As technology gets better and better intertwined with even the most insignificant aspects of our daily lives, our understanding of it doesn’t keep up at the same pace. We oftentimes find ourselves not qualified enough to decide, which way is it that the new technology will impact our daily lives, and just how much ground we are willing to give up. With workplaces, our personal information, media and even governments moving from ink to bytes, playing field has been changing constantly, leaving some of us behind. In July of 2018, 30 people, both those technologically savvy and those not related to technology in any significant way, will be working on topics like e-government, critical perception of online media, limiting access to one’s own personal data and innovation in the technology area, as well as decreasing dependency on technology for most basic personal activities. Through simulations, groupwork, practical tasksand reflective practices we plan to develop better understanding of changes happening in our world due to technological advancements, as well as understand how to make our own changes to make sure that the direction we’re moving in remains overall favorable to society.

<< Objectives >>The 'Projects are not falling from the sky' seminar was created by European NGOs that want to show young Europeans the right ways how to engage in youth projects and exchange experience of dealing with project problems resulting from poor preparation of young people by non-governmental organizations to participate in project work.Thanks to our seminar we will reduce the amount of poor quality European projects. Young people will create projects, not participate in ready-made, written by adults. We will decrease negative ‘Erasmus+ turism’ projects.<< Activities >>Main action in the project is a seminar of exchanginf experiences which will take place in Poland (Zwierzyniec n. Zamość, july 2019). 29 representatives of European non governmental organizations from Estonia, Lithuania, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Cyprus, Latvia, Macedonia, Hungary, Croatia and Poland will take part in it. Participants of the seminar are: persons with experience in frames of project work and young people with pewer opportunities who already participated in the projects.<< Impact >>We will present cases in which we have encountered problems durnig project and will discuss solutions that we have used in the past which will influance positivly experience direct and indirect participants of the project.Based on the experience of our organizations, we will create the right path of travel with the youth through the project and fight with all pathological definitions of the Erasmus + program.Thanks to our meeting, a huge group of young Europeans will learn about how they can engage in international youth exchanges to gain numerous experiences over several months of active participation. We will limit the activity of pathological thematic groups in social media, bringing youth exchange to the level of a free travel agency, where the project is selected through the prism of good weather in a given country.Our project will help to activate young people to implement their ideas.Young people will see that they can develop and pursue their dreams without coming for ready things made by adults..Experiences exchanged with partner organizations will affect positivly their effectiveness.The number of high-quality projects under the Erasmus + program will be increased. Projects will be organized in line with the objectives of the program.

The rural areas are getting less inviting for young people, who are moving away to big cities for work, studies and having more opportunities. This way, the rural areas are losing social capital. On the other hand, many city dwellers have very vague idea of the realities of rural life, sometimes even having no idea where food comes from.To develop an understanding of what is happening in the village, how important are the rural areas to the city and what are the ways to fix the situation, 30 young people from Cyprus, Spain, Portugal, Poland and Latvia, representing rural and city inhabitants, have spent 8 days in rural Latvia. Developing common understanding about the rural areas and the stereotypes about it in various countries, sharing the experience of the countryside through presentations of photographical evidence, exploring the sustainability of rural entreprises via group works and study visits, experiencing the farmland work of Latvia together culminated in an open-air photo-exhibition in the center of Riga.Workshops, group works, discussions, visits, case studies, presentations and real work on a farm had contributed to participants' intercultural sensitivity, awareness of rural-related stereotypes and developed solidarity among people regardless of their way of life, rural or urban.

<< Objectives >>Cyberbullying has become a part of our lives and it concerns also young people who grow up between different electronic devices, such as phones, tablets and laptops. They see their parents using these devices in a daily basis, and also young people familiarize with them in a very early age. Adult people let young people play and chat on online platforms without any control or conscious education. Ability to use electronic devices has become an essential and required skill by today, but we forget the importance of being responsible digital citizens. Adult people teach young people how to use electronic devices, online platforms and media, but they do not put particular emphasis on some important rules and norms to follow in the cyber world. We can recognize the lack of responsible usage of digital devices facing young people on online platforms who hurt and humble each other without being aware of the eventual consequences of their behavior. To be responsible digital citizen requires a conscious education from a very early age of young people. The problem is that parents and teachers do not put emphasis on digital education of young people and let youth use online platforms without any control. Other problem is that parents and teachers often do not know well those platforms that young people visit and use and they do not face what is happening there. As cyberbullying is a really current and urgent issue nowadays, we believe that youth organizations and youth workers have to do something in order to educate young people to be responsible digital citizens who can act and react in the cyber world respecting the same rules that they have to respect also in their real life. Therefore, the main aim of this project is to train youth workers who have appropriate and enough knowledge on cyberbullying and who are aware of the negative impacts and dangers of irresponsible use of digital devices and online platforms, moreover, who can reach out to young people and offer them digital education through non-formal methods and activities to teach them how to be a responsible digital citizen in order to prevent cyberbullying. Beyond this main aim, we have set up also objectives to reach during the project: 1) make youth workers able to support victims effectively; 2) make youth workers able to teach young people to recognize cyberbullying at its early stage; 3) make youth workers able to teach young people to react to and handle cyberbullying in the right way not becoming victim or mute witness.<< Implementation >>A training course will be implemented within the project with the involvement of 29 participants. We expect youth workers who are at least 18 over years, since the topic of the project is complex. Project partners are asked to delegate youth workers who are actively working with young people, since our aim is to train youth workers who can use the gained knowledge in their daily work. We welcome also those youth workers who have not yet taken part in other international project to offer also them a possibility to gain experiences in this field and develop themselves in an international non-formal learning environment. Previous experiences regarding the topic is not required, but we expect youth workers who have clear ideas of how to use the gained knowledge and build it in their daily work. Project partners are asked to delegate youth workers with advanced English skills, since this is essential to take part actively in an international project. Moreover, partner organizations will be informed about the current regulation regarding COVID-19 of the host country and they will be asked to choose participants who comply with this regulation. In any case, each sending organization will choose some of the applicants setting up a “secondary line” to delegate somebody of these applicants if anybody of the selected youth workers could not take part in the training for some unexpected reasons. The host organization will involve also volunteers who are at least 18 over years; work regularly with young people; have previous experiences in the field of international projects; have appropriate English skills and comply with current EU regulations regarding COVID-19.<< Results >>One of the most important results of the project will be trained youth workers who will be able to reach and involve young people in their non-formal activities to raise their awareness on cyberbullying and motivate them to be responsible digital citizens who respect and accept others. Due to project partners’ dissemination activities, we expect that more youth workers and youth organizations become motivated to deal with this issue recognizing its relevance and they will implement different awareness-raising activities to draw the attention of young people, educational institutions and professionals working with youth. Due to their work and activities, we wish the prevention of cyberbullying among young people offering them an innovative and non-formal digital education. The main output of the project will be a manual realized by the project partners. This will contain relevant information about cyberbullying, its different types, signs, phases and effects on young people’s mental health. The manual will contain the partner countries’ good practices and implemented measures in order to prevent cyberbullying and develop digital education of youth. Another part of the manual will be devoted to non-formal techniques, methods and activities that youth workers can use and implement in order to raise young people’s attention on cyberbullying, its negative effects, online meanness, importance of online safety, responsibility of a digital citizen in the cyber world. The last part will be created to short personal stories concerning cyberbullying to help the users to recognize cyberbullying and react to it in the right way. The manual will be created in such a way that not only youth workers and youth organizations will be able to use it, but also teachers, interested parents and other professionals working with young people. The manual will be in English and in PDF form to reach it easily.

-Summary: KA1 Youth Exchange (programme countries) -Name: ''The Erasmus+ must go on'' -Where: Paralimni, Cyprus -Dates: Duration of the project: 13 months (March/2019 - April/2020) APV: 18-19/June/2019 Youth Exchange: 16-25/October/2019 -Venue: Youth Exchange: OEKDY SEK Paralimni APV: OEKDY SEK Paralimni -Number of Participants: Youth Exchange: 42 (5 participants + 1 group leader per country), (Participant age 17-30, leader 18+) APV: 14 (2 participants per group) (1 group leader + 1 participant) -Partner organizations: See Why (Cyprus) HEureka Generator (Poland) I.C. ALIGHIERI FORMIA-VENTOTENE (Italy) Association Evolution (Romania) En Gnosi (Greece) Active Youth club (Estonia) Brno for you (Czech Republic) Description of the project: The idea of this project was to promote Erasmus+ through a song that participants during the exchange were worked together to compose, put lyrics, create a video clip and shared it through media and local events. Through our project we aimed to give the youngsters the practical skills to use their talents and creativity for their self-development but also the inspiration for other youngsters in all over the world to get motivated. In our current society, people spend a lot of time in front of computers, mobile phones and new technologies, therefore we wanted to take advantage of it and use it for the benefit of Erasmus+ promotion. We aimed to encourage the youngsters to be more active, by promoting values such as lifelong learning, critical thinking, active citizenship, and volunteerism. Throughout this project, participants were engaged in a number of activities and practical workshops that helped us to achieve our goal in an entertaining and inspiring way. Aim: -Create a song with video clip promoting the Erasmus+ -Better understanding of other cultures but mainly understand how to live as one. -Develop a sense of European citizenship and thus understand how to be active citizens and more inclusive in society. -Establish a strong relationship among participants and partner organizations so they will continue working together in Erasmus+ and other opportunities. Non-formal/Informal learning approach: This project has seeks to enforce the 'learning by doing' approach which focuses on non-formal and informal learning. This was very important considering that most of the participating youth were still attending school/university and they mostly involved in formal educative methods. Some activities which were used, were based on outdoor activities, as well as theatre, photography, media, art, group discussions, meeting with local NGOs and authorities, problem-solving activities, self-reflection, simulation games, energizers, sport activities, role plays and video making. International cooperation, cross-border impact, development cooperation: The project gave the youths a platform where they could discuss and experience workshops that were dealt with issues such as conflict resolution and peace building. All these were done on the basis of how the EU is strengthening cooperation on a European scale. On a more personal level, the participating youth in this project came from different social, geographical and cultural backgrounds and for this reason several sessions during the exchange sought to promote equality and inclusion. It is well known that we are living in a multicultural society and thus we needed to instill in the young people the tolerance and respect that helps us live as one removing any stereotypes that were influencing us while growing up. Human rights and mutual respect were also one of the elements within this youth exchange. The exchange aimed to promote active citizenship, in particular through the promotion of the practice of outdoor activities and the various arts as a means to promote active citizenship as well as to foster social inclusion and active participation of young people in society through teamwork sessions which will be organized from young people to young people. Objectives: * Motivated young people to be more active and do new initiatives (Erasmus +). * Developed our creativity, self-confidence and self-expression. * Creation of a new tool for dissemination and awareness through music and music video. * Non-formal learning experience through non-formal methods (energizers, role plays, games, simulations, team work, sessions etc). * Self-reflection on each stage of the project for the learning recognition process. * Increased awareness of the Erasmus+. * Developed attitudes of community involvement. * Supported passion for music and use it as a non-formal learning method. * Discovered new cultures and find common ground through music. * Promoted and disseminate our experience on E+. * Developed self-confident, self-expression and creativity.