XCHANGE 2.0 – exchange of international youth leaders in International Voluntary Service Erasmus Project

Project Title

XCHANGE 2.0 – exchange of international youth leaders in International Voluntary Service

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 : Capacity Building for youth in neighbouring and enlargement countries

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics:

Project Summary

The project “XCHANGE 2.0 – exchange of international youth leaders in International Voluntary Service” involves 13 partners from 8 countries and one European network where all are members – Alliance of European Voluntary Service Organisations. The coordinating organisation is Young Researchers of Serbia. Workcamps are their common denominator.Workcamp movement is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2020. It has always been avant-garde and innovative, so to exist this long. It used to involve women at the same level as men in times when most European countries didn’t allow women the right to vote. It declined to have any military or religious activities in workcamps, when it used to be the default. It has stood for solidarity in many times of crisis, precisely because of the dynamic nature of international youth volunteerism. Projects like XCHANGE help explore new innovative ways for the movement to address the needs of young people and youth organisations. XCHANGE is about the exchange of youth leaders, as a response to a common challenge of decrease in number of youth leaders in the movement.In the period between 4/12/2018 and 14/06/2020 the consortium provided a theoretical (training) and hands on experience (practice phase) to 15 youth leaders from Serbia and 20 from partners’ countries. The leaders coordinated 26 local community projects (workcamps) involving 350+ young volunteers from all over the world and later on continued to influence the volunteerism policies as active members of boards, working groups, pools of trainers, thus shaping the IVS movement as a peace movement.Objectives were:OBJ 1: raise the level of key competences and skills of youth leaders for the task of coordinating international volunteer projects (workcamps) abroadOBJ 2: Foster an international/intercultural supportive environment and mentorship system for practicing youth leadership abroad, deeply linked to local communities’ realities in countries other than one’s ownOBJ 3: raise awareness of the the practice and benefits of international mobility of youth workers for better social cohesion, intercultural understanding and more inclusive practices on local levelOBJ 4: support and facilitate strong and clear partnership and agreements among 14 organisations involvedActivities:• Kick-off meeting, January 2019, online• promotion campaign, recruitment of leaders, January-April 2019• two international trainings of youth leaders in IVS, April and May 2019, Serbia• practice phase: youth work abroad, 35 youth leaders exchanged between Serbia and other partners during the workcamps season of 2019• Support system for youth leaders by HOs during their practice phase, in all countries• promotional campaign -dissemination of results from the practice phase: upgrade of the web documentary www.youthleaders.online with a blog, translation, new stories from leaders, online among partners throughout the project• evaluation with leaders and SOs and certification September-december 2019, nationally• Evaluation meeting of partners, November 2019, online

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 82599,71 Eur

Project Coordinator

MLADI ISTRAZIVACI SRBIJE UDRUZENJE & Country: RS

Project Partners

• ASSOCIATION CONCORDIA
• YAP – YOUTH ACTION FOR PEACE
• ASSOCIATION DES COMPAGNONS BATISSEURS
• INEX – SDRUZENI DOBROVOLNYCH AKTIVIT Z S
• COORDINADORA D’ORGANITZADORS DE CAMPS DE TREBALL INTERNACIONALS DE CATALUNYA
• INEX SLOVAKIA-OBCIANSKE ZDRUZENIE
• INTERNATIONALE BEGEGNUNG IN GEMEINSCHAFTSDIENSTEN