"<< Objectives >>The “From Dreams to Actions: together for a peaceful future” project aimed to build capacity and empower 30 European youth workers from 12 countries to gain essential competencies and experience which would support them in becoming active citizens and peace envoys, and who would implement on the local level various types of actions about and for peace and non-violence.Our specific project objectives included:- To promote European values of peace and non-violence, democracy and freedom of speech;- To promote active participation and citizenship, civic engagement and a sense of ownership of/ responsibility for societal processes;- To facilitate the transborder exchange of ideas and experiences among youth workers from a range of both EU and non-EU countries;- To raise the possibilities of people within the European volunteering movement to get active in peace activism through a variety of forms;- To bring non-formal peace education to the streets and online spaces of Europe and as a consequence increase public understanding of peace, responsible citizenship and participation;- To increase the quality and amount of youth projects for peace, inclusion and non-violence.<< Implementation >>The project lasted from 1.05.2020 to 30.04.2022 and build the capacity of European youth workers from 12 project countries. To reach the project aims, the Training Course ""From Dreams to Actions: together for a peaceful future"" was organised online between 15 September and 3 October 2021 with 30 participantscoming from 12 countries - Albania, Armenia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Finland, Germany, Kosovo, Moldova, Poland, Portugal, Serbia and Spain.It was a training course for peace envoys where we showed that even though there is one aim for peace-buildersand peace-keepers, there are many paths to reach it. The participants ‘taste’ these different paths and got equipped with the knowledge and skills needed to start country actions. The training included:a) Common time dedicated to expanding knowledge on peace and its different levels;b) Parallel session (upon the choice of participants) related to different ways of working for peace, including among others:- street actions and campaigning,- communication campaigns in social media;- advocacy and lobbying for political change,- civic engagement through peace education;- peace in daily life: supporting non-violent interpersonal relations;- working on the Peace Cards for facilitators of peace-building activities;c) Common online action during the International Day of Peace (21.09.2021);d) Preparation of follow-up actions to take place in participants' countries.Additionally, the participants organised follow-up actions (workshops, discussions, educational events, celebration of special days, movie events) organised and implemented on a local level after the training. They brought further the knowledge and inspiration for being a peace messenger, acting for peace and thus bring a positive change in the communities.The project was intended for the following categories of participants:- Youth workers or young people who are active (or plan to become) in their own communities in the field of peace education, peace-building, and active participation/citizenship;- Youth workers working mainly in groups of fewer opportunity background;- Persons with fewer opportunities (facing social, economical, or cultural challenges and obstacles) who wanted to take a more active role in their local communities as volunteers in the peace education field or other strands of peace activism;- Coordinators, staff, young board members and volunteers of partner organisations looking to initiate activities for the promotion of peace and non-violence (locally and transnationally);- Educators and facilitators within non-formal learning projects.<< Results >>The two tangible results of the project are:1. The SCI Peace Cards - a tool to spark a discussion on peace, non-violence, and activism and are available in various formats:- as a Padlet gallery - https://padlet.com/SCI_International/SCI_Peace_Cards- as a downloadable pdf - https://sci.ngo/wp-content/uploads/SCI-Peace-Cards-with-instructions.pdf?- as an interactive game - https://wordwall.net/resource/22496102/sci-peace-cards?ref=embed-image- as a physical copy of printed cards, to be ordered through the SCI website.2. Street Action Kit: including the tips on how to organise street actions: https://sci.ngo/resource/street-action-kit/In addition, there are a few levels of impact of the “From Dreams to Actions” project. Additionally, we see the following impact of the project:1. Impact on the participants – 27 persons (calculation basis: 30 participants minus 2 trainers and 1 logistic support person from SCI):- participants have increased self-confidence after the project on the topic of peace;- participants are able to apply concrete ways and live in peace on 3 levels – intrapersonal, interpersonal and with nature;- participants understand the European values of democracy, freedom of speech, peace and non-violence;- participants have a broader understanding of various forms of civic engagement, like advocacy, lobbying, the European Citizens' Initiative and other possibilities for political change at both local and international levels;- participants have knowledge and understanding of diverse ways to build peace and support peace;- participants feel confident to organise a street action for peace themselves;- participants feel inspired and believe each of them can be an actor of change for peace;- participants feel a sense of trust and support within the network of activists for peace (youth workers, educators, volunteers) that will be formed through the project;- increased number of future joint educational projects among the participants, including Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps projects within the next funding perspective;- increased employability of participants, including the ones with fewer opportunities.2. Impact on 12 participating organisationsThe impact on the participating organisations is:- increased quality of workshops, seminars, actions, campaigns and other peace-themed activities, through the acquisition of innovative learning tools (including the Peace Cards) and the increased professional competencies and capacities of the participants;- strengthened positions of providing peace education to local youth;- higher involvement of young people and local communities in their activities;- more networking opportunities and stronger collaboration among the participating organisations, basis for the future joint projects under the Erasmus+ and not only;- new projects commonly developed and implemented by the partners;- opportunities for involvement of active members (youth workers, educators, activists, volunteers) of the partners' organisations, and also being a resource for future educational and peace-building initiatives on behalf of the partner organizations and the local community.3. Impact on other groupsThe project also had an impact on the local communities in 12 European countries of the partner organisations.These were participants (young people, students, youth leaders, volunteers, youth workers, educators, activists, and colleagues) of the follow-up activities and other non-formal and informal actions, organised by the project participants.Thanks to the project, they all were offered engaging and learning opportunities on the topic of peace activism which were also in line with the principles of non-formal learning. They became more aware and responsible for their own behaviour and actions as well as empowered for taking ownership and active involvement in bringing a positive change for peace on a personal, local and international level.4. Although it is difficult to give a precise estimation with regards to numbers, we can assess that the project impacted:- 30 youth workers, activists, volunteers – participants and trainers of the Training Course – from 12 countries;- 12 organisations implementing various educational and volunteer activities for peace;- not less than 5000 people were reached by the Online Actions organised by the TC participants on 21.09 (International Day of Peace);- no less than 800 persons, local youth, volunteers, colleagues, partners, and members of partner organisations from 12 project countries who benefitted from the follow-up local activities, online and street campaigns, and nonformal education activities organised after the training course."