the results and use them in their respective activities."