Youth exchange: tools for the future

The entities participating in this project are interested in creating safer environments for young people, in terms of employment, relationships, educational environment and social networks, where they are normally exposed to aggressive environments, daily conflicts, complex situations, and find themselves vulnerable to exploitation, mistreatment, bullying, etc.

For that reason, the activity has five objectives:

1. To become aware of the situations of vulnerability in which young people find themselves.

2. The creation of strategies and protocols for action, in the event of mistreatment.

3. To develop tools to create safer environments and healthy perspectives for young people, in order to succeed in the proposed areas (relationships, work, academics and technology).

4. To offer European opportunities.

5. To broaden our knowledge about ICTs, social networks and the associated conflicts they generate among young people.

With this goals, we intend that the participants obtain a greater motivation and knowledge to promote activities for the resolution of conflicts, in their organizations and local communities. They will be able to use the tools that they would share with each other, in this initiative, through the debates, activities, and dynamics that they carry out.

“Tools for the future” is a youth exchange that will last 9 days and will take place in Cantabria (Spain).

Each participating organisations from 6 countries (UK, Portugal, Italy, France, Poland and Spain) will bring 6 participants (between 20 and 24 years old), accompanied, by a team leader. A total of 42 young people are expected to participate. In order to achieve our objectives, a 9-day programme has been designed, which includes other indirect objectives that are important to us.

For that purpose, we have two axes of action, the vertical that refers to those activities that will be present throughout the exchange and the horizontal, that are the usual structural activities of daily work.

In the vertical axes, we find three main lines, which together with the arrival and the farewell complete the activity. These lines of work are:

-To know each other: To know who we are, what we do, what our potentials are and what we can share.
– Sharing: what struggles/difficulties we have, what things interest us and have the opportunity to exchange good practices.
– To discover: To collectively investigate the different proposals and lines of action that Europe has to offer and the opportunities for the young people (entrepreneurship, solidarity corps, joint actions, TC, YE, KA2, kA3, etc).

In the horizontal sessions, we will find the main threads that are in the day to day, during the two sessions, in the morning, and the two sessions, in the afternoon:

First sessions: These sessions are connected with presenting the objectives and expected results for the day, creating a group and starting to introduce the day’s work theme.

– Presentation of the program, group building and motivations.
– Group analysis of daily oppressions and difficulties experienced by young people.
– Debate for the exchange of ideas and points of view.
– Strategies and good practices that we already use, in our daily lives.
– Presentation of ICTs, its advantages and dangers.
– Presentation of the Solidarity Corps, entrepreneurship programes and examples of projects.
– Agreements, impacts and non-formal learning in projects.
– Example of youth projects, in the region of Cantabria.

The second sessions are related to group work about the previous introduction. In this way, we maintain dynamism, group attention and encourage the sharing of the realities of each participant:

– Youthpass and key competences + virtual mobility.
– Creation of new ideas and ways of acting, in the event of mistreatment.
– Safe environments in relationships.
– Conflicting situations around ICTs. Challenges and proposals.
– Questions and answers for the development of future projects.

The third sessions (after lunch) will deepen and analyze each of the objectives.
For each of them, we will look , among the group, for one or several specialists on the matter to work on, so that they facilitate the space. In a certain way, these sessions close the open process, for each day.

– Exploration of the environment, gymkhana, around the local area and among local population.
– To become aware of the situations of vulnerability, in which young people find themselves.
– Sharing the different social realities.
– Creation of strategies and protocols for action in case of mistreatment.
– Develop tools to create safe environments and healthy perspectives for young people to succeed in the proposed areas (relationships, work, academics and technology).
– Generate alliances to be able to develop future actions together.
– To broaden our knowledge about ICTs, social networks and the associated conflicts they generate in young people.
– Cultural activity to get to know other youth organisations and Final evaluation.

The fourth sessions are created and designed to put in common cultural aspects of the different countries. Each day, two hours will be devoted to the country presentations that the groups must prepare, so that the rest of the participants can get to know the facts and customs of each of the participating countries. These types of activities can be carried out, by means of power point presentations, games, dynamics, dances and any activity that the young people themselves have designed. During the second afternoon, participants will have a space for the final preparation of this task (since they should bring a prepared proposal from home). During the next six afternoons, each group will make its presentation.

THE FOLLOWING LEARNING OUTCOMES ARE EXPECTED FROM THE PROGRAMME

The project is based on five main objectives, which are described below:

1.To become aware of the situations of vulnerability in which young people find themselves.

It is expected a greater understanding of and responsiveness to social, linguistic and cultural diversity and increased ability to address the needs of disadvantaged people.

2. Increased skills, in case of abuse in their daily environment.

With this we aim: to improve the skills linked to their professional profiles (teaching, training, youth work, etc.) and a better understanding between the educational, training or youth systems of the different countries.

3. Develop tools to create safe environments and healthy perspectives for young people to succeed in the proposed areas (relationships, work, academics and technology).

This is related to the expected improved quality of work and activities on behalf of students, trainees, apprentices, pupils, adult learners, youth and volunteers; a better understanding of the interconnections of formal and non-formal education with vocational training and the labour market, respectively.

4. Providing European opportunities. We will contribute to achieve the improvement of foreign language skills; and an increased support for, and promotion of, youth mobility activities.

5. To broaden the knowledge about the ICTa, the social networks and the associated conflicts that these generate, among youth.

The project will contribute to a greater capacity to provoke changes, in terms of modernization and international openness, within the educational organizations themselves, as well as within the youth collective itself.

THE FOLLOWING LEARNING OUTCOMES ARE EXPECTED FROM THE METHODOLOGY:

Both the programme and the methodology are related to the 8 keys to lifelong learning.

Participants will have the possibility to learn from each other, to learn to understand each other’s needs and each other better, to be more tolerant towards each other, and to fight against unjust situations, in youth environments, such as racism, discrimination, sexism, adultism, etc. Each person belongs to different cultural, social and political systems, and may be discriminated, in their local community or culture; thus, youth is susceptible to be discriminated, by other social groups (because of their age, gender, economy, level of education, religion, etc).

2. Also, sometimes, young people focus only on their own identity and “forget” that there are other groups around them. This YE will provide space for young people, to understand themselves and analyse these cultural differences.

3. Another expected result has to do with the solidification of the participants’ esteem, achieved after the different activities designed, for the first part of the YE.

4. Participants will acquire skills and attitudes which will facilitate the learning and sharing.

5. Another aspect that we hope to foster is the ability to develop project ideas, based on newly acquired knowledge and information, within an international group of people.

6. All the activity will be conducted in English (a foreign language for most participants), which will help them to improve their linguistic competences, as well as improve their communication skills.

7. Sharing tools. Knowing new tools for working in the distance, ICTs and working methods to manage possible future international relations, between participating organizations. In addition to this, we will learn about the possible daily dangers of ICTs, among young people.

Other expected benefits for the project participants are:

– Presentation skills;
– The ability to cooperate efficiently with people with different educational, social, economic and cultural backgrounds;
– Competence to act critically;
Ability to elaborate and formulate questions;
Research skills;
Abilities to work alone and in groups of different sizes;
Ability to listen to others;
– Communication skills;
– Reflect and critical attitudes on information;
– Decision making;
– Understand the need for a more inclusive society;
– Know the different concepts of youth work, in different countries;
– The ability to articulate concepts, related to inclusion and non-discrimination, in order to promote these values among a wide variety of audiences.