Social media represents low-cost tools that are used to combine technology and social interaction with the use of words. These tools are typically internet or mobile based. A few of the best know are Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and YouTube. In discussion with other partners we came to conclusion that these tools, which are almost for free, are not used enough as tools for dissemination and exploitation of project results or used are chaotically without any strategy. In the last 10 years internet media have grown from minor tool of interpersonal communication to one of the leading players in mass communication. Advertising in social networks like has become very effective, because of the possibility to precisely measure and reach the necessary audience. Instead of investing huge amount of money in television or radio commercials and double-page spreads of newspapers, more and more marketing specialists invest their advertising budget in salaries of bloggers, tools on Facebook and controversial videos on YouTube and/or Facebook. In this way they find the audience who is interested in particular product, instead of flooding masses who are not even potential customers.One of the project priorities is to increase the participation of young people in Erasmus +, Youth in Action Programme (YA) by increasing the reached audience of young people in dissemination and exploitation of project results. Social media is perfect for YA audiences, for example, 70% percent of Facebook users are people under 35. That is a potential interested audience for YA. And reaching this audience cost much less or even nothing, if you know what tools to use. What is necessary: the message - what to say and the strategy – how and where to spread it. The main goals of the project are to:• Increase the visibility of Erasmus+ Youth in Action projects by increasing the usage of electronic media in dissemination and exploitation of project results;• Train the participants on usage of social media, providing them with information on how the social networks work, increasing skill level by practical exercises and sharing best practices;• Develop a toolkit with strategies for spreading information on the internet, specifically focused for organization working with Erasmus+ Youth in Action projects;• To share the knowledge of social network specific to different regions of the European Union member states, East Europe and the Caucasus countries;This project will involve 33 participants from the EU and EECA countries.

The project took place in Politistiko Ergastiri Ayion Omoloyiton a non-government organization that is involved in activities concerning culture, history and arts. It has more than 15 years of experience in small-scale research, education activities and performances. Theatre and music are in the agenda for local youths through established groups. Its activities vary from local to international with an emphasis on the involvement of youth and younger children in cultural activities, mostly involved in the local neighborhood. Volunteers participating in the project were asked to live within the neighborhood. Be actively involved in the organized activities of the organization, either locally or internationally. They were asked to facilitate, and gradually, participate, organize, and implement activities within this frame. Our organization is also actively collaborating with the local primary school and high school and the local church committee. This involvement includes co-organizing events or even responding to proposed activities. The volunteer were involved and participated in such events.The last month of the project all volunteers except Anastasia from Greece had the opportunity to be hosted by the local community in Lysos, Paphos and take part in the local World Wide Village (https://www.facebook.com/worldwidevillageproject/?fref=ts) getting closer with the nature and had the experience to help the locals in their village works. Our Organization is hosted in a renovated historical building turned into a cultural centre for the neighborhood and city. The volunteers were highly involved in the development of activities hosted within the building. Their specific task throughout he project were to inform and present their identity as EVS volunteers funded by the EU as a project. Living proof of activities and structure that exists within the European frameworks of Education and Learning. Τhe project hosted 5 volunteers originating from Spain, Germany, France, Italy and Greece. Their voluntary service was up to 12 months.The volunteers team was a multicultural and multiage giving to all of them the chance to act and cooperate with the others in a learning process way in different moments. The project consisted of two Activities. Activity 1 Advanced Preliminary Visit: We considered an APV as an important element for the success of the project. Because of the long period of the EVS service -12 months it is important that both volunteers and coordinators should have an experience of what exactly our organization is and how it works. The APV provided important information about accommodation – mentor and other issues. The APV gave the chance to the volunteers from Greece, Spain and Germany to meet the ones already in the organization. Volunteers from Spain and Italy did not take part in the APV because of the delay of the results and the difficulty of partners organization to find a potential volunteers in a short period. Activity 2.Proposed activities for EVS volunteers:The activities planned for the EVS activity gave the opportunity to the volunteers to interact closely with local community, to find out the way they live, the stories behind they life, they broke boundaries of language, cultural, confronted themselves with their own prejudices and stereotypes about different cultures. The project was focus on introducing the volunteer and other local stakeholders involved to intercultural learning, thus aiming to make them aware of this aspect in their work, to put them in the situation of analysing different aspects of the intercultural and how they can integrate it in their work In this sense.The objectives which we were seeking to address through out this project were: • To empower and train EVS Volunteers and Local youth workers in dealing with cultural diversity.• To encourage EVS Volunteers and Local youth workers to work with concrete aspects of cultural diversity and integration of it in youth work with special focus on how to embrace creativity• To enhance key competence of the EVS Volunteers and Local youth workers for future international projects and collaborations.• The project aims to offer an opportunity to EVS volunteers to visit, work, participate in events organized by our NGO for the community. The planning of activities itself had a voluntary character.• The implication of volunteers from other countries than Cyprus enhanced the goals of tolerance, acceptance and awareness of cultural diversity leading to integration and intercultural experiences.This EVS project experience was as well strengthen the cooperation and established a good communication between all the partners.

Project activities that have been running in community centres were focused on work with children, youth and adults, too. At the same time there was an ongoing intense cooperation with respective local governments and primary and secondary schools in the microregions where the organisation works. At schools we tried to work with the concept of inclusive education and equal access to education for every child. Cooperating primary and secondary schools enabled us to realize many edifying activities and programmes on their premises. In localities of our interest we have promoted community development, linking of minority and majority and building of mutual respect and tolerance. Apart from the direct in-the-field programmes and services we also acted at the advocacy level, at which we attempted to reach fair policy and mechanism settings towards the integration of socially excluded localities and respect of their basic rights and freedoms. The main goals of the project were the reduction of social exclusion of people from communities where we work, the promotion of educational programmes and programmes of low-threshold centres, development of organisation’s media identity, promotion plan and fundraising activities, promotion and development of volunteering in the regions of Eastern and Western Slovakia. In the project we planed to host 6 volunteers from 4 countries. We expected them to be motivated to work in the field of social exclusion and development of a non-for-profit organisation. All volunteers have been working directly with the people from particularly excluded communities, and to a small extent, have been contributed to support organizational activities at the headquarters of the organization. We expected that in the long term the project will contribute to the reduction of social exclusion, will support all the involved in social competences and skills development and will help to start off the publicity and fundraising of the organisation.The presence of volunteers from other countries critically helped to reconsider prejudices and the fear of unknown not only in marginalised roma communities.

Project DEAL – Developing Entrepreneurial Abilities Laboratory - gathered together youth workers, youth leaders and young people with entrepreneurial spirit in order to empower young people and motivate them to find their passion in life and turn it into action. We aim to create a safe learning environment where young people will be able to learn and experiment with ideas, methods, skills and tools bringing them closer to innovative entrepreneurship. Special emphasis will be given on developing their key competences. The project aims to ensure an entrepreneurial approach to solving social and environmental problems in Greece and Ireland and to encourage and support the development of a new generation of social entrepreneurs. The DEAL consists two training events: The first training 27 June – 4 July 2016, with 26 participants from the two countries plus 2 trainers and 2 facilitators venue Tipperary Ireland. The second training 29 August -05 September 2016, with 26 participants from the two countries plus 2 trainers and 2 facilitators venue Florina, Greece The learning objectives of this project are:- To boost entrepreneurial mindsets of young people;- To equip youngsters out of the market with new competences and increase the quality of youth work;- To raise awareness for the importance of innovation and creativity in the development of their skills;- To empower participants to act as multipliers of good practices and disseminate relevant information and skills to involved stakeholders;- To explore possibilities for future cooperation among participants and partner organizations- To become inspired social entrepreneur or change-maker; At the end of the project it is expected to have concrete ideas for social ventures, to create on-line platform (blog) for mapping the social entrepreneurship opportunities in the countries part of this project and to continue the cooperation and networking between the participant. In future we want to gather again and to know how the development of the ideas goes and what the young people need – directly support the early stage development of these social entrepreneurs by providing a range of supports that include financial investment, technical training, peer networking, mentoring or links to other social entrepreneur networks.This project will be based on non-formal education. In brief, the following working methods will be devised:- Plenary discussions for sharing and exchange of views, thoughts, ideas, etc.- Multimedia presentations, for information transmission and theoretical analysis.- Experiencing: different educational settings, different non formal education methods (role playing, simulation games, exercises)- Simulation exercises for skills development- Participants' workshops- Work in small groups for the sake of sharing and developing cooperation.- Workshops for detailed exploration of specific issues (such as learning styles, personal development plan, job interview, tools etc).- Reflecting on the methods and their impacts, on the power and limits of NFE

The variety of cultures, languages and religions does not stop at the borders of the European Union. Extremist ideologies are not exclusively spreading in Europe but also in its Neighbouring countries. The EU is surrounded by number of countries that it has strong connections with through culture, language, religion and shared historical heritage. Recently the world has been reminded about the threat of extremism. This phenomenon is on the rise in Europe. Extremist movements, ideologies, parties and individuals present some of the most pressing challenges for European democracies. They continue to gain large levels of support from different segments of the society, even among some of the most economically secure and highly educated regions of Europe. Many young people are affected by populism and anti-immigration sentiments and fall into a very dangerous rhetoric.Taking into account those extremist movements in Europe, raising xenophobia and Islamophobia, we consider it highly important to gather active young people, youth workers and activists to discuss questions of multicultural society, interreligious and intercultural dialogue as well as to think about some practical tools how to fight discrimination and combat extremism. It is our belief that it is quite important to have a cultural and social connection with the neighbours around the EU in order to contribute to more understanding. Thanks to the meetings between young people and active youth workers, they can learn about the ways of living in other countries and different ways of thinking. In this way we can overcome differences and fight together against prejudice and xenophobia. That is why with this Training Course we target both the EU and non-EU countries. The training course will take place in Yerevan, Armenia and will involve 34 youth workers from Programme Countries (Lithuania, Croatia, Czech Republic, Italy, Poland, Sweden, Turkey, United Kingdom) and Neighbouring Partner Countries (Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, FYR Macedonia, Moldova, Russia and Ukraine). During the Training Course we will look deeper into the issues of extremism, migration, discrimination, nationalism, intolerance and intercultural misunderstandings. The Training Course will support young people and active youth workers to learn about the ways of living together, accepting differences and fighting together against prejudice and xenophobia in these turbulent times. In all participating countries, xenophobia and discrimination form a big problem. Especially economic crisis contributes to this situation, when immigrants are blamed for stealing jobs, etc. The refugee crisis even further complicated the situation. However, it doesn’t matter if you come from the EU or non-EU country, what language you speak or which religion you follow, there is discrimination and extremism everywhere. This project aims at finding ways to combat it, by sharing experiences and by learning new tools. Our working methodology will be based on non-formal education. With this Training Course we aim to empower youth workers and youth leaders with skills, knowledge and attitudes to play an active role towards an intercultural society. Our objectives are the following:• To analyse today’s multicultural society in different countries;•To gain knowledge on key concepts, such as stereotypes, prejudices and discrimination, extremism, intolerance;• To understand the causes of extremism and where they develop; • To analyse the European values and how they can be used in contrasting those phenomena.• To discover the right attitudes towards an intercultural society;• To promote ‘theatre of the oppressed’ and ‘the human library’ as a tool;• To promote active citizenship, international dialogue and non-formal education. • To overview the European programs and create new projects related to the topic.Through exercises, discussions, presentation of examples of good practices, youth policies in the field of combating discrimination and promoting multiculturalism, we want to encourage peer learning and inspire youth workers to discuss follow-up and take action in their own countries following the Training Course. Moreover, during the TC special attention will be paid to developing skills and competencies of the participants that are needed when working with young people, especially people with fewer opportunities and empowering them to make real change in their local communities and societies.