"The project “Happiness 2.0”, is an international youth exchange which will take place in the region of North-Groningen in the Netherlands. The project will be organized by all members and volunteers of the Go Foundation. The mission of Foundation Go is to stimulate youngsters from the Northern part of the Netherlands to grow and increase open-mindedness towards Europe through EVS and exchanges. The main purpose of project ''Happiness 2.0'' is:By building on the experiences from the exchange ""Happiness"", organised in October 2015, we will be giving young people opportunities to become aware of the inter-cultural differences towards the theme ''Happiness'' between the European countries. The goal is to investigate what happiness means for all participants and to learn from each other how to make yourself happy. This with incorporation of the differences originating from cultural backgrounds and creating awareness and acceptance towards these differences. This all to create more cultural awareness and motivating the youngsters to become an active participant in society that eventually should lead to a more integrated society across borders in Europe. To achieve this project purpose 5 central topics concerning ''Happiness'' will be addressed:1. Creativity 2. Relationships 3. Health 4. Education 5. Ambition, belief, hope and freedom. Other topics such as materialisme will also be addressed in the activities. All these topics can be traced back in the activities that will be organized for the youth exchange. The following activities are for example incorporated in our program:1. Ice breakers: stimulates getting to know each other which is in turn related to the topic 'relationships' but they will also form a bridge to ambition, belief, hope and freedom2. Discussions: will be held concerning all five topics3. Political project: stimulates eduaction, ambition, belief, hope and freedom, materialism and relationships (working together)4. Hiking trip (wadlopen): A reasonably intense hiking trip where participants are challenged and have to work together, this will relate to the topics health, relationships, creativity and ambition and belief.5. Sport activities: working together while having an element of 'winning', because success can also lead to happiness. This relates to ambition and belief, health, relationships, creativity.6. Visits to youth centers in the local community: relationship stimulation and dissemination 7. Cooking workshop: stimulates creativity, health and intercultural awareness8. Trading game: stimulation of creativity and materialism9. Step the line: will stimulate health, relationships ambition, belief, hope and freedom10. Art work creation: stimulates creativity, ambition, belief, hope and freedom.The international youth exchange in Noord-Groningen will invite 30 youngsters from five European countries. The participating countries are: Netherlands, Italy, France, Croatia and Romania. The partners are asked to include youngsters with fewer opportunities, from each country, into the exchange."

Project motivation:We are organizing transnational internships for disadvantaged young people together with our co-operation partner since 2009. In addition to the cooperation agreement we have also a partnership agreement regarding the qualification of young people and staff from the professional training sector in place. In 2012 and 2013 we have organized educational journeys to Sweden and Spain.Project aim:• Enhancing the basic education and qualification of transversal skills, Europe-wide transparency including ECVET – principals and instruments thru the professional qualification of employees.• National and international assurance of educational stays of employees.• Transnational connectivity.• Developing and securing our strategy regarding internationalization.Number/profile of the participants:72 participants with the profile: trainer, teacher and social education worker with professional experience.Description of the activity’s:Our project should be realized thru 6 separate sessions with 72 participants each on the basis of EVECT-instruments.For the execution of the project we have 3 transnational partners. With them we will close ECVET partnership and learning agreements.For the realization of the project we will show the following activities:• Contacting transnational cooperation partners, educational institutions and vocational schools to introduce the project;• Development of the curriculum;• Acquisition of participants and coordination with stakeholders;• Execution of the selection process;• Preparation of the participants after the development of the curriculum;• Coordination of the project with the cooperation partner after the completion of the ECVET partnership agreement regarding time and content;• Organization of the qualification with regards to the content;• Execution of the qualification – the educational institution is managing the booking of the flights, organizes the accommodation together with his partner, make additional insurances;• The participants will be accompanied and supported by the partner. • Do a lessons learned with the participants and the partner.• Participants will get the “Europass Mobility” and a certificate.• Internal evaluation in the educational institution• Accompany the participants for more than 12 month to measure the development and sustainability.• Publishing the results.Methods for project execution• Symposium: Introduction to the problem• Lectures and discussions on the topics, visit and get to know employment centre, Job Centre and school.• Getting to know the structure, internships, consultations and tentative participation in companies, schools or educational institutions, final conference with all parties, discussion on the gained experiences, comparison with German structures, result evaluation interviews with participants, Evaluation of the project.Expected results, impact and long-term benefitsWe are expecting from the participants:• an exploration of self and self-reflection, what I have achieved what I can achieve;• Improvement of intercultural competence and engagement with other cultures;• Recognizing the importance of mobility and communication needs between cultures;• Recognizing the added value of transnational training for personal and professional development, improvement of their skills;• That they can better deal with foreign clients / colleagues and • That they have the opportunity to work in whole Europe.We are expecting:• That many employees will be enabled to do a transnational training and that employees take advantage of this;• That the transnational training is accepted as a “learning outcome” -based training;• That the added value of transnational education for personal and professional development of the participant is seen.• Recognize that transnational training also has an added value to the training company.We aim to:• A significant improvement in the acceptance of European mobility and training in the form of transnational training.• Build and expand networks;• Further development of cooperation’s with companies and implementation of transnational training with the use of learning agreements and assignments;• Increase in the realization of transnational education, by motivating employees;• further collaboration with the transnational partners;• We plan to publish our developed units of learning outcomes and the Euro-pass on the ECVET portal;• Through the implementation of our project, we want to support the learning outcomes approach the ECVET instruments.

Project’s background:In our work with young people, we specifically attach great importance to non formal education. In this project, we want to focus on giving staff members in youth clubs, whether within our network or beyond, new perspectives on European level. Our aim is to organise 3 exchanges during which skilled coworkers will get a chance to take a look at good practice within our partner organisations and benefit from exchange and discussion about non formal education in youth clubs. In particular, we plan to strengthen the links between education and young people since we have identified needs in terms of early job orientation, which could offer a significant potential as part of non formal education in youth clubs. We want to sensitise staff in professional education and youth clubs, but also staff in youth welfare services and in employment services to this question. When at our partner organisations, staff members from comparable areas will also participate.Project aims / targeted results:- getting to know good practice projects- developing new project ideas- stronger links between education and young people- getting to know new procedures and methods in youth work- getting to know methods of working with young people used in partner countries- joint reflection upon cooperation between open youth work and public services in partner countriesWe plan to involve staff from the following areas:- youth clubs/youth work- vocational training- international work- staff members from youth welfare service, youth clubs, employment services- staff members from partner organisations - staff members from public services, youth welfare services, employment services in the partner countriesActivities:During 3 exchanges for skilled coworkers that we will organise with our partner organisations IDEUM (Sweden), ZEFIRO (Italy) and Jongerenwerk (Netherlands), we plan to shed light on the above mentioned project aims.Long-term benefits:- motivation for coworkers- new ideas for projects- initiating political discussions- building up and enlarging networks- creation of new partnerships- reinforcement of the European Idea- quality assurance and improvement/deepening of technical knowledge

"CONTEXTCitizenship has become yet another area of exclusion, especially for youngsters with fewer opportunities, with tragic consequences: for instance, the low turnout of young people in elections, experienced both at EU and national levels, played a key role in the Brexit referendum outcome.Active citizenship, EU and political awareness, and Social inclusion are intertwined issues in the field of youth, and yet young people facing more difficulties than their peers (e.g. financial, educational, geographical, health issues, discrimination etc) are still underrepresented in initiatives fostering Political Education in general and EU Education in particular.This gap between youth with “more” or “fewer” opportunities is even more striking in one specific case: political simulations, a powerful tool involving young people in “make-believe” politics to teach them how political institutions work while promoting their civic participation. A lot of public and private initiatives offer such opportunities, but many obstacles make it more difficult for disadvantaged youngsters to participate (e.g. lack of information and awareness, participating fees, needed knowledge, language requirements, application process etc).OBJECTIVES & PROCESSThat is why YES Forum and its 9 partners, through the YourEP project, explored and promoted solutions to open political simulations in particular and political education in general to a wider audience.To do so, in 2017-2018, YourEP consisted of a mix of online, local and international activities which developed and implemented a political simulation of the European Parliament (EP) specifically designed to be Inclusive and Accessible, and therefore open to young people regardless of their personal background and potential difficulties. Later on, it shared lessons drawn from this experiment with all interested stakeholders.To better suit their needs, the #YourEPsimulation was designed with the active involvement of youngsters with fewer opportunities from 7 EU countries. They were accompanied by experienced youth & social workers, while the whole process was supported by the EU expertise of JEF Europe (Young European Federalists).METHODOLOGY & RESULTSYourEP unfolded into 3 phases.Phase 1 focused on the preparation of young participants, giving them the skills and knowledge to design a simulation method of the EP specifically adapted to their needs. Online activities and local meetings in each partner country empowered them to fully engage in a 5-days Blended Mobility meeting: in Brussels in November 2017, they received in-depth training on the EU and the EP, helping them to start co-designing their very own #YourEPsimulation (Report: goo.gl/v51K7e).Phase 2 finalized the design of and carried out the #YourEPsimulation. After online preparations, the young participants met once again in Strasbourg in May-June 2018: in the EP itself, they roleplayed as MEPs, journalists and lobbyists to get a real political European experience. It was a test for the method they developed: a successfully inclusive test, as all participants engaged in the simulation regardless of their diverse needs! (Report: goo.gl/BM4fbR)Phase 3 built upon this #YourEPsimulation experiment to advocate for more inclusive political education. To do so, ""Key Lessons for Inclusive & Accessible Political Simulations"" (Publication 1: goo.gl/P4S769) were widely shared across the EU youth field in general, as these lessons are easily transferable to other political education methods. “Recommendations to Unleash the full potential of political simulations” (Publication 2: goo.gl/fr8ZF3) targeted political simulations organisers in particular to help them opening their own events thanks to hands-on, experience-based solutions. Dissemination culminated in November 2018 with a Final Conference in Brussels (Report: goo.gl/6ekDjf).IMPACTYoung participants improved transversal skills such as:- Social, civic, intercultural, interpersonal and communicational competences;- Leadership and entrepreneurial skills thanks to their active role in the project;- Improved EU and general political awareness.Through the exchange of good practices underlying the whole process, partners and their youth & social workers learned new tools for inclusive political education, the main outcome being the #YourEPsimulation itself. And they also improved their own EU knowledge!Project results achieved a greater impact in youth formal and non-formal education through its main publications (cf. above):- The #YourEPsimulation method itself and its key lessons for inclusion were spread to other youth organisations to help them promoting the Active citizenship of youngsters with fewer opportunities. - Concrete recommendations based on the #YourEPsimulation were shared with organisations carrying out political simulations on a regular basis in order to advocate for a better inclusion of disadvantaged youngsters."

"BACKGROUNDResearch shows that young people living below the poverty line face multiple barriers to access education, employment, housing, etc. To be poor is a very stigmatizing experience, which affects self-esteem, confidence and personal security. Thus, low income is a strong predictor of low educational performance, lower aspirations for the future and finally social exclusion. The 2013 Annual Growth Survey showed that poverty and social exclusion are major obstacles to the achievement of the Europe 2020 objective of inclusive growth. There is a lack of extensive knowledge on how young people experience poverty in the different member states and much to learn about how the dynamic nature of poverty and youth intertwine. A better understanding is urgently needed for achieving the Europe 2020 goal of “at least 20 million fewer people in or at risk of poverty and social exclusion"". OBJECTIVES, NUMBER AND PROFILE OF PARTICIPANTSYES Forum, the European network of organizations working with and for disadvantaged young people, having members and affiliates in 18 EU member states, led the strategic partnership “Our life. Our voice. Young people and poverty”. We placed young people’s views at the heart of this project to explore their attitudes to poverty and what it means for them to live in families struggling to make ends meet from day to day. By listening to the young people experiencing poverty we wanted to bridge the gap between policy and practice. We provided fresh ideas for both actors in the field of youth services and youth work as well as policy makers on what real support should look like and how to better target resources to disadvantaged young people’s needs.The project partnership involved 6 partners and the YES Forum, as the coordinating organization. We implemented the project in 5 countries, different with regard to welfare system, historical development, and economic performance. We collaborated with partners coming from the UK, Italy, Germany, Finland and Romania, covering different regions of the EU. All participating organizations have had strong experience in delivering services for those experiencing poverty, listening to young people and influencing policy to improve the lives of those in or at risk of poverty. To reach a large audience ranging from youth work organizations, service providers, policy makers and public authorities, we involved another strong European network, active in the field of street work, Dynamo International. Through the activities of the partner organisation in the life-time of the project, we have reached 1.700 young people. Through extensive dissemination activities, as described in detail in the section ‘dissemination’, we reached around 6.500 multipliers across Europe. ACTIVITIES AND METHODOS USEDThis strategic partnership was built on a model established by The Children’s Society, a YES Forum member from the UK. We transferred this method and applied it within the strategic partnership by setting groups of young people with an interest to explore poverty. These groups of 12-15 young people were accompanied by youth workers applying interactive and participatory methods to get an insight into the experience of young people in poverty (IO1). The young people themselves created discussions on different perceptions of poverty and as a result formulated their recommendations against poverty and what real support should look like (IO2). At regional and national events, they met with representatives from youth organizations, service providers, local authorities, and policy makers to discuss their suggestions. The methodology used for engaging those young people who might be hard to reach was also published in a tool-kit for practitioners (IO3). The activities then culminated in the final international conference organized by the YES Forum together with Dynamo International. This event was held in Brussels, presenting the project findings in creative and interactive ways, devised by the young people to reach the various actors working with disadvantaged young people across Europe, ranging from professionals of youth and social work to decision- and policy-makers at EU level.RESULTS, IMPACT, LONGER TERM BENEFITSBy applying this participatory approach the project filled a gap in the discourse around poverty, where often the focus at national and EU level is on statistics and the definition of poverty rather than the day to day experience of young people. Local authorities and those responsible for developing services and policies for young people benefited from our substantial knowhow in including those young people who may not otherwise be engaged in established platforms for policymaking in the youth field (e.g. youth councils, youth organizations)."