"<< Objectives >>With youth workers empowerment and preparation as one of our core goals, our first General Assembly of 2019, with the aim of defining the lines of our work as a European coalition, greatly focused on the European Commission study on “ Quality Youth Work, a framework for the further development of youth work”. Based on this study, youth workers quality competencies as a precondition and methods for mapping “the different needs, interests, and experiences of young people and processes for structured dialogue youngsters are a basic for youth work high quality and empowering impact.However, many times due to lack of resources, solid structure or social understanding of the importance and value of youth work, youth workers are not aware and prepare enough to:- Understand the needs of the youngsters they are working with- Connect with them and communicate with them in a way that makes them feel empowered and ready to take action.This way, the general objectives of this project were:1. To equip youth workers competencies and methods needed to effectively understand the needs, reach and communicate with the youngsters they are working with.2. To put a focus on the most disadvantaged groups ensuring their empowerment through, social and civic activation, critical thinking, sense of initiative and respect to human rights and EU values, through effective communication.Specifically, the project was aiming to:1. Boost youth workers' professional and personal competencies and leadership skills as the most effective way to reach and empower the youth and especially the most disadvantaged youth.2. Boost youth workers' leadership skills by deepening into self & others awareness methods and activities as the best way to effectively map and understand the needs of youngsters and especially the most disadvantaged youth.3. Boost youth workers' leadership skills by deepening into communication styles and techniques in order to effectively reach, mobilize and empower these youth groups<< Implementation >>The project was conceived to implement one activity of 5 full days of training from the 26th of April to the 1st of may (including one day for travel). However, due to the COVID outbreak, the activity was canceled. The originally planned activity was foreseen the following sessions:1.Presentations: designed to enrich youth workers with a deeper understanding of the following topics: positive leadership and its characteristics & styles, case of studies, character & temperament, EQ, and role models for youth empowerment, self & others awareness. 2.Case of studies: designed to offer youth workers more profound comprehension and examples in regards to applications of positive leadership for high and youth positive performance.3.Exercises, Activities Exercises & activities were aiming to deepen youth workers' knowledge when developing, improving, or displaying specific skills. They aimed to help them to more profoundly understand and design methodologies of the particular topics of self-awareness, positive leadership, personality types, communication process, and conflict management. 4.World Café aimed to reflect among given cases of study on real applications of positive leadership for positive youth performance. Youth workers were supposed to come to important and useful takeaway conclusions that can be applied or developed afterward in the youth work area. 5.Workshops, including topics such us as: a) Youth workers as a positive leader, designed to equip participants with useful working methods, skills, and methodologies that will help them to increase their impact on youngsters and disadvantaged groups they work with.b) Personal and organizational action plan when participants were expected to gain practical skills in creating personal and organizational plans and achieving short, long term goals more effectively for themselves & their organizations. 6.Self & group evaluation & reflection and 7. YouthPass Ceremony When participants were conceived to evaluate their performance based on the different desired learning outcomes & the criteria for helping & empowering youth & disadvantaged groups.8.Ice breakers & networking events, designed to warm up the conversation among participants and to comfortably interact with each other. During these activities, participants were expected to raise their understanding and awareness of other cultures, which naturally lead to intercultural dialogue and multiculturalism. Participants were aimed to build long-lasting international contacts, enlarging their community of youth workers. Due to the impact of the sanitary crisis and the official cancelation of the project and trying to make the best of the situation we make sure to send the already prepared presentations and supporting materials to sign up participants for further feedback, including: 1. Theoretical background and information for all those topics that were supposed to be covered by originally planned presentations2. Self-awareness, EQ, and personality tests to individually performed. 3. Practical exercises and activities proposed in order to boost communication between teams and with specific groups of disadvantaged youngsters. 4. Self- reflection and self-evaluation activities. 27 youth workers from 8 different partner organizations (SPAIN, BULGARIA, HUNGARY, LITHUANIA, TURKEY, CYPRUS, ITALY) participated in the project until cancellation. They were directly selected by partner organizations among youth workers:- Actively participate, volunteer, or work in a youth organization - Work with disadvantaged or marginalized youth well exclusively or not.And on the basis of the following criteria: - Working level of English that will allow them to fully participate and take advantage of all workshops and training sessions. - Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to develop their competencies in regards to leadership and youth empowerment - Personal and professional engagement regarding youth work and non-formal education as tools that assist in the creation of positive impacts of youth, especially disadvantaged youth.- Proven desire to participate in preparatory activities and all sessions planned for the program as well as on the communication and dissemination campaign.The selection of participants did happen according to these criteria as it took place before the coronavirus outbreak.<< Results >>Despite the project was officially canceled, and aiming to evaluate the usefulness of the content, exercises, and methodologies that were planned to be proposed, we conducted a final evaluation form on the basis of the supporting materials sent to participants, to better understand the possible positive impacts of the prepared materials and the topics and activities that were supposed to be implemented. According to it:- 83% of the participants stated that ""the training and its materials would have provided them with the competencies needed in order to understand the needs of disadvantaged youth groups""- 73% of the participants stated that ""the training and its materials would have provided them with the methods needed in order to better reach and communicate with the most disadvantaged youth groups.- 64% of the participants stated that ""The training and its materials would have increased their professional competences in the field of youth work"".- 91% of the participants stated that ""The training and its materials would have allowed them to gain knowledge on self- & other-awareness methods"". - 65% of the participants stated that ""the training and its materials would have increased their positive leadership skills to be applied in the field of youth work"".- 72% of the participants stated that ""The training and its materials would have increased their communication skills and for better direct communication with disadvantaged youngsters. - 93% of the participants stated that ""This training and its materials would have increased their knowledge on new and innovative methodologies that can be used in non-formal education settings""."