Europe for all – an initiative for the integration of young people with fewer opportunities into the EVS Erasmus Project

Project Title

Europe for all – an initiative for the integration of young people with fewer opportunities into the EVS

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for youth

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Inclusion – equity; Access for disadvantaged; International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation

Project Summary

The Strategic Partnership “Europe for all” made a contribution towards a more diverse conscious and inclusive EVS/ESC and thus implement one of the major priorities of the program strand. The Strategic Partnership is a cooperation project with organisations from Scotland (A&M Scotland), Italy (Porta Nuova Europa Pavia), Bulgaria (Associaction “Inspiration” Ruse) and Germany (Jugendakademie Walberberg). The research unit “nonformal education” of the TH Köln -University of Applied Sciences participated in the project as well. They conducted scientific research of the project and evaluated it.
The project reaches out for the following objectives:
1. Exploring the conditions for tailor-made EVS-Projects for the diverse target group of young people with fewer opportunities
2. Setting up and offering training measures for the regional networking organisations in the field of peer education, project monitoring andapplying for European youth mobility projects
3. Participation of the regional politicians working in the field of youth policy: The cooperations aim to improve the regional conditions for international mobility measures
4. Preparation and supply of the project result for organisations who work in the field of international voluntary services plus presenting recommendations for a changed program implementation of the ESC
The following activities took place in order to achieve the objectives:
1.) Setup of regional networks (4-6 organisations from the field of youth work) who took part in training activites in order to implement high-quality EVS activities by themselves and to cooperate in the field of youth participation, Peer Education and Blended Learning
2.) Realization of 15 volunteering activities for about 100 young people with fewer opportunities (volunteering teams, long term services and short term services in pairs) and multiplier events in the field of Peer Learning/Blended Learning
3.) Implementation of 4 international team meetings of the consortium, the regional networks, young people with fewer opportunities and regional politicians who are responsible for youth policy in order to reflect on success factors, exchange Best Practise and initiate structural changes in regional youth policy
4.) Dissemination of the project results within the framework of a multiplier event/on meetings in the field of international voluntary services and presentation on regional events
The following conclusions can be drawn:
-Most young people are highly motivated in taking part in an international voluntary service. They and also the multipliers often lack knowledge about short term services and volunteering teams. Also, many organisations do not offer these formats due to financial reasons because they are too expensive. Research has shown that adequate funding for these formats is necessary. In addition, more information events are needed as well as a subject oriented funding system: the young people should be able to develop their own voluntary project according to their needs and should take the necessary financial resources for the specific projects for granted (for an assistance, for a wheelchair friendly apartment or counselling). A paradigm shift is necessary within the funding logic. This means it should be made possible to apply for a funding sum in a specific height and then use it according to requirements of the individual voluntary services. Then, it would no longer be necessary to label young people as “young people with fewer opportunities” in order to fit them into a funding system.
-The project “Europe for all” has also shown that establishing networks and cooperation among local and international partners can open doors to low-threshold access for young people with fewer opportunities towards international youth mobility measures who did not have access before. From the participants´perspective, we should ask how the European political actors can continue to support exchange, consultation and networking between local and international civil society actors.
-In this respect, it is very important to strengthen the position of young people as spokespersons: creating an international network of experts and youth participation was another special feature of the network. We should not only approach the creation of a specific youth network and the adjacent idea of peer education pragmatically to acquire new volunteers but also to give ex-volunteers the chance to become involved politically (e.g. stronger participation at an organizational and programme level).
-There are major differences among the various national agencies concerning processing applications. The staff of the national agencies have an important supporting role in supervising projects where they should show a high degree of transparency, good communication with the organisations and active support when needed. Thus, actions of the national agencies can help or limit some inclusion strategies followed by the organisations.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 113838 Eur

Project Coordinator

Jugendakademie Walberberg & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Inspiration
• Achieve More! Scotland
• TECHNISCHE HOCHSCHULE KOLN
• Associazione Porta Nuova Europa