"In 'Planning Exchange and Arrange Collective Engagement' two major impulses to the work of IAL will be given.EUROPEAN VOLUNTARY SERVICE - PLACEMENT OFFICER AT IAL OFFICEA volunteer at the secretariat will give solid bottom to IAL's capacity. The volunteer will help to make the exchange of volunteers to go smooth, offer support, logistically and administratively to create more engaged projects, study themes and returning volunteers. All this will give the participant improved organisational skills and raised awareness of how international voluntary work can create a better, fairer world. Additionally she will build up a network, both locally and internationally that will hopefully stimulate her to stay active for international solidarity and peace, after the program ends.EXCHANGE PLATFORM MEETINGBy organising this evaluating, inspirational and knowledge-sharing meeting in Sweden a significant contribution to development of international voluntary exchange projects will be made. It literally is a platform in the form of a seminar for youth workers responsible for organizing international voluntary projects in collaboration with local NGOs and communities, as well as youth workers who are selecting, preparing and evaluating experiences of young people joining these local projects. The European youthworkers have a need for this platform, especially regarding the young people sent to regions of the world called ""the Global South"" but also within Europe and neighbouring countries. The objectives of the platform are to exchange best practices, evaluate evaluation-tools and projects as well as to share ideas and visions for the further development of international voluntary projects and sending young people to voluntary projects in the Global South. Also it offers space to discuss the recent global refugee crises and to come up with initiatives to counter it. As outputs collections of best practices and shared tools are expected. The results of the implementation of this outputs will be a better quality and higher impact of international voluntary projects, a clearer position of non profit international volunteering organizations towards commercial offers and reinforced capacity of the partner organizations as well as personal development of participants towards a broader understanding of their every day work with young people volunteering abroad. All in all, when all elements hit the target, we hope to see more active citizenship at our target group, European youth."

"<< Objectives >>The “From Dreams to Actions: together for a peaceful future” project aimed to build capacity and empower 30 European youth workers from 12 countries to gain essential competencies and experience which would support them in becoming active citizens and peace envoys, and who would implement on the local level various types of actions about and for peace and non-violence.Our specific project objectives included:- To promote European values of peace and non-violence, democracy and freedom of speech;- To promote active participation and citizenship, civic engagement and a sense of ownership of/ responsibility for societal processes;- To facilitate the transborder exchange of ideas and experiences among youth workers from a range of both EU and non-EU countries;- To raise the possibilities of people within the European volunteering movement to get active in peace activism through a variety of forms;- To bring non-formal peace education to the streets and online spaces of Europe and as a consequence increase public understanding of peace, responsible citizenship and participation;- To increase the quality and amount of youth projects for peace, inclusion and non-violence.<< Implementation >>The project lasted from 1.05.2020 to 30.04.2022 and build the capacity of European youth workers from 12 project countries. To reach the project aims, the Training Course ""From Dreams to Actions: together for a peaceful future"" was organised online between 15 September and 3 October 2021 with 30 participantscoming from 12 countries - Albania, Armenia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Finland, Germany, Kosovo, Moldova, Poland, Portugal, Serbia and Spain.It was a training course for peace envoys where we showed that even though there is one aim for peace-buildersand peace-keepers, there are many paths to reach it. The participants ‘taste’ these different paths and got equipped with the knowledge and skills needed to start country actions. The training included:a) Common time dedicated to expanding knowledge on peace and its different levels;b) Parallel session (upon the choice of participants) related to different ways of working for peace, including among others:- street actions and campaigning,- communication campaigns in social media;- advocacy and lobbying for political change,- civic engagement through peace education;- peace in daily life: supporting non-violent interpersonal relations;- working on the Peace Cards for facilitators of peace-building activities;c) Common online action during the International Day of Peace (21.09.2021);d) Preparation of follow-up actions to take place in participants' countries.Additionally, the participants organised follow-up actions (workshops, discussions, educational events, celebration of special days, movie events) organised and implemented on a local level after the training. They brought further the knowledge and inspiration for being a peace messenger, acting for peace and thus bring a positive change in the communities.The project was intended for the following categories of participants:- Youth workers or young people who are active (or plan to become) in their own communities in the field of peace education, peace-building, and active participation/citizenship;- Youth workers working mainly in groups of fewer opportunity background;- Persons with fewer opportunities (facing social, economical, or cultural challenges and obstacles) who wanted to take a more active role in their local communities as volunteers in the peace education field or other strands of peace activism;- Coordinators, staff, young board members and volunteers of partner organisations looking to initiate activities for the promotion of peace and non-violence (locally and transnationally);- Educators and facilitators within non-formal learning projects.<< Results >>The two tangible results of the project are:1. The SCI Peace Cards - a tool to spark a discussion on peace, non-violence, and activism and are available in various formats:- as a Padlet gallery - https://padlet.com/SCI_International/SCI_Peace_Cards- as a downloadable pdf - https://sci.ngo/wp-content/uploads/SCI-Peace-Cards-with-instructions.pdf?- as an interactive game - https://wordwall.net/resource/22496102/sci-peace-cards?ref=embed-image- as a physical copy of printed cards, to be ordered through the SCI website.2. Street Action Kit: including the tips on how to organise street actions: https://sci.ngo/resource/street-action-kit/In addition, there are a few levels of impact of the “From Dreams to Actions” project. Additionally, we see the following impact of the project:1. Impact on the participants – 27 persons (calculation basis: 30 participants minus 2 trainers and 1 logistic support person from SCI):- participants have increased self-confidence after the project on the topic of peace;- participants are able to apply concrete ways and live in peace on 3 levels – intrapersonal, interpersonal and with nature;- participants understand the European values of democracy, freedom of speech, peace and non-violence;- participants have a broader understanding of various forms of civic engagement, like advocacy, lobbying, the European Citizens' Initiative and other possibilities for political change at both local and international levels;- participants have knowledge and understanding of diverse ways to build peace and support peace;- participants feel confident to organise a street action for peace themselves;- participants feel inspired and believe each of them can be an actor of change for peace;- participants feel a sense of trust and support within the network of activists for peace (youth workers, educators, volunteers) that will be formed through the project;- increased number of future joint educational projects among the participants, including Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps projects within the next funding perspective;- increased employability of participants, including the ones with fewer opportunities.2. Impact on 12 participating organisationsThe impact on the participating organisations is:- increased quality of workshops, seminars, actions, campaigns and other peace-themed activities, through the acquisition of innovative learning tools (including the Peace Cards) and the increased professional competencies and capacities of the participants;- strengthened positions of providing peace education to local youth;- higher involvement of young people and local communities in their activities;- more networking opportunities and stronger collaboration among the participating organisations, basis for the future joint projects under the Erasmus+ and not only;- new projects commonly developed and implemented by the partners;- opportunities for involvement of active members (youth workers, educators, activists, volunteers) of the partners' organisations, and also being a resource for future educational and peace-building initiatives on behalf of the partner organizations and the local community.3. Impact on other groupsThe project also had an impact on the local communities in 12 European countries of the partner organisations.These were participants (young people, students, youth leaders, volunteers, youth workers, educators, activists, and colleagues) of the follow-up activities and other non-formal and informal actions, organised by the project participants.Thanks to the project, they all were offered engaging and learning opportunities on the topic of peace activism which were also in line with the principles of non-formal learning. They became more aware and responsible for their own behaviour and actions as well as empowered for taking ownership and active involvement in bringing a positive change for peace on a personal, local and international level.4. Although it is difficult to give a precise estimation with regards to numbers, we can assess that the project impacted:- 30 youth workers, activists, volunteers – participants and trainers of the Training Course – from 12 countries;- 12 organisations implementing various educational and volunteer activities for peace;- not less than 5000 people were reached by the Online Actions organised by the TC participants on 21.09 (International Day of Peace);- no less than 800 persons, local youth, volunteers, colleagues, partners, and members of partner organisations from 12 project countries who benefitted from the follow-up local activities, online and street campaigns, and nonformal education activities organised after the training course."

<< Objectives >>NA<< Implementation >>NA<< Results >>NA

The EVS project “Second Wave” started in May 2016 and lasted more than 1 year in Birzai town, Lithuania. Project involved 9 partners, 5 sending organizations from Greece, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Spain, Armenia and Russia which had sent volunteers into three hosting organizations and 1 coordinating organization. Objectives of the project included improvement and expansion of activities locally for children and families and local youth - volunteers, creation of spaces for development of volunteers’ skills and competencies to increase their employability, exchange knowledge and skills in children and family free time facilitation, introduction of local youth with possibilities to gain valuable experience in voluntary activities, which remarkably increased their employability, contribution in youth empowerment to became competitive in labour market, promotion of volunteering locally in Birzai area and internationally using social networks of partners involved.The main targeted beneficiaries were children, families and local youth tending to get more involved locally. Hosting organizations were Birzai museum, regional park and kindergarten and all of them were highly value holistic attitude to person's development, so there were big flexibility for volunteers to choose fields of self development upon their interests. During the project six volunteers were developing new educational programs for children and families and these programs were tried out within the project frame, afterwards improved and adjusted were easily used in similar organizations. In addition, volunteers had activities involving local youth which helped to reveal the link between volunteering and employability. All the activities were based on non formal education principles and were directed to increase employability of volunteers and variety of motivating and practically useful activities for children, families and youth in remote area of Lithuania.

"<< Objectives >>International peace, voluntary and youth work lives from the getting together and cultural exchange of people from different regions and backgrounds. Trainings, seminars and camps for exchange form the basis for the peace work of SCI and other international voluntary organisations. SCI and its partner networks implement around 1000 international youth camps a year. Many of our projects work directly on ecological issues. Through the “Climate for Peace Campaign” we have managed to show the connection of climate and peace work in many ways. However, we still face the dilemma that our mobility projects come with a high need for traveling and transportation. In times of intensification of the global climate crisis and discourses around it, this project addresses the various problems that come with air travelling – CO2 emissions and global warming, resource use and related conflicts, social inequalities (e.g. access to transport, working conditions in the aviation sector, impacts on health), etc. During two international activites, we intended to study the embeddedness of global mobility in a broader global economy in order to debate on how much and what kind of international mobility within peace and voluntary work is inclusively accessible and necessary considering its negative side effects. By raising awareness for the social and ecological consequences of mobility choices and thinking about new innovative ways for peace and volunteering projects, we intended to develop ideas on how mobility in an international context can be made more sustainable in the social and ecological dimension, taking also experience from the COVID-19 travel restrictions into account. By spreading the outcomes of this process across the network of international peace and youth work, we intended to create structures for enhanced sustainability in our projects. The objectives of the project were the following: - Increase awareness among youth workers about the impacts of mobility on basic values (human/social rights, healthy environment, solidarity) and of the link between (global) mobility and climate change and political/economic/societal responses, - Provide youth workers with the tools and abilities to raise sustainability of our projects and of projects from our partner organisations, and promote innovative ways of sustainable mobility, e.g. by considering different means of transportation or running NFE workshops, - Develop ideas for innovative, inclusive and climate-friendly volunteering and peace work projects, - Develop travel guidelines to make the activities of the hosting and partner organisations as well as the international peace network more sustainable, - Create a toolkit for voluntary work including guidelines to reduce carbon emissions and other climate impacts, non-formal education (NFE) methods addressing voluntary work mobility and its impacts, and ideas for other ways of climate friendly volunteer activities and international meetings.<< Implementation >>The project consisted of four parts: 1. ""Ready for Take-off"" - Training about connections of global mobility with peace, climate justice, the environment and human rights. We looked at the structures behind current mobility and at possible solutions with special focus on the role of peace and volunteering movements. Participants were prepared for the implementation period. The training took place from 12.-19.09.2021 in Nürnberg with 23 participants from organisations in Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Russia, Kosovo, Albania, Ukraine, Serbia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Switzerland, and Turkey.Participants were staff or volunteers in volunteering and youth organisations in the above mentioned countries as well as climate and peace activists. They came from organisations that have expressed a need or interest in having intense discussions around sustainable mobility in their organisational structures. 2. During the implementation period, some participants carried out half-day workshops with their sending organisations and local climate and volunteering groups, or other follow up activities. They discussed the content of the ""Ready for Take-off"" training and shared opinions and developed ideas for innovative climate-friendly projects and for travel guidelines for volunteering projects. Participants were encouraged to offer more workshops in their local communities. 3. The ""Spreading & Landing"" seminar summarised the learning content of the project so far to develop two outputs, - a toolkit on sustainable mobility in peace work and - travel guidelines for volunteering projects. The seminar also discussed some more content related to the projects topic, e.g. Ggnder and sustainale mobility or social injustice and sustainable mobility. There was also space for discussion and planning of new related projects. The seminar took place from 06.-13.03.2022 in Innsbruck (Austria) with 31 participants from organisations in Germany, Albania, Ukraine, Austria, Belgium, France, Kosovo, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Catalunya, Greece and Turkey. 4. During the follow-up period, participants finished the work on the outputs and started implementing their own new project ideas.<< Results >>The results of the project are collected in a manual for youth, climate and volunteering organisations, sharing best practices and giving guidance on how to talk about and design a more sustainable mobility structure in organisations, volunteer camps, NFE projects, etc. The manual was co-created by the participants and is widely shared both in the organisations and networks involved in this project as well as in the tool database on SALTO. Local workshops about sustainable mobility and its connection to peace work took place in the implantation period and as follow-up to the project in the climate movement of the participating countries and sending organisations. Follow Up Activities took place for example in Belgium, Italy, Slovakia, Sweden and Serbia. Through this project, we strengthened the visibility of sustainable mobility and its connection to peace in the European volunteering and climate movement. Participants left the projects with the skills to critically reflect both their own and their organisation‘s mobility practices and they will be able to be more sustainable and just in their mobility."