Idea of the project

The young people have all been asked to complete a written/verbal evaluation as to why they want to take part in the exchange, what they hope to achieve during and after the exchange, what they will bring to the exchange, and what they think their learning outcomes will be. This pre-exchange evaluation will be a useful measure both during and after the exchange, to assess how the objectives and expected learning outcomes/actual learning outcomes are similar or digress.

Each group is in contact with the other by email and sometimes telephone, and we have, in conjunction with our Bulgarian partners, set up a dedicated website , www the-bigger-picture.info, to keep current and future partners abreast of all projects that we, and all our partners, are embarking upon.

This Partnership Building Activity is planned to be focused especially on aspects of the non-formal education development and wants to encourage potential partners to set up projects and future cooperation in forms of youth exchanges, EVS, job shadowing etc. We wanted the ideas of Inclusion and Diversity to be the theme of this project. Therefore the organizing team composed of experienced youth leaders and youth activists representing our partnership will concentrate on the methodology from the ID Booklet – a practical booklet about making youth work and international projects more inclusive and reaching more diverse target groups. ID Booklet was produced last year by two SALTOs – Inclusion and Cultural Diversity.

During the Partnership Building Activity participants will also visit youth organizations with different backgrounds and meet with local authorities responsible for youth matters organized by local hosting partner. Previous youth exchanges and a training course for peer leaders allowed for the creation of motivated youth workers and young people – peer leaders interested in broadening cooperation with the East.  The project will aim to enhance the cooperation between organizations from represented regions and wants to stimulate the creation of project ideas within Actions open for cooperation with Neighboring Partner countries.

This project will bring together youth activists and youth workers from different parts of Europe and with different backgrounds to create an environment of diverse cultures, understanding of democracy and universal values like freedom of expression, tolerance to cultural and racial differences, peace among different ideas and perspectives, European awareness, and intercultural learning through interaction and dialogue. Through organizations’ fair, project matching , partner finding , cultural activities and traditional presentations and discussions, young people and youth leaders will realize a seven-day project in which they will also experience respect to national diversities, and will form a common idea about how to practice tolerance.

Additional aim of this activity will be to find potential YOUTH IN ACTION Program multipliers, who are ready to promote and to inform about the YOUTH IN ACTION Program in remote regions of Russia as well as to co-operate on this issue with SALTO EECA Resource Centre. Part of this partnership building activity, having YOUTH IN ACTION Program presentation elements is addressed especially to future multipliers from Eastern Europe.

We will encourage all actors actively working in the field of non-formal youth education from Jaroslavl to make first step to become multiplier of the YOUTH INACTION Program in this new to the YiA program region.

Planning of the project

Each partner country has a group of young people who have rarely travelled outside of their own borders, and it is these young people who will form the core participants of this exchange, in order to give them new opportunities to meet and interact with young people from diverse cultures, who share common aims. Each group has started preliminary meetings with the young people, and taken onboard the participant’s ideas of what they want to achieve from this exchange. We have met members of all the groups involved, under a number of different measures; the UK group participated in a youth exchange with a community group in our area last year, and we made very strong links with the group, so much so, that they agreed to become partners with us on a Group Networking project which is nearing completion. The Bulgarian and Hungarian groups were also part of the Group Networking project, (giving an anti racism film a “European Dimension”, and adapting the themes and workshops in the film to their own situations). Two members of our organisation took part in a Salto project, and a training/seminar respectively, ( Bulgaria , May 06), and Malta , (March 07), where they made contact with the Maltese group, and discussed extensively, possibilities for future collaborative projects

Results achieved

We have been sharing information for the last six months on training programmes, workshops, mediums or methods of delivering training, websites, presentations, common interests, and common problems. All groups have a similar concensus on the type of exchange that we wish to run, the training methods, teambuilding activities, workshops, aims, and expected learning outcomes. We do not wish this exchange to be a stand alone project, but one that will lead to an extended network of likeminded partners in Europe , able to skill share, disseminate and use the information gained from projects and actions to further enhance the intercultural activities that we are all involved in. The culmination so far, of our links, communications, and collaberative efforts is this youth exchange, “Part of the Bigger Picture”, (part II).

For more information on the schedule of activities, please download the program.