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.

"""Be the Change : conflict as catalyst for transformation and empowerment "" is aiming at improving the skills and competences of European citizens to address their interpersonal conflicts, and work towards their transformation into learning, development and communication's opportunities in order to facilitate relations and the development of an inclusive Europe. This project seeks to improve the overall quality of training and learning in the field of conflict management by bringing together actors from the formal, non-formal artistic education and Social economy sectors as well as learners. Together, they will develop learning pathways that combine different methods and approaches to better achieve the overall goal: the transformation of conflict into opportunities for development of the individuals and their relationships. . The main objective of this project ""Be the Change"" is to propose an innovative and transdisciplinary teaching of conflicts transformation by developing an innovative and cross sectoral curriculum built on a partnership between current providers and learners. This project is innovative thanks to the trans-sectoral cooperation and its pedagogical approach based on putting the learner in situation to transfer knowledge and skills.The main priorites targeted through the consortium action are the development of high-quality skills, the improvement of youth quality work and youth empowerment. The project can be broken down into a series of actions, workshops and intellectual productions as follows: M1/ Kick Off Meeting - February 2019M2/ Transnational meeting to prepare the workshops -August 2019 C1-C2 / Transnational bi-disciplinary pedagogic workshops - Formal education & theater / non formal education & participative videoM3/ Transnational Meeting to prepare the Lab - November 2019C3/ Laboratory of participative MOOC creation- February 2020E1/ Multiplier Event– September 2020M4/ Transnational evaluation meeting - December 2020O1/ Intelectual output: a MOOC combining the 4 approaches and the sectors involved in the project and created by learners and trainers through a participative processThe expected outcome for this project lie mainly the development of a transdisciplinary conflict management training program, free and accessible to all thanks to an extensive dissemination work, and fostering the empowerment of learners and educators/ trainers."

"REC-THINK project aims at developing tools and methodologies to involve rural youth in the process of “re-think” themselves and their role in the future of their localities. To achivie this, it will be used the Participatory Video as an innovative tool for the collective expression, in such a way press REC will be the first step in the construction of sustainable alternatives to these young people in their regions.A significant part of the rural areas in Europe is experiencing a strong process of depopulation and a gradual aging of the population in rural areas. This is the same situation for the partners’ countries: France, Portugal, Spain and Italy.These phenomena have negative consequences for both the personal development of young people and for the whole area and its economic and social perspective. In this sense, REC-THINK seeks to create a new strategy for working with young people in rural areas, which, together with these organizations, form the main target groups. It is intended that young people in rural areas will be the voice of their regions, expanding their knowledge and skills with an active dimension, participation and action, breaking geographical isolation and creating a network that serves as a point of collaboration, reflection and consolidation of social relations.Therefore this strategic partnership aims to:1. Develop methodologies and training tools to promote empowerment, participation and integral development of rural youth in Europe through the participatory video tool.2. Create a virtual community for exchanging experience, strategies and generating sustainable alternative for European rural areas, with the involvement of young participants, stakeholders and members of organizations as key actors.3.Train young participantes to become active agents in the processes of political and economic transformation, through the development of digital and communicative skills.4.Train workers of the participant organisations in the developed tools and methodologies.To achieve these objectives the project will foresee the following activities:-Management, coordination and communication activities.-Development of a methodological guide for the implementation of innovative strategies to promote the participation of young people in rural areas through participatory video-Development of a training path for the promotion of transversal skills in rural areas: technology and communication-Development of a methodological guide for the development of collaborative projects among rural youth-Training activities targeted to rural youth to promote their empowerment and participation through a participatory video as an innovative tool-Learning activity targeted to workers in the field of youth through the exchange and transfer of ICT tools and communication techniques -Celebration of thee forum ""How slow the isolation of rural youth through the development of technological and communication skills""Besides the intellectual results that will be developed through the first three activities, the REC-THINK project foresees other outcomes such as:-Elaboration of a WEB-DOC-Consolidation of a community of actors involved in rural development-Four short documentaries prepared by the young participants in the project, around the theme of needs and vulnerabilities of their region.-Digital -review: young participants draw up a report in multimedia format on the specific subject (resources and collective heritage) The expected impacts are the following:-Improving skills, methods and tools for the organizations participants to work with young people in rural areas, in order to promote social and political participation organizations.-Empowerment and personal development of the young participants through the development of communication and digital skills.-Extended partnership for the development of new projects and joint initiatives in these areas of activity.-Improved local development of the regions participating in the project and possible regions and organizations tahat adopt tools developed in REC-THINK.-Visibility of the alternatives for local development in rural areas and the role of youth in these processes as protagonists and not as mere recipients."

Recent statistics of IVS (International Voluntary Service) networks such as Alliance and CCIVS illustrates that international projects for teenagers, such as exchanges, meetings and workcamps, are succesful and show a high rate of participation. However, the number of international activities for teenagers is still limited compared to international projects for young adults.One reason for this trend is related to the specificities associated with teenagers, regarding group dynamic, responsabilities and legislation. These specificities are sometimes considered as constraints which prevent the development of projects for teens. Still, there is a huge demand for this kind of project which are getting popular every year as teenagers want to be actively engaged and spend their vacations with purpose.Through numerous years, Solidarités Jeunesse has organized many youth exchanges for teenagers (15 to 17 years) with a high interest in sharing its experience with other organizations. We are certainly convinced that these experiences could create a trigger for the youth to feel more included in the process of emancipation and be a source of liberation and raising awareness. Therefore, in cooperation with our international partners we propose this project that will first of all train youth leaders to be able to work with teenagers in non-formal context and as a result, will contribute to the development of numerous teenager projects. In addition, we would like to create with our partners a common work ethic with the teenagers to move towards the same goal of strengthening the responsibility, empowerment and the intercultural spirit of the youth.Objectives of the seminar:- to reinforce the capacity of partner organisations to organise international projects for teenagers;- to provide youth workers with quality online and offline tools to lead international activities for teenagers;- to increase the number of international projects for teenagers and make them sustainable;- to valorise the impact of international projects for teenagers;- to create a network of youth organisations organising teenager projects.In order to reach the objectives of the project, it was decided to organise a Steering Committee meeting and a seminar on quality youth work and inclusion models for teenagers, a training on organising and leading international activities for teenagers followed by experimentations with teenagers in participating countries. These experimentations will be facilitated by two international youth workers in terms of job shadowing supported by the hosting organisation and a local youth worker. The results of the project and a toolkit on international teen activities produced by partners will be presented during the Final Evaluation.In order to reach the objectives in a more effective way, it was decided to invite 3 experts on teen intercultural pedagogy and impact measurement, intercultural learning and pedagogy of teenagers and impact assessment

Solidarités Jeunesses would like to propose a project on how voluntary projects impact the perception and representations one's have and thus on stereotypes that arise from it.Volunteering projects offer the opportunity to discover new cultures and habits through local organisations, consequently by living the daily life of the people, participating to a project serving the local communities and meeting different organisations answering local needs (environment, construction, social, etc).At the same time, volunteering offers learning opportunities while contributing to meaningful actions during the protection of cultural diversity and the improvement of living conditions.However to experience those projects led on the field by us, voluntary organisations, in many countries in the world, and to allow a change in the volunteers' perceptions of those countries, there is a need for an upstream work in terms of communication in order to increase the number of volunteers going to participate to voluntary project and consequently, supporting the implementation of projects. A great number of the young people are attracted by IVS and eager to contribute to this kind of actions. Despite this, the IVS movement are recording a dramatic decrease in the number of volunteers exchanged especially towards African countries.→ What are the causes of this phenomenon?→ Does the multiplications of other types of volunteering affect us?The will with this project is to identify key elements of our projects in order to communicate better on them for a higher recognition.For this project, we've decided to focus on the projects implemented by our partner organisations in Africa.Indeed too many times, we've noticed that the first words that come to the mind of people when thinking of Africa are: hunger, wars, poverty and refugees. The volunteers still come up with the idea that Africa needs “help”. Through the use of several methods and tools, this project aims at changing this perception and to support our partner organisations in the implementation of their projects.The objectives of the project is to:-To improve the perception of Africa and to develop a critical thinking dealing with mass media, in order to better communicate on IVS projects-To deconstruct stereotypesThose two objectives will lead us to our main one which is:-To increase the number of volunteers exchanged