This project links, in particular, the first objective pursued by Erasmus+ Programme; it promotes active citizenship, diversity, intercultural dialogue, common values of freedom, tolerance and respect of human rights; in fact, the aim of the project is to support sustainable development of local communities in Shida Kartli Region and contribute to the peace process on the settlement of Tskhinval/i conflict and carry out a dialog between communities divided in the result of conflict. This EVS project aims to raise volunteers' awareness and understanding of other culture and country working in a post conflict environment and learning peace - building process. Furthermore, the objective of the project is to support the acquisition of competences and skills of volunteers: they will improve their communication in English language and their knowledge of peace building process and multicultural skills. The project idea was initiated by a youngster, Simone Gentili, who contacted AIM as sending and coordinating organisation because he really would like to have an EVS experience in Kartlosi organisation. After first skype calls with the hosting organisation, we realised that the organisation is very reliable and carries out important activities at local and international level to support local civil population, encourage development of their professional potential, and raise participation of youth in local life. For these reasons we decided to cooperate and develop together this project proposal. The Partnership between these organisations will be effective as they have rich experience in international youth projects and engagement of local communities. Both organisations took part in project proposal development and will be able to take part in implementation, evaluation and dissemination. The link between the two organisations is the youth and non formal education as a tool to fight youth unemployment. This is because it supports development by helping to transform young peoples’ potential, creativity, talents, initiative and social responsibility, through the acquisition of related knowledge, skills, attitudes and values.We strongly believe that all the young people who are willing to collaborate and are thirsty for learning, can realize any kind of program. The only requirement is to be a creative, positive and flexible person, willing to cooperate, also to respect and adapt to local community and its habits. What is important in this field of volunteering and active citizenship is the effort of both organizations in including young people who are really motivated and want to live the experience of evs as part of a long term learning process. Today, the definition of the profile of a potential evs volunteer is a delicate issue because E+ promoted so much the opportunities to go abroad that the organizations involved have to take care in giving the useful information and tailor the projects on the priority needs for the actual generation. The best candidates are people willing to work with youth.The participants will be young people unemployed, notably who come from small communities and disadvantaged background, with low skills. As expected in Erasmus + Guide, volunteers for EVS are to be selected in a fair, transparent and objective way, regardless of their ethnic group, religion, sexual orientation, political opinion, etc. No specific profile is required but only creativity, open mind and will to get involved in a multicultural and new context, exchanging experiences and learnings with other people.The choice will be done, in particular, on the basis of their motivations and expectations from this EVS project.Basic members of the selection team are other EVS volunteers who are doing their EVS experience in that moment. They will read the applications of the candidates and they will select who, in their opinion would be more collaborative and positive for the project but also would acquire important values for their life. Flowingly we dispatch informative material and a questionnaire that concerns the particularities of our program and clarifies the conditions of work and stay in the host organisation. The volunteers interview by phone or E-mail the candidates, resolve all their questions, but simultaneously are learning a lot about them. Finally the proposal of present volunteers is discussed by mentor’s team and staff. The final decision will be discussed between partners. One of our aims is to widen our network and promote as more as possible the EVS opportunity so, in any case, all the young people who will ask for information or will candidate will enter in a community so to be informed of other opportunities and can become active volunteers at local level. Selections will be published and the preparation will be opened to all as it can be useful to enter this world of non formal education.We already have one candidate volunteer, Simone Gentili, a 24 years old youngster, who is the promoter of this project proposal. As Social Worker, he has experience with minorities, refugees and especially with children, working for the last one year and half as support teacher in schools. In his previous experiences, he had several chances to work in a team planning and managing projects, being always proactive and ready to relate to people, improving his interpersonal and communications skills. He has always been interested in social field and for this reason he graduated in Social Work and Sociology and now he wants to participate to this project. He is highly motivated to work for it because he strongly believes in the aim of EVS and in the activities planned by this project.He wants to focus his professional career on this topic and this is the perfect chance to improve his skills and knowledge to find a job when he will come back to Italy.The project and all the including activities are addressed to young people who are between 18 and 30 years old. We will chose them without any gender preferences or discrimination. There will be an equal treatment of men and women since the principle of gender equality is central to all our activities (1 boy and 1 girl).

The “Cooperative Discovery Technology Education Sports” EVS project is focused on helping the young people to work with New Technologies and learn about many subjects, like Education, Culture, Sports etc.. When we talk about Chios Island we talk also about the small villages of the Island with small population and a traditional way of life. The project cultivates and advances New Technologies and their joining with the Education, Culture and Sports. It also helps young people with fewer opportunities, to understand Internet’s capabilities on educational, cultural, sport and youth issues. The volunteer helps, on a non-profit basis, to learn how to use computers, how to realize Educational, Youth, Sport and Touristic programs effectively and in a positive way. The EVS volunteer deals with the development of projects in educational, youth and sport organizations. [ www.4youth.info (project activities description) www.chiosradio.gr (EVS Radio Station)]The European volunteer, under the guidance and help of TES’s people, will work together with local youngsters and help them to learn, to create, to get in touch with the European Dimension & New Technologies.The Young Voluntary workers undertake to participate voluntarily in an active citizen and informative experience with the aim of acquiring social, intercultural and personal skills and contribute to the wellbeing of the community.They will also take active part in the creation and presentation of all kind of broadcastings in our EVS Internet Radio Station (www.chiosradio.gr) presenting also the “Erasmus +” and “E-twinning” Program.The volunteer who participates in this project is asked to be interested in new technologies activities (as web pages management and updating, teaching IT, using them for the improvement of educational projects and learning them for running the platforms of the association); the participant should be also interested in living in a multicultural environment, respecting the other participants and the local community. To be flexible, capable to adapt to different situations and dealing with unexpected changes are also useful qualities for this project. The cooperation between the association and the participants is constant and through a cooperative and collaborative way of learning the participants will help each other in achieving the objectives. No experience is needed but a big motivation and disposition for learning in a positive attitude is essential, also for sharing the knowledge the participant already has about any topic interesting for the project. The results and impact is to help the participants in their future after their EVS and to achieve a wide learning experience on computer programs, new technologies, languages, cultures, dealing with different personalities and have a positive and useful experience for life. Knowledge in new technologies is always useful and we expect that the content the participant learns here will increase the job opportunities and help realising any kind of future projects.

„SKY IS THE LIMIT 2017” is the European Voluntary Service project of several activities, which will be implemented in Mińsk Mazowiecki already for the third time. The volunteers from France, Spain, Ireland, Portugal and Italy will participate in two six-month activities from April till September 2017 and from October 2017 till March 2018. In the summer of 2017 (July and August) the project will host the group of 14 volunteers from Spain, Portugal, France, Ireland, Finland, Italy and Lithuania.The main focus of the project is based on intercultural education, development of social skills and cultural animation. The objectives of the project are: deepening the intercultural dialogue, fighting the youth unemployment along with boosting the employability of young people by facilitating skill training, strengthening tolerance and knowledge of other cultures amongst the local community, improving social and communication skills amongst children and youth. In order to achieve our goals we will use non-formal methodology. Some of the methods planned for the implementation are: animation activities for children, workshops for youth (related to diverse topics based on the interests of the volunteers for example drama, music, sport, art, conversations, dance, cooking, science etc.), assistance at activities with disabled, intercultural events focused on presenting the volunteers’ cultures, social skills trainings, seminars and meetings, lectures at the University of Third Age, conversation clubs, photo and video reporting of the activities. The volunteers will have a chance to design and deliver their own ideas for activities. They will develop their initiative and entrepreneurship as well as improve their organizational and social skills necessary to implement their individual projects. Children and youth will enrich their knowledge about the world as well as they will discover and emphasize their own cultural identity. This project will deepen the intercultural dialogue in the local community, broaden tolerance, European awareness and encourage the team spirit and sense of cooperation. It will empower every participant to a more intensive personal development.

The main motto of the project activities was: we do care for disabled children and youth, no matter what nationality we are, what culture we come from. Project activities brought together 5 special education institutions for children and youth with disabilities, 10 EVS volunteers, 25 youth workers and 20 partner organizations from 13 different countries. All planned activities (long-term EVS and study visit) aimed to enable an exchange of experience in order to improve the quality of youth work and further promote solidarity and social inclusion. The project put special attention to one of the main features of Erasmus+ program - promoting inclusion of disadvantaged or fewer opportunities groups. It also aimed to strengthen mobility of young people from very different countries, program and partner countries combined. It provided learning opportunities and opened the institutional world of special education to those young people who feel strongly about inclusion and wanted to support it through volunteering.EVS activities were focused on possibilities for volunteers to gain new key competence by involving them to ROs teams, introducing them to the work and procedures, all the while aiming to give them space to introduce own ideas. Active participation of volunteers not only in ROs but also in the study visit has widen the scope of possible learning experiences for the volunteers. All volunteers had a big opportunity to gain practical knowledge about the special education system and special care. While supporting teachers they could develop their awareness of special needs, which was the main goal of almost all selected volunteers. This knowledge could be also extended during the study visit, in which our volunteers played very important role. They were actively involved into organizational process, as contact with partners, volunteers and special education institutions from their countries. Their task was also to help their ROs teams to prepare study visit program and also to present special educational systems and volunteering in special education in their countries. Participating in this study visit helped volunteers to improve their public speaking skills as well as to develop managing and organizational competencies. European and international partners contributed valuable information on comparison of the role of volunteering in special education in 11 different countries.Youth workers participating in the study visit to Poland got chance to know Polish special education system and the role EVS activities have in daily activities of selected special education institutions. They could exchange and compare special care systems functioning in their countries and learn how EVS activities can be implemented in their own institutions.Polish local community members, especially children & youth, discovered various European countries through socializing with European volunteers, through intercultural activities organized by volunteers and through participation in the study visit final, open day, where we invited representatives of local special education institutions, organizations promoting volunteering and disabilities. All project results, from volunteers’ learning achievements, new ideas and tools created during project activities were disseminated among young people in Poland and sending countries.

The goal of the project was to promote volunteerism and intercultural learning. The project was implemented in Riga, Latvia, for a duration of 15 months, commencing in February, 2016. During the project period society was being informed on European Voluntary Service (EVS) and possibilities for volunteerism in AFS Latvia, intercultural experience and intercultural learning. Volunteer Carlotta from Italy took part in the activities organized by AFS Latvia. Carlotta assisted in the organisation of camps working with the AFS exchange pupils attending school in Latvia as well as sharing experience from her own exchange year in Brazil and helping others to understand particular issues in intercultural adaptation. Carlotta took part in trainings and seminars for AFS volunteers, was a part of team organizing “open doors” event in AFS, culture evening in Ikskile. She participated also in town festivals, exhibitions and other events. Besides AFS activities, Carlotta was given an opportunity to implement her own ideas and organize events. With the help of this Project, Italian and Portugeese language courses for the beginners were taking place in the premises of AFS, also info event regarding the Korean popular music. The fact that EVS volunteer is continuing collaboration with AFS and participates in AFS activities even after the completion of the Project is the best evidence of overall success and positive impact of the Project.