<< Objectives >>Youth violence is one of the most visible forms of violence. Aggressive and non-fatal abuse by young people is a major contributor to the worldwide number of premature deaths, injuries and disabilities. This violence causes serious harm not only to the victims, but also to families, friends and communities.There are strong links between youth violence and other forms of violence. Violent youth frequently commit a range of crimes and exhibit other social and psychological problems.As part of this youth exchange project, we want to work on this theme with young people aged 18 to 25, from so-called sensitive neighborhoods or facing the recurrence of this phenomenon in their immediate environment. An approach, drawing, is attempted to put a stop to the violent behavior of young people. Our intervention tool will be drawing to change personal skills, attitudes and beliefs. It is implemented and designed to help young people dominate their anger, resolve conflicts and try to identify the sources of violence, put a word in it to better fight it.<< Activities >>The stay will include 3 categories of activities:1. The practice of means and tools of prevention against violence using the drawing. We will work in workshops with professionals who can initiate and guide young people. Speakers (artist-draftsman, educator) will be asked to manage certain workshops.2. Time for discussion around different topics: We are considering teaching time around linguistics. We would therefore like to discuss themes that affect young people in our current society (violence and tolerance, discrimination and living together, diversity and citizenship). These themes, put into duality, will be the central axis of youth work during their stay in Neuilly-sur-Marne. We will use the methods of non-formal education to access them.3. The discovery of the city of Neuilly-sur-Marne AND PARIS through all the cultural places.The profile of youth in this project:- Young people from difficult neighborhoods- unemployed youth- young animators intervening in an area where there is some form of violence or wanting to gain experience on this theme- young people from migration- young people dropping out of schoolThis project will bring together 42 young people from 06 to 14 April 2020.<< Impact >>This youth exchange project will have a positive impact on young people in the short and long term. Thus we will open a new door to these populations:- to integrate the European dimension into their everyday approach - to encourage the development of international mobility actions.- create tools to fight against violence. This issue will be well integrated into the daily lives of young people and in the long term violence will be reduced among these populations.Also the Department of Seine-Saint-Denis will not be marginalized and will open more to the world with less prejudice. Young people will be proud of their neighborhoods.

"<< Objectives >>By implementing Fostering Gender Equality to Combat Stereotypes this partnership wants to contribute to a more inclusive, equal, tolerant and respectful society that sees equity as a basic need and diversity as an attribute, not as a threat. Although European institutions, such as the European Commission or Council of Europe are continuously doing significant efforts to tackle gender inequality, fighting against this phenomenon is not the responsibility of the institutions only: the civil society, citizens and especially youth (as they represent the future of Europe) can also contribute and have a big impact into increasing gender equality among their communities. With this project, we want to support the rise of gender equality and European values by encouraging youth to take action and boost positive change in their communities and within themselves.Besides, the partnership aims to develop and improve the knowledge, skills, behaviours and attitudes of the project participants related to Gender Equality, in order to recognise how gender stereotypes and inequality shape our lives, and which actions we can take towards a higher promotion of equality. At the same time, participants will also develop communication, critical thinking and intercultural skills (among others) as a result of the project activities, and they will boost positive attitudes towards lifelong learning while becoming more tolerant active citizens. Hence, the purpose of the project is to support youth on deconstructing gender stereotypes and raising awareness on the need for Gender Equality, in order to ultimately contribute to the construction of a more inclusive, equal society. The goals will be achieved by organizing a youth exchange for 35 youngsters to learn about Gender Equality through non-formal education (NFE) and, later on, by working on a set of recommendations for the EU to decrease gender inequality, the ""10 Steps towards Gender Equality"" – as part of the follow-up and dissemination activities.The specific objectives are to: O1. Engage participants in exploring, reflecting and discussing Gender Equality and Gender Stereotypes by using NFE tools and methods that encourage critical thinking.O2. Empower and support participants on developing their own action plan to promote Gender Equality in theircommunities, boosting their civic participation and socially inclusive behaviours.O3. Provide a space for participants to discuss, engage and connect with other youngsters from different backgrounds. O4. Draft a series of recommendations for European NGOs and decision-makers, as well as for national and local ones, on how to increase gender equality.O5. Support capacity building of the partner organizations, strengthen the cooperation and assure the sustainability of our networks.<< Implementation >>The project will contain only one activity: the youth exchange "" Fostering Gender Equality to Combat Stereotypes "", which will be held at ""Caprioara Camp"", in Moroeni, Dambovita County, Romania. All the activities carried out during the youth exchange will be based on non-formal and informal learning methods by implementing participatory, interactive and learning-by-doing approaches that will encourage discussion, reflection and critical thinking.Most of the activities put into practice are inspired by the GENDER ED Manual for combating gender stereotypes in education and youth work and by Gender Approved-Handbook for Youth Workers.The 28 participants (excluding the group leaders) will be from Romania, Croatia, Czech Republic, Spain, Italy,Portugal and Poland. They should correspond to the following profile:- they are aged between 18 and 25- they are either high school pupils, students, in working field or NEETs- they identify themselves with the addressed needs- they are not actively involved in the decision-making process in their community and they lack information regarding gender theories and gender policiesThe group leaders (1 per partner, 7 in total) will be selected by each partner, as they will be their direct representative in the project, based on their experience with the Erasmus+ projects, their expertise and their ability to coordinate and help the other participants to reflect on their learning.The participants will be selected from the members or volunteers of each organization. The applicants that show any of the following needs or characteristics will have priority during the selection process:- the youth are having difficulties when informing themselves and verifying the information sources when they want to get informed about what gender equality means- low level of information regarding concepts like gender, stereotypes, equality and social inclusion- the youth are having a low level of communication and arguing competences- the youth that has been affected by different types of (gender) stereotypes during their experiences- low level of self-esteem based on the lack of representativenessSome of the participants of the youth exchange are going to be NEETs (not in education, employment or training). There will be a minimum of one NEET per national group.<< Results >>From Fostering Gender Equality to Combat Stereotypes, foresees successfully conduct the 40 participants' youth exchange, the completion of all the dissemination activities and the production of the ""10 Steps towards Gender Equality"" recommendations. It also expects to impact not only the participants directly taking part in the youth exchange and the partner organisations involved but also the local communities and other stakeholders at the local, national and European level. In general, we expect project participants to boost their knowledge, skills and behaviours towards becoming more inclusive, tolerant, active citizens. During the YE, they will learn, reflect, discuss and debate about Gender Equality and Gender Stereotypes, becoming more aware of their influence in our lives and society as well as discovering new actions they can perform to contribute to fostering gender equality.They are also expected to contribute to the creation of the ""10 Steps towards Gender Equality"" recommendations and to the dissemination of the project results, especially by developing their own action plans which they will apply to their local communities to promote social inclusion and gender equality. Still, they will assist the dissemination in many other ways too.This project will also allow the partner organisations to enhance their skills and knowledge in regards to gender equality, stereotypes and NFE tools and methods by preparing the activity and receiving the participants’ contribution and feedback.At the same time, they will boost their capacity to continue cooperating as a partnership in future projects that follow up on the present one, as well as to expand their networks and increase their professionalization and internationalization, being motivated to participate in further European activities.Another important target group of the project, besides the youngsters participating in the mobility and the partnerorganisations, is youth in the participants’ and the partners’ local communities, as they will benefit from getting involved in the action plans that the YE participants will develop to influence their surroundings and boost gender equality in their communities. Thus, they will have the opportunity to become more gender equality aware and boost their civic participation too.Last but not least, the project stakeholders such as youth organisations, student associations, culture/public institutions, research centres, institutes in the field of public policy, ActiveWatch, FILIA and ALEG, as well as the National Council for Combating Discrimination, can benefit from the ""10 Steps towards Gender Equality"" recommendations we will develop, which can contribute and have a positive impact on their activity and promotion of gender equality within their networks.The dissemination activities are also an important aspect of the project to consider when it comes to achieving the results and expected impact. The target groups reached through dissemination are:- Families & friends of participants, (20 people per participant)- Staff members involved in partner organizations and their partner networks (average 20 people reached perorganization)- Local communities of participants (average 20 people reached per each participant)- Locals attending dissemination activities (40 people per partner)- Local Romanian community not involved directly in the project, 100 people- An online community of all partners and participants (from all online dissemination activities)- A minimum (a minimum of 5 per partner)- Everyone else interested in the topic"

"Make the Change Happen (MCH) was SOPRO's second EVS project and it was an improved project, based on the experience acquired at Be SOPRO and based on suggestions for improvement given by the project volunteers. In this project we had the participation of 4 volunteers from Lithuania, Estonia, Italy and Turkey. The motto for this project was to give the ""power"" of change to each volunteer, making each one realize that they are the future of their community, their city, their country and our Europe.The MCH was structured to receive 4 young people, between 18 and 30 years old, young people with fewer opportunities and because they have social, economic, educational and social difficulties in their life history. The purpose of this EVS was to work with the volunteers in the development of their personal, professional and qualifications skills making them more confident, active, optimistic, in order to promote the common values of freedom, tolerance, respect for Human Rights, preventing the radicalization and violence, helping to develop a European unity and being proactive in planning and taking action for its future. MCH was a bet on multilingualism, interculturality and inclusion, integration and equality, both of volunteers and these with their work, helped the local community, SOPRO and its beneficiaries.Each volunteer was based on his Personal Project, where each one defined his objectives and goals to achieve. Monthly this personal project of re-evaluation target, and adaptation according to the learning of each one. The MCH project was a 12-month mobility and during the mobility of each volunteer the project was subject to some adaptations, taking into account the profile, feelings and adaptation of each volunteer. A fundamental part of this project was working with the elderly. Support daily activities, support the daily life of each of the elderly, support creativity, physical activity, cognitive stimulation, motor mobility work for each one. The volunteer from Italy worked with the elderly on a daily basis, with the responsibility of supporting the transport of the elderly, individual monitoring, helping with medical follow-up tests, such as strain relief, weight removal and measures. However, in the final phase of the project, work with the elderly was canceled due to COVID-19 and for 2 months the volunteers were at home in quarantine.The project with volunteers from Lithuania, Estonia and Turkey, has not changed. They worked on activities with children, the elderly and at the Social Store, where they had the opportunity to put their own ideas into practice, collaborate with local organizations in specific activities, support other young people in the development of their own projects, support SOPRO in supporting the project communication and the emergency support campaign for Mozambique caused by Cyclone IDAI.The MCH was a project to change the lives of volunteers, at SOPRO, in the community, partners and beneficiaries who worked with the volunteers. We expect this project to have an impact in terms of skills development, adaptability, proactivity and team spirit. Benefits and impacts emerged during the MCH, with the discoveries and personal overcoming of each volunteer and then on their return home and in their life.For the local community, SOPRO and beneficiaries was an opportunity to make the change happen, the luggage and knowledge of the volunteer, their training, competence and creation of an intercultural, multilingual environment, where everyone is integrated, equally, in a European society borderless. During MCH we put into practice good practices, using tools such as non-formal education, through agriculture, environment, sports, volunteering, training, sharing experiences, seminars, workshops, cultural activities, debates, exhibitions, lectures, creative spaces, works manuals, painting, solidarity activities, campaigns, multimedia, literacy, arts, sciences, multimedia and / or social area using playful, creative and educational activities."

<< Objectives >>“Creating Volunteering Circles” was a Contact Making Seminar implemented by InfinityGreece and partner organisations in order to enhance their cooperation in the field of volunteering and developing quality volunteering projects under the European Solidarity Corps Programme and beyond.The initial project idea was developed among our team members and was further supported by trusted partners that expressed their interest in establishing a common ground of cooperation and understanding of the ESC Programme in order to support young people in the best possible way. Should be mentioned here, that partner organisations included not only participants from their own organisation but also from their own local network bringing higher potential in the seminar for networking and knowledge exchange.The main issue that tackled us to apply and to implement this Contact Making Seminar was that even though improvements took place through the years in the field of organising international volunteering activities, organisations around Europe still regularly meet some challenges while implementing them. Although organisations are willing to provide everything necessary to the volunteers that they either host or send, they can often miss some practical skills and attitudes, or trustful partners that they will implement quality learning activities or that they could support and prepare young people towards their learning voluntary journey. That often leads to young volunteers not being well prepared in what to expect from a voluntary project and not being aware of their rights and responsibilities. Moreover, volunteers often face the lack of support during their projects and so the opportunity to transform these learning experiences into a development process. The CMS had as main aim to create an inspirational learning space for raising awareness of the value of volunteering for young people and for communities, to support organisations in developing a trustable network for future cooperation in the field of voluntary services and to create strong partnerships so to work together towards improving the quality of volunteering projects ensuring that the learning from this experience is clear, as well to increase the impact that those projects could have to the organisations.To achieve the above aim the team set the following objectives which were our guidelines through the implementation of our project and activities.- Bringing together youth workers implementing volunteering projects and other actions in their organisations and providing a meeting point for organisations to exchange information, to establish international partnerships and to support quality partnership development.- Understanding the concept of international volunteering and European Solidarity Corps.- Exploring how Erasmus + Key actions can be implemented in order to support volunteering- Finding ways to promote the European Solidarity Corps in the local area and to promote implementation of volunteering projects.- Raising awareness of the learning dimension in volunteering and provide tools for learning support- Offering a participatory program of activities enriched with a variety of methods- Developing new volunteering projects within the partner organisations and to exchange volunteering opportunities.The above objectives were met by using the fundamentals (tools and practices) of non-formal learning. The organisation team alongside with the facilitators of the CMS created a safe sharing and creative environment, promoting peer-to-peer learning as means of encouraging human and organisational capacity building within youth NGOs, developing and exchanging innovative tools empowering and supporting innovation in the youth field and promoting cross-sectoral cooperation.In CVC participants (coordinators, supervisors, project managers, mentors) had the opportunity to meet in person their potential future partners, discussed with them all potential blocks that might occur during their future cooperation, developed problem solving methods, planned together quality projects and explored their rights and responsibilities, upon which they made agreements. Last but not least participants understood the value of volunteering and together explored ways of supporting young people to their volunteering journey.<< Implementation >>Creating Volunteering Circles Contact Making Seminar, brought together 24 youth workers plus 2 qualified facilitators and 1 staff member. Seminar participants coming from Greece (applicant), Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Estonia and Portugal, were youth workers and representatives of youth organisations responsible for international volunteering projects or/and involved in local volunteering activities, in different capacities such as project managers and coordinators, ex EVS & ESC volunteers, mentors. All of them were sharing the same motivation: improving their knowledge, skills and attitudes in guiding and supporting young volunteers and creating a trustful network of organizations that they share the same values and understanding under the ESC Programme. Most participants of the CMS are working directly with volunteers (international or local) by supporting them in different ways through the different phases of the Volunteering project cycle. Facilitators made sure to create a safe learning space, were educational activities according to the objectives of the course, the profiles and the needs of the attended participants were implemented and encouraged participants to share and grow together. All methods used during the CMS based in non formal education methodology and the programme consisted by interactive workshops, debates, plenary and small groups conversations, multimedia presentations. More specific participants went through an intensive 5 days meeting and competences developed in areas such as: needs analysis and generating ideas, writing project ideas, effective communication, networking, supporting young people in voluntary activities etc. Knowledge, skills and attitudes developed on the topics of: ESC Programme, responsibilities of all actors, dissemination, ensuring visibility of the projects, media presence, effective cooperation etc. while at the same time priority was given in the exchange of practices in the areas of volunteering.Participants had also the chance to thoroughly explore the possibilities of ESC by focusing in two important aspects:1) technicalities such as applications design, registration, meeting deadlines, composing partnerships and2) quality measures required when preparing and implementing joint international activities, ensuring greater learning opportunities, etc.We encouraged participants to disseminate information about the tools further, thus ensuring their wider reach and use by other youth workers, practitioners, volunteers, etc. We will transfer more specific actions of dissemination in the designated field in this report. The greatest though dissemination will be achieved when new international cooperation and new volunteering projects will be developed, providing in that way to more young people exploring and developing themselves through volunteering. Here lays also the impact of the CMS. By creating a strong network that will communicate effectively and cooperate successfully will have a great impact not only in young people that will have the direct opportunity and benefit by participating in quality volunteering projects , but also in their communities, in their countries and further in Europe. Already before the end of the CMS participants have planned follow up activities and most specific they have already planed their next steps into implementing volunteering projects. By taking the advantage of meeting in person their colleagues from other organisation they use this opportunity to start drawing the plan of communication, designing the process of their cooperation and sharing the needs of their youth groups back home and designing their future steps towards the actual implementation of volunteering projects that really address young people, organizations and local communities needs.<< Results >>The project had a great impact on the participants themselves and we a greater on partner organisations. Participants as organizations representatives, project coordinators and mentors had the opportunity to be involved in a contact making seminar where they could talk face to face with future partners and to discuss about projects, supporting measures for young volunteers, responsibilities and drafting common agreements. To meet again in one place and to discuss about future plans had a significant importance and great value especially after 2 years of postponed projects, cancelled activities and online volunteering. Meeting again in a residential context had a great impact to participants, since it raised their motivation to start implementing again youth volunteering activities. As mentioned above that will have a long term impact, since more young peole they will have the opportunity to participate in quality volunteering projects, exploring their European identity, understanding different European cultures and applying what they will learn in their context, in their local environments, when returning back home. Furthermore participants of the CMS developed a number of key-competences as well as tools that can be replicated in their work in the youth field, especially when organising volunteering projects. Following that organisation will benefit from skilled youth workers and ESC programme updated project managers and will feel more confident to implement volunteering projects, relying as well to trustable partners. Tangible and intangible results were developed during the project:-A website of the project that describes the whole project and that can be used for the dissemination of Erasmus+ Programme and its possibilities and opportunities that can bring (https://infinitygreece.com/cvc/)-Having staff/volunteers of the partner organisations trained in how to bring quality in their future volunteering projects-A short video that describes moments of the activity https://youtu.be/YUE0czRTf3c -Improved understanding of the volunteering concept and European Solidarity Corps and how the grants can be used to support initiatives.- Learning from good practices by organisations that have visited us to share their experiences. - Already 2 project cooperation between partner organisations with specific focus on their target groups. We would like to mentin that one of the greatest outcomes and results of the project is the leraning dimension of it. By implementing this project we succeed in strengthen our cooperation and network with partner organisations, gaining deep knowledge about volunteering and ESC Programme, we have learned from good practices as well as we learned how to avoid bad practices and we learn how to support young people towards their personal development, especially after the challenging time we all faced.

<< Objectives >>Domestic violence represents one of the biggest problems in the evolution of today’s society. In 2017, #metoo movement had a worldwide impact on the topic of sexual abuse, with more and more young girls and young women sharing their experiences. Although 2017 was marked by this hashtag, the phenomenon of domestic violence is present in daily life of women all across Europe in multiple forms: physical, emotional, financial or sexual. Giving the latest reports on domestic violence, at a European level, 33% of women have experienced physical violence, while 11 % had been victim of sexual abuse, but there is a lack of comparable data due to differences in the national legislation and the lack of reporting the abuse (European Parliament, 2016). Considering geographical differences, as well as cultural and religious differences, it is hard to have a clear view of the statistics worldwide, but monitoring the latest reports at a national level, as well as the movements that fight against domestic violence of any sort, EMPOWER project aims at supporting practitioners in the field of youth and social services to gain competences to recognize, act efficiently and prevent domestic violence among girls and women. The objectives of the project are:-OS1:developing specific competences needed for the 20 participants to recognise and identify different types of domestic violence (physical, emotional, financial and social), in families and young couples;-OS2: Supporting sense of initiative and critical thinking for the 25 participants, in order to prevent and combat gender based violence;- OS3: Supporting the transfer of soft skill competences needed in this types of intervention, such as pharafrazing, active listening, resuming, feedback techniques, non verbal language aspects;- OS4: Developing organisational capacity of partner associations;<< Activities >>The activity of the proposed project is a 6 day mobility of youth workers from 5 partner countries, organised in Predeal, Romania. In order to achieve the objectives set for EMPOWER, the developed activities are focused on non formal education, interactive and inclusive, using different individual and group activities that will provoke their creativity and critical thinking, and take them out of their comfort zones. The objectives of the activities are:- developing creativity;- developing pro activity;- creating a safe space from which participants can fell comfortable in developing the activities;- developing teamwork and leadership competences.Each organisation will send 4 participants, youth workers that are active in local communities. In order for the participants to be eligible, they needs to:- work directly with youth from disadvantaged groups;- have experience in youth work;- know non formal education methodology;- express their interest in the topic;- having a level of conversational english, in order to ensure the gaining of competences;<< Impact >>The projects tackles an area that is more and more visible in the todays society. The expected impact is related to the capacity of youth to overstep difficulties and abuse situations, within their enlarged family or young couples. The participants to this project, youth workers that are active in local communities, can act as multipliers of the gained competences, so we will have a long lasting local impact, by informing and raising awareness on the topic. At a regional level, the results of the project will have a snowball effect, using the network and partnerships the organisations have. Nationally and internationally, we will have an up-to-date perspective about the phenomena of domestic violence and the techniques of intervention youth workers can use.