"“You are welcome - young ideas for a solidary world” „Young Caritas“ is a new concept of youth voluntary work in the social space: Adolescents should be enabled to express their own world view in a creative way and to make their world a fairer and more human place wherever they think it’s required. They are able to make the difference. The concept „Young Caritas“ supports the realization of social projects with innovative and creative approaches and makes it possible for the youth to face social challenges courageously and to find solutions for the issues. This ranges from sustainability issues to human encounters. New topics are prepared on transnational level before implementing them on local level by taking diversity issues into consideration. The project ""Young Caritas in Europe network"" consists of the national ""Young Caritas"" -departments from Luxembourg, Austria, Switzerland, France and Germany, and two regional / local ""Young Caritas"" - departments from South Tyrol (in representation of Caritas Italy) and Vienna (the first ""Young Caritas"" - departments in Europe at all). This network has been consistently strenghtened thanks to a previous Startegic Partnership around the issue of involvment for refugees and migrants. Now two innovative new aspects will be realized: 1) Thematicly we want to break up all the clichés and strive for an open society for all, the disadvantaged and the well-being. ""You are welcome"" should apply to all: young and old, poor and rich, indigenous and stangers, for all. 2) Structurally, the 7 partners (6 of them submit this application, Switzerland submits towards their own National Agency) want to share their theme and their concept of participatory volunteering work with young people with the Caritas-youth from 19 other European countries, thus creating a Europe-wide network of the cooperative solidarity. About the issue: ""You are welcome""! With the projects by the „Young Caritas in Europe“- network it was already possible to arouse great interest all over Europe. Migration and the following responsibility of inclusion into our society has become a main topic of Europe in the last years. To face the social challenges concerning this issue on local level, but also in a European context, is first priority for young people. A solidary community is extremely important for adolescents who identify themselves as part of a European collective. About the opening for other interested countries: ""You are welcome""! - the current network wants to open itself to interested countries, welcome them and organize actions and events promoting an exchange and a better understanding for each other. This opening should be formalised with the following request. With this, exchange and social commitment for one of the most important and current topics will be made possible for thousands of young people. Becoming active together and preventing any form of exclusion shall be our contribution to strengthen a fair and solidary Europe. Our goals are: • To give young people the opportunity to work together in a spirit of solidarity, to get to know each other across national boundaries and to jointly take action at European level, giving them the opportunity to act politically. Through this we want to reach several thousand youngsters. • To share the experiences in the network ""Young Caritas in Europe"" to others and eto xpand and open us as a network • To contribute to a better cooperation in our societies and to an awareness of the European idea We want to achieve this by: • Two action meetings of volunteers where they jointly develop actions, which are then implemented locally in the partner countries and beyond, for instance within the framework of the annual Young Caritas Action Day (for these two meetings advanced preparation meetings are necessary) • Participation of volunteers and staff employees in two trainings in St. Malo (as a content input) • Work in and work on our network through strategic meetings of the staff professionals where amongst others the multiplier event is being prepared • Conducting the multiplier event, the European Young Caritas Conference, in which we exchange experiences with our stakeholders, discuss the issue and discuss our future co-operation • Preparation of material for schools, publication of our work and our experience (on the website) and production of advertising material"