"Nowadays it is difficult to underestimate the role of Media in achieving the fundamental value of gender equality. Media is the mirror of everyday life and at the same time is one of the tools to ""shape"" society, in this case how we perceive different genders. At the same time, the media is considered to play an important role in the quest for democracy and gender equality. Both biological and social genders prosperity and equality in many cases depends on stereotypes formed by media. The main aim of this TC was to increase awareness and provide youth with proper knowledge about gender issues and perspectives of European and project countries media, so enabling them to work on gender-related projects. In order to achieve the aim we set 9 objectives:-To re-explore and develop participants knowledge and understanding of various concepts related to gender issues and emphasize the importance of gender equality in Media-To analyze each partner's country gender issues-To facilitate networking process among participants and promote new common projects related to gender equality-To give space for participants to set new networks related to gender equality -To improve the intercultural, non-formal and informal learning process resulting in a wider impact on communities-To promote non-formal learning and Erasmus Plus program-To give an opportunity to meet local advocates and other professionals working with this topic and get inspired-To provide participants with tools, needed for project development. -To clarify challenges and opportunities of gender equality issues under Erasmus PlusThe project covered not only man versus women inequality (biological genders), but also other social genders that exist in our societies. By bringing youth from different parts of Europe, we were educating them and discussing with them in frames of this topic - how gender stereotypes are formed by media and how media could help to form a greater gender equality in project countries. Trainers familiarized participants with the issue; enabling them to be more critical towards media when it comes to gender issues. Also, providing participants with tools and knowledge to share and spread awareness in their NGOs and communities, partner organizations contributed in creating more tolerant youth and societies in general.The training gathered 27 young people including project organizers from partner countries: Ukraine, Armenia, Poland, Lithuania, Georgia, Holland. Most of the participants in one way or another are active in youth work and some of them are active in media as writers and bloggers. All of them in one way or another are related to the gender issues topic, either personally or through their youth work.In order to assure the continuation of partnership and similar projects participants were given time and space to work on possible youth projects that could be implemented under Erasmus Plus program, thus also expanding their network. The diversity of the group assured intercultural learning and sharing and non-formal education methods, such as discussions, roundtables, work in a smaller group, games, energizers etc., eased the learning process. One session was dedicated to meet a local expert working on the gender equality issue in Armenia, who explained in depth the local realities. However, participants were encouraged to be critical and ask questions and not take every idea and message of the expert for granted. This project was designed in a way that trainers could also provide needed tools for the sessions that they could serve participants in the future, e.g. recommendations how using media platforms to avoid stereotyping genders.Also, Erasmus Plus program was not only promoted as grant giver but it was also properly presented opportunities for youth to move forward with similar projects in the program."

"""We are all United"" is an Erasmus+ project Training course aiming to cover, explore, discuss and deal with integration related challenges linked to the refugees flows. Creating network of the civic organizations working or willing to work in the field, promote new tools and methodology among youth workers and NGO workers in order to strengthen the integration and peace building process in the global community is the main feature of the project. The need to organize project about this topic is caused due to the fact that generally migration related challenges are the driving policy issues in the contemporary Europe and as all the researches and studies show without active and positive inpu.t of civic society it can be developed dramatically. It is a fact that reasons for displacement can be diverse - poverty, social or political exclusion, war, quest for a better life, studying or work abroad, which are the logical and historical steps of human journey, but the outcome is the same - migration is followed by concrete advantages and disadvantages that has to be explored and analyzed without creating stereotypes and xenophobia.The main aim of the project is to bring positive change and support the implementation of the European policy agenda for the growth, peace building, integration and social inclusion via non formal education. The project content is building strong logical chain to rise up the awareness about refugees and importance of integration process for the modern society based on the philosophy of the Erasmus+ program ""Building on the past experience, looking towards future"".Erasmus+ Training course ""We are all united"" – aiming to rise up personal and professional skills of the trainers and youth workers. Prepare and motivate them regarding migration related topics. Process will support them to successfully include and cover integration related topics among their target groups. Furthermore it will empower them be actively involved in this process and stimulate the idea of integration among youth.The aim of the Erasmus+ Training course ""We are all United"" – is to create network of NGOs willing to be involved in the migration management process and contribute to the integration process. During the project it is planed to explore what are the key actions governmental or non- governmental sector contributes to the integration process with, analyze results, find the gap between, share the best practice and create an action plan of the network. This fact will be the biggest advantage insuring the sustainable development of the whole project idea, as decision makers will be involved in the planning process and they will have chance to meet face to face.All activities during the whole phase of project are planned in a way to encourage participants to become ambassadors of integration in their society, use their organizational resources to achieve this goal, build a strong network of youth workers and youth NGOs working on the field. Whole project cycle is planned as an example of well-designed non-formal education project with a powerful balance of practice and theory, bringing meaningful result in the personal and professional development of the participants. Overall objectives of the project are the following:• Create a network of the organizations working in the field of refugees• Explore migration policy of EU and role of civic society in the process• Rise up awareness about migration among youth workers and NGO workersWe strongly believed that the TC will help youth workers and NGO presenters, by sharing the best practice, do their job better.The TC will - • Promote non formal learning and present it as a tool for participation and development • Promote inter-cultural exchange, tolerance and solidarity in general• Spread information about Erasmus+ stimulate future cooperationThe issues and needs which will be addressed during this project are linked to the empowerment of the youth workers, youth NGOs to explore migration related challenges on the local and international level, develop themselves as powerful actors involved in the process and overall encourage participation of their main target group, young people, in peaceful and democratic life in Europe and in globe."

The background of the project outline is constituted by existing regional conflicts in Eastern Europe and Caucasus and the increasing tensions within many EU countries in regards to nationalism, xenophobia and racism.Viewing the post-soviet context with frozen and hot conflicts/war in Crimea, Donetsk, Lugansk (Ukraine - Russia), Abkhazia and Southern Ossetia (Georgia), Chechnya (Russian Federation), and Nagorno-Karabakh (Armenia - Azerbaijan), Kurdish conflict (Turkey) conflict management and peace building are obviously among the most important issues especially among young people. In Western Europe racism, xenophobia and racial discrimination are increasing not only in traditional immigration countries like Germany, Italy and Netherlands, but all across Europe, which is displayed by the examples of national populism in Greece, tension between Kurdish and Turkish whole over the Europe etc.All the above stated illustrates the importance of youth work in the areas of peace building, conflict transformation, human rights education and anti-discrimination.Different forms of conflicts are often closely interrelated, young people affected by conflicts whether on international, national or on local level very often develop xenophobic and racist attitudes that can lead to aggressions and violence towards other ethnicities, people of other nationalities, or just any type of minorities as examples of sexual discrimination in Russia shows. Simply, chauvinism, racism and discrimination combined with violence and life threatening acts towards minority groups create the need to look for effective strategies to address issues of conflict and violence among young people.Given the above, the promoters of this project decided to hold a training course dedicated to conflict management and peace-building and to focus within this framework on non-violent actions as a tool for international and local youth work.Conflict Management Tools to Promote Peace Education (CMTPP) aims to train youth workers from program countries and EECA countries on conflict management and peace education in frame of human rights principles. Step will create a common space to build trust among participants, provide different tools to apply in daily life and youth worker. Moreover over participants will learn from each other’s experiences, different methods for conflict management and peace education, backgrounds of their respective societies’ problems.The following objectives have been set in order to implement a successful training course:• To identify effective methods for and with young people by empowering them in building their capacity to become agents of change, peace builders and advocate at local and international level;• To exchange best practices in relation to youth work and conflict, inter-religious and -cultural dialogue;• To build capacity of participants through providing tools for conflict management and peace education;• To raise awareness of risk factors under which conflicts tend to arise in multicultural and multicultural settings;• To promote common understanding of peace and dialogue through raising awareness of negative and positive peace;• To developing and promoting the culture of peace within the society through both formal and non-formal education;• To establish a sustainable platform for organizations and youth workers to cooperate in the implementation of joint projects on local, regional and international level;• To raise the visibility of the Erasmus+ Programme though partner organizations.The training course took place in Malaga, Spain between 22 - 28 October 2017 . It gathered 27 young workers and youth leaders, included 3 trainers and 1 project manager, 1 support staff from 6 EECA and 6 Programme countries as such as; Spain, Greece Poland, Lithuania,Turkey, Netherlands, Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Belarus. The TC covered different types of conflicts and in different settings and consequently ways of transforming conflicts by non-violent actions. Crucial attention will be placed on fostering a constructive debate on recent conflicts in Europe and cooperation in the youth field. This was be done by promoting non-violent approaches leading to actions on peace-building and promotion of Human Rights. Moreover, young leaders had opportunity to discuss the significant role of youth participation in grass-root peace-building initiatives.The trainers and invited experts shared practical and theoretical knowledge on the topics, through plenary sessions, discussions, workshops, creativity sessions, inter-cultural & interactive exercises and other non-formal educational methods. Essential throughout the TC was the input and experience shared by participants.

"The project ""THE HERO's JOURNEY! was a training course for youth workers, young leaders and educators focusing on the topics of migration, refugees, inclusion and integration through the lenses and techniques of storytelling. The TC involved 30 youth workers/volunteers/educators/youth leaders (2 from each partner organization) aged between 18 and 30, from 15 different countries: Belgium (YEU & Tandem), FYROM/Macedonia, Turkey, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Poland, UK, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Bulgaria, Kosovo*, Ukraine, Egypt, Spain, including 2 trainers and 1 organizer.The main objective of the project was to develop and promote a new positive narrative of inclusion, giving the chance to young Europeans and young refugees/migrants to meet and share their stories (their journeys) in order to match them with the needs of the communities they live in. To do so we used two complementary methodologies and approaches: storytelling and community matching (observing local communities to find inclusion opportunities that would match the dreams/hopes/needs of newcomers). We did this through the use of NFE methodology entwined with the Hero’s Journey narrative concept which we applied at different dimensions of the TC.Migration has always been part of our reality. Europe as a continent is a melting pot of cultures, languages and religions while one of the essential principles of European Union is freedom of movement. In recent years, Europe has faced millions of economic migrants and refugees trying to find their way to cross the borders – walking for days, floating in boats, hidden in trucks, forgotten in deserted hangars behind train stations. Tricked and humiliated but yet decisive to pursue their happiness in a better world.With the last year trends in migration flows, opinion and political debates all over Europe have been increasingly shaped by concerns about cultural identity, social cohesion, security, and access to public services, crime and employment, always largely focusing on the immigrant population as a stereotyped and generalized “whole”. While discussions can be led about the meaning and consequences of integration to one’s identity, we need to see what have we done to accept, understand and learn about our new neighbours? Being human, showing solidarity and accepting people in need should be priority for each one of us. We believe that youth organizations need to be the ones with open minds and hearts and make the first steps in overcoming the fears that local communities have (the fear of Others) and supporting the need to feel as part of the community (the need for Togetherness).YEU believes that the starting point of any sustainable integration policy should be the respect for migrants and refugees as individuals, with their own stories, dreams and competences. YEU feels that youth organizations and European youth can have a great role in addressing this gap. By meeting the refugees/migrants and collecting their stories (needs, dreams, fears, personal stories, journeys, expectations, goals, hopes, competences, skills, contributions), they can be the missing link needed to overcome the gap between hosting communities and newcomers.Aims and objectives are based on background and needs which we wanted for participants to tackle: - discover and understand the historical perspective and the reasons behind migration flows + the real data and figures concerning refugees and migrants in Europe;- discover and confront what's currently happening in Europe and how different countries are responding to the ""refugees crisis""- meet and understand the personal stories of migrants and refugees as individual human beings with their needs, dreams, fears, expectations, competencies and skills (applying storytelling techniques and approaches)- develop local activities aimed at meeting refugees/migrants in local communities, to gather their stories, and at observing and discovering community needs and opportunities- share the stories, experiences and ""journeys"", confront them and match them with the needs of their local communities (what refugees could do in local realities? how can they become an added value? how can everyday integration happen?)- develop a final web platform to collect and share the stories gathered during the projectBy enticing participants into engaging with their own stories and get in contact with other people’s stories, they were able to better judge their own narratives and those of others. We applied the Hero’s Journey approach so that they discovered their own and each other’s stories, step-by-step over the course of the TC; thematically dealing with each step and also providing activities and situations which would corroborate the intended emotions and expectations that came along with that step/day. Participants were in an open and informal context that facilitated the process of sharing similarities and differences and showed how to work together for building new narratives together."

The topic of our training course is migration. We focus on two main issues:-the immigration related issues in connection to refugee crisis and discrimination towards immigrants and-Emigration of young people in connection to youth unemployment.Youth unemployment forces young people to move out of their country, and in new country they often face social exclusion and discrimination as immigrants. They lack support in their country of origin from youth workers (who could advise them on different opportunities about mobility) and they lack support in their country of destination where youth organizations should be able to include them. This is situation of emigration countries, but also attention should be drawn to immigration countries and inclusion of immigrants (especially refugees). Europe is already having more immigration than ever before, so also this topic should be addressed. Each country has specific experience, and it should be shared. Our training course brings together youth workers across EU (Romania, Hungary, Italy, Greece and United Kingdom), Western Balkan (Serbia) and Eastern Partnership Countries (Moldova, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Armenia) countries to discuss the topics of migration and mobility in Europe and its consequences to youth and youth work. According to International Organization for Migration (IOM) more than million immigrants came to Europe from outside. Additionally there is even bigger migration going on inside Europe, which is constantly increasing. There are different triggers and causes, push and pull factors for migration which affects everyday life of all Europeans. There is forced migration and voluntary migration, different reasons and consequences of migration which have led to new migration routes. All Europe is affected by migration, and especially young people, who are one of the most mobile groups and the ones who determine how the future Europe will look like. For this it’s important that people working with young people would be aware of the causes, opportunities and consequences of migration and could support both – young emigrants and immigrants, refugees by creating opportunities, fighting discrimination and providing support these young people need. Our consortium has initiated a local research regarding to explore the needs for our project within our local communities. We have made a research with local governments through personal meetings, statistics of young people and families left from the towns, number of migrants and refugees has arrived, challenges they face with…Then we have organised community events with youth workers, teachers, social workers, etc. through focus groups discussions and online questionnaires and addressed and assessed the needs of young migrants, immigrants and refugees, kids who lost their family members because of emigration, or just came home from other countries they lived a longer time or even was born. And of course, we have done a research among young people we work with e.g. local young people with migrant background, or local young people just came home from other countries, etc. through questionnaires and discussion through workshops e.g. challenges they face with, etc. All results were uploaded in our common closed Facebook group and we could compare and assess the hottest issues we need to tackle within our youth work activities.The overall aim of the long term training course is to train youth workers, youth leaders being aware of different migration schemes in Europe and know how to deal with challenges resulting from migration and how to use opportunities created by migration in their work with young people. Our participants are ready to develop projects connected to migration and mobility, engage young migrants in their activities and foster mobility among youth. They can also help to change the general image of migration in society and promote tolerance and positive attitude towards immigrants (and refugees in particular) in society. We hosted all together 89 participants in the 2 projects and all were youth work practitioners: youth workers, cultural ‘animators’ working with youth and youth support workers. Their target groups are rural youth, unemployed young people, minority members, young refugees and migrants. “Here To Stay 1st Training course - 20-29 April 2018, Manchester, United Kingdom“Here To Stay 2nd Training course - 10-17 November 2018, Sfantu Gheorghe, RomaniaThe following methods were used during our mobilities: cooperative learning, experiential learning, montage, theatre of oppressed, creating a jigsaw, working in national teams, in mixed teams, individual and pair work etc.Our main results have been the following -6 little local youth project were prepared, implemented and evaluated in order to fight against xenophobia and racism towards young people;-9 international youth projects ideas-Here to Stay Campaign Booklet-Learning outcomes of our participants