Idea of the project

This project was inspired during the development of contacts between partners after the Study visit initiated by SALTO EECA to Central and Volga regions of Russia.

It is a common understanding that there is a great interest on the side of both EU and Eastern European youth organizations for common projects but there is a lack of knowledge and possibilities where and how to meet and plan projects. Therefore our partnership of youth organizations from EU and Eastern Europe has build capacity and motivation to organize a Partnership Building Activity aiming to increase the number of Inclusion and Diversity youth projects and spread out our good practice in YOUTH/YOUTH IN ACTION program wider between the new interested partners and placing this event in Jaroslavl region, Russia thus targeting new for the Youth in Action program region. This initiative will allow experienced with Youth in Action program partners from EU and Eastern Europe to get to know youth workers from new to the YOUTH IN ACTION partner organizations and visit Jaroslavl region to explore the structure and reality of the youth work in this remote from Russian mainstreams area presenting profiles and experience of participating organizations.

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

We are intending to use following methodology during the Partnership Building Activity: workshops, project market and action markets, presentations, intro visits, facilitated exchange of experiences and best practices. Methods of facilitation will be selected by the preparatory team from the SALTO online toolbox.

Following are the activities forseen during the project itself:

•     Presentation of participants and organisations
•     Presentation of the YiA Program with special focus on "Partner Neighboring countries co-operation" and multiplying activities
•     Visit to a youth organisation
•     Presentation of the youth work reality in Russia
•     Project Market - time for planning common, future projects
•     Presentation of participants and organizations - Organizations Fair
•     Workshop on Project management , Inclusion and Diversity ideas for future projects
•     Good practice presentation
•     Action Market

  Of course this partnership building activity will provide time and fame for the socialization and will practice:

• Cultural Nights: Each country will organize cultural night and presentation that will emphasize the beaty of diversities between countries.
• Trips to the Pereslavl - Zalessky and Rostov the Great sites – Kremlin , Peter Boat, Museums of Irons and Samovars.
• NGO Visit: Discovering the voluntary youth work in the Jaroslavl region and the position of the Russian youth in the democratic participation

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