Project place: Madrid, Spain
Project dates: 25 February – 2 March 2024
Deadline for applying: URGENT!
About the Project
This Seminar “COOPERaction: How can the Eramus + projects influence the life of European youth?” is a 7-day seminar that will take place from the 25th of February to the 2nd of March 2024 in Madrid, Spain. The countries involved are Albania, Armenia, Italy, Spain, Bulgaria, Ukraine, North Macedonia, Azerbaijan and Turkey. It will be attended by 23 participants (including the coordinating team). At SCI Madrid, we are aware of the importance and magnitude of Erasmus+ as a programme that supports education, training, youth and sport in the European Union. Despite all that this wonderful initiative offers, we at SCI found that it does not have the impact it should have on the European Youth. We identified 3 main reasons why we believe that, through this seminar, we could help to boost attendance and awareness. The first and most common is the lack of knowledge of this programme. We have detected that most of the people have knowledge of Erasmus+ because they have a direct link with an organization that develops and implements the programme. Secondly, even if people know about it, they are often not aware of the importance that it can bring to their lives, both on a personal and professional level. Finally, we believe that organizations need a more effective and solid strategy to disseminate the programme, which really conveys the opportunities, importance and experiences that Erasmus+ can bring to people’s lives. It is thus essential that those who have had first-hand experience of Erasmus+ at both the organizational and participatory levels become aware of this and engage in the dissemination and, why not, generation of projects linked to Erasmus+. Therefore, our aim is to raise awareness and deepen the opportunities of the Erasmus+ programme through innovative and appropriate educational and informative solutions for young people to understand the importance and necessity of the implementation and participation of Erasmus+ programmes both on a social and personal level. During the seminar we are going to use a broad variety of non-formal education methods, such as world café, snowball discussion, research, silent exhibition, theater, visual harvesting, arts, energizers, self-reflection, team building games and more.
Our objectives
● To provide participants with the necessary information to understand Erasmus+ projects .
● To raise awareness of the importance of participating in these projects both on an educational level and to be able to live new and enriching experiences as well as to promote a change towards habits of active European participation among the young population.
● Sharing learning stories, tools and knowledge.
● To integrate cooperation in the field of youth work with different methodologies to be presented by the participants themselves.
● To motivate and give tools to the participants to develop critical thinking both during the seminar and in their future projects in order to be able to face current phenomena with more judgment, which is often affected by too much information or traditionally accepted negative behaviors.
● To share knowledge and tools to inform or raise awareness, inspiring and motivating to live a more inclusive and active life at all levels.
● To create an international network of youth workers interested in supporting, collaborating, co-creating and cooperating.
● To create a basis for supporting young people in developing visions and understanding of the importance of and involvement in Erasmus+ projects.
● Understand how Erasmus+ is a support base to fulfill the 2030 Agenda.
● To get to know organizations that are engaged in supporting young people and young workers who want to participate, apply or simply inform themselves about Erasmus+ projects.
● Learn from each other’s experiences: best practices as well as strategies for improvement.
● Create an annex to the toolkit and disseminate it to youth organizations all over the world.
● Promote non-formal education, Erasmus+ and Youthpass.
Participants’ profile
– Youth workers and staff active in youth centers, youth initiatives, international exchange organizations, volunteer organizations, etc. international exchange organizations,
volunteer organizations, etc.
– Coordinators of international exchange programs, volunteer exchanges.
– Coordinators of international youth projects, such as youth exchanges.
– Facilitators and trainers of youth worker mobility or other educational staff training.● Be 18 years old or older.
● Be able to work in English.
● Be interested in the seminar topics and have a strong motivation to act as an active agent.
● Attend for the full duration of the seminar.
● Commit to spreading their new skills and competences to their sending branches, e.g. via a workshop or a camp coordinator training.
● As far as possible, avoid traveling by plane and choose green travel options (eg. train or bus).
ACCOMMODATION and FINANCES:
All costs related to accommodation and food will be covered by the hosting organization.
Travel costs will be reimbursed up to 275 EUR.
Sending fee: 750 MKD