The project “Rur.IT.A.N.I.A.-Rural IT Alliance for Networking, Inclusion and Activism” involved 10 partners from Serbia, Greece, Albania, Bosnia&Herzegovina, Germany, France, Spain, Poland, Estonia and Belgium, all members of the Alliance of European Voluntary Service organisations and South East European Youth Network. The project was delivered in the period of 1/1/2017 and 15/3/2018. The applicant is Young Researchers of Serbia. It aimed at fostering international mobility, IT (information technology) and IC (intercultural communication) skills development in a non-formal setting of 100 young people with geographical obstacles in 10 participating countries.There are 3 groups of activities:Group 1: information campaign in rural and remote areas – outreach activities with the OBJECTIVE to reach and sustain 100 young people from rural and remote areas willing to invest in their basic IT and IC skills development (skills of using the computer and internet, social media and youth information search; expressing oneself in a foreign language, English, in an international environment) Group 2: Four Youth Exchanges in Serbia, Belgium and Germany, with the objective of fostering an international/intercultural supportive environment for practicing and improving these basic IT and IC skills/competencies and many others (solidarity to others, teamwork, independent travelling).In 4 International Youth Exchanges 100 young participants studied, practiced their skills and gained valuable life experience in a non-formal setting of different sessions and informally during volunteer work of public interest to local hosting communities, along their peers from different countries.Group 3: evaluation and follow-up meetings and dissemination activities, with the objective of facilitating pre and post skills assessment, peer reflection of gained skills of participants and their recognition and sharing of good practices on the national and international levelsGroup 4: Kick-off and Evaluation meeting of partners, with the objective of supporting and facilitating strong and clear partnership and agreements among 10 organisations involved.The motivation behind was to give an impulse, by proactively involving 100 young people from rural and remote areas, to a multiplying effect of participation of other young people close to this direct target group. The impact on a personal level of participants was in the advancement of their skills, knowledge and attitudes. We witnessed their growth in being able to communicate in basic English; mastering the basics of using the computer, internet and social media, browsing for information related to youth participation and further projects; becoming more flexible and open-minded towards people from different countries and backgrounds, open for new traveling and exploring experiences.

The common denominator to project partners is International Voluntary Service (IVS), particularly workcamps as tools for youth active participation and local sustainable development. The consortium organises more than 200 international short-term voluntary projects –workcamps, which host 3000+ international volunteers and involve 400+ youth leaders.11 partners are members of Alliance of European Voluntary Service organisations and one (Croma, Italy) brings an added value to the project with its specific profile of members – documentary film makers / youth workers. The involvement of the Alliance as a formal promoter assured wider visibility but also certified trainers in non-formal education with expertise in trainings of youth leaders in IVS projects.This consortium explored a new trend in IVS movement: exchange of youth leaders, as a response to a common challenge of decrease in number of youth leaders in the movement.Target group: Youth leaders of international volunteer groups gathered in workcampsGENERAL AIM: Innovate, support and give recognition to youth leadership in the field of international voluntary service within the network of 13 involved project partners from 9 countries and 100+ local stakeholders from Serbia, Germany, Czech Republic, Italy, France, Spain, Turkey, Estonia, Finland.OBJECTIVE 1: improve the level of key competences and skills of 23 youth leaders (10 from Serbia and 13 from Germany, Czech Republic, Italy, France, Spain, Turkey, Estonia, Finland)OBJECTIVE 2: Foster an international/intercultural supportive environment and mentorship system for practicing youth leadership in IVS movementOBJECTIVE 3: Raise awareness of the importance of specialised youth workers in the IVS field – workcamp leadersThere are three groups of residential activities:• Act 1: International training of youth leaders (05/2017)• Act 2 - 12: Practice Phase: Exchange of youth leaders in International Voluntary Service projects among the applicant and the partners – coordination of 20 workcamps in Serbia, Spain, Turkey, Finland, France, Estonia, Germany, Czech Republic and Italy (summer 2017)• Act 13: Evaluation meeting (10/2017)The project also includes non-residential activities:• Production and promotion of a web documentary for raising awareness on the International Voluntary Service movement and the impact it has on young people, local and international communities, www.youthleaders.online • Mentoring system of youth leaders during their practice phase• Assessment of gained competencies of youth leadership and formal recognition with YouthPass and I’VE tool

<< Objectives >>Personal and professional development of team leadersSocial inclusion and respect for diversitySolidarity and active citizenship<< Implementation >>Transnational project meetingEvaluation project meetingProject management & implementation<< Results >>Primary results: sharing of good practices and improve our current methodology based on that.The AAIT project will help not only all the team leaders but also the partners to increase their resources and quality in these fields, by creating an inventory of the good practice, written together and then used in practice and shared on a network) which will include all shared ideas, tools, methods and practices, as well as it will describe necessary steps for its further implementation.

Recognition of non-formal education in the formal system is one of the priority topics of European educational policies. The main reason is that non-formal education can flexibly respond to the needs of learners and develop the competences one needs to fulfill his/her roles in society and the labour market. Some of these are rarely developed in the formal education context (e.g., communication, cultural openness, decision-making, problem-solving, critical thinking), that’s why the universities are looking for ways to update their education systems to tackle more these competences of their studentsThe partner organisations of this project (INEX-SDA Czechia, IBG Germany, YAP Italy) have been part of the already 100 years old International Voluntary Service (IVS) movement, which connects the non-formal learning of young people with traditional volunteering activities (workcamps). By participating or leading such projects, young people vastly develop the above-mentioned competences, and therefore recognition of the programmes these NGOs develop helps the universities fulfill their curricula. Moreover, by this project, the NGOs had the opportunity to precise and increase the quality of the educational programme they are offering.The participants of this project (young people - future youth workers, currently students at the partner universities) went through an educational programme, consisting of: A) Training for leaders of voluntary projects B) Preparation phase, C) Leading the 2-3 week long activity, D) International multiplicators’ training E) follow-up multiplication activities. This cycle was based on non-formal education and was focused on the essential competences of these participants as well as on proper multiplication of their experiences among young people they work with and their peers. We piloted this cycle of activities twice (in 2019 in the Czech Republic, Germany and Italy with a final international reflection and multiplication activity in the Czech Republic; and in 2021 in the Czech Republic, Germany and France with a final international reflection and multiplication in Germany. All together, we involved around 70 young people directly. Thanks to the implementation of these activities, we properly elaborated on our activities in detail in pedagogical terminology. We described them properly and monitored the learning outcomes young people gained out of their participation. Having the research findings, it made it easier to start to speak the same “language” with the universities. As a result, we started working on systemic recognition of the non-formal education volunteering programme inside official curricula with more than 10 universities in the mentioned countries, while aiming to reach even more universities in the future by continuous work with the project results.Aim of the project was therefore to bridge formal and non-formal learning to support high-quality education in general and in youth work specifically by training multiplicators who will share about their experience and connect even more NGOs and universities. Our vision is to build many of such cooperation with an aim to help building an educated and conscious new generation.The objectives and target groups of the project were as follows:- to make young people and university teachers understand and experience the non-formal education approach - its nature, advantages and impact- to develop the competences of young people, complementary to those acquired during the formal education and to introduce them to the topics of voluntary work, active citizenship, critical thinking etc., to complete their profiles as qualified educated people and to let them to apply all the experiences in their work with young people - to motivate the young people attending this project to become active multipliers among their peers and teachers at universities, and among the young people they work with - to build trust and long-term cooperation between NGOs and Universities leading towards future recognition of the non-formal education programme based on volunteering in formal curricula - to build capacities of NGOs directly and indirectly involved (via international networks) in proficient methodical and pedagogical description of their non-formal education programmes. As a result of this project, we created an impact study on the educational programme – a research report on what competencies young people develop together with its methodological description (IO1 - the impact study), a short documentary movie explaining the whole educational process (IO1 - documentary movie) and a good practice handbook, which will be used mainly by universities and NGOs all over Europe so they can get inspired from our best practises and results (IO2 - good practice booklet) accompanied by session plans to the weekend training for project leaders (IO2 - weekend training methodology).

<< Objectives >>Our aim is to support workcamps as effective tools of post-war reconciliation.Objectives:1. to build capacities of workcamp leaders and organizers to be able to successfully handle unexpected emotional situations at workcamps2. to support IVS organizations to be able to intentionally work with workcamps as tools to “build bridges”3. to support post-war reconstruction<< Implementation >>- 3 partners meetings- meeting of trainers as think tank to develop main parts of the outputs- trainings of workcamp leaders- workcamps incl. workcamps in post-war areas- research of the impact of the developed outputs on target groups- regular consultations with associated partners and other organizations working with workcamps- virtual conference to disseminate the results<< Results >>- increased capacity of IVS organizations to work with workcamps as tools for building understanding and peace- voluntary leaders experienced in methods how to solve unexpected situations and crises in workcamps- increased number of workcamps organized in post-war areas, that will help with physical reconstruction of such areas- toolbox of materials (articles, summary of experience and good practice, videos...) on how to work with such situations- recommendations for IVS organizations