You(th) Make(s) Change Happen Erasmus Project

Project Title

You(th) Make(s) Change Happen

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 2014

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Youth (Participation, Youth Work, Youth Policy) ; EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning

Project Summary

SAME stands for Solidarity Action day Movement in Europe. It is a youth partnership initiated in 2011 which brings together several European youth organisations that carry out an annual Action Day. During these national Action Days, about 300.000 pupils all over Europe get the chance to exercise a job of their choice instead of going to school. Their salaries are used to support youth projects all over the world. In accordance with the goals the European Union set for 2020, SAME envisions to:

– Provide young people with the practical entrepreneurial experiences and skills necessary to find a place in the insecure job market of the 21st century through their participation in the (organisation of the) national Action Day and in SAME
– Encourage young people to stand up for a fair and democratic world by taking up social commitment, showing solidarity via intercultural cooperation and becoming active citizens in European as well as global society.

SAME started in 2011 as an informal yearly get-together of the young volunteers who organise these Action Days on a national level. Our cooperation did not have staff members or legal status. Nevertheless, we quickly realised the potential of our European cooperation: it can strengthen the single organisations and it can have an added value on the European level. And so the You(th) Make(s) Change Happen (YMCH) project was born. Six Action Day organisations joined forces in this project and we also included the Serbian Action Day organisation as a blind partner, together with a variety of youth organisations interested in introducing the Action Day in their country.

With this project, we wanted to make SAME a long-term, well-functioning and effective European youth network. This required the financial resources to create strong foundations for SAME and to develop SAME’s vision and aims and core activities. SAME was and still is completely led by the volunteers from the national Action Day organisations, who are youth from 15 to 25 years old.

During this two-year project, we worked together in small groups via online communication and Transnational Project Meetings, with guidance of young administrative staff. We developed SAME’s vision and aims, structure, decision-making procedure and communication methods which led to the founding of SAME ivzw/aisbl, a legally registered international non-profit association under Belgian law. We increased our visibility, inclusion mechanisms, evaluation methods and we researched paths for long-term funding.

Of course, laying the foundations for a strong cooperation also implied that we developed SAME’s core activities, in line with our four originally set strategic aims:
1. Best practice exchange: the SAME member organisations are strengthened through the exchange of best practices. Intercultural cooperation, the exchange of experiences and mutual learning, both on a personal and on an organisational level, are stimulated. This improves the quality of the Action Days.
2. Making youth’s voice heard: SAME believes in the power of young people and wants to make their voices heard. It positively influences public opinion and policy makers. Thus, SAME lobbies for Action Day affairs on a European level.
3. Action Day initiatives: SAME spreads the Action Day and supports new Action Day initiatives (which are young people who want to start up their own Action Day organisation). During the Action Day, young people get a unique opportunity to show solidarity and to stand up for peers in an effective manner.
4. Common actions: European young people organise common actions to raise awareness, promote solidarity and youth participation and strive for a fair and democratic world.

We are happy to announce that we have set up activities, tools and platforms which enable us to work towards these strategic aims. Most notably, the national Action Day organisations are clearly being strengthened by our best practice exchanges. Furthermore, we have developed a starter kit for new Action Day initiatives, including a Start Up Seminar and a reader. We are in touch with ten interested organisations across Europe, of which three are planning their first Action Day very soon and one has already successfully introduced the Action Day in their country (Bosnia and Herzegovina).

Although we still have work to do to improve SAME and its core activities, we can already ensure structural cooperation of the Action Day organisations on the long term thanks to the YMCH project. We are encouraging active participation of youth in democratic life and we are empowering youth by strengthening their organisations on the national level, by offering extra entrepreneurial experiences and intercultural exchanges on the European level and by spreading the Action Day to other countries in Europe.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 50000 Eur

Project Coordinator

Zuiddag & Country: BE

Project Partners

• Operasjon Dagsverk
• Operation Dagsværk
• Schüler Helfen Leben e.V.
• Operation Daywork ONLUS
• Progetto Zattera Blu Società Cooperativa Sociale Onlus