Turn the Youth Exchanges ON(line) Partnership Building Activity

Sometimes planning youth exchanges can get difficult. Two common reasons for rejecting youth exchange projects are the lack of good participation of the young participants and the inadequate involvement of all partners in the project. The developments in Youth in Action Programme also place new challenges - the online application may complicate cooperation between partners and fewer deadlines require new strategical thinking in the organisations. There are a lot of online tools to be used in international cooperation, but they are not used well. All the challenges above can be overcome, if you know how. Turn the Youth Exchanges ON(line) PBA will help finding ways for good grass root participation of the young people and will make working in partnerships much easier. It will also support you until the first available deadline, so that your project does not only stay a plan, but becomes reality. The main aim of this project is to support youth workers and young people in finding partners for cooperation and developing good quality youth exchange projects together. Specific objectives are: • To offer space and tools for promoters in youth exchanges to find partners and develop youth exchange projects together. • To introduce the Youth in Action opportunities, focusing on benefits and quality demands of youth exchanges. • To exchange and learn various on-line tools useful for project planning and active involvement of young people and partners. • To involve young people in the project planning phase through offering a taste of international project experience and the use of on-line tools. Profile of participants 40 participants in total will be invited to attend the Partnership Building Activity. Build a team of 1 youth worker and 1-2 young people (age from 15 to 18 years old) of your organisation and apply for this learning activity! When we choose participants, we pay extra attention of the following selection criteria: • Team should have a rough idea for a youth exchange and show willingness to find partners for the project. • Participants should show their curiosity to learn and try new on-line tools for project planning. • At least one person in the team is able to communicate in English at the sufficient level and to help others with the language. • Preference will be given to newcomers in the Youth in Action Programme: people and/or organisations that yet are new to youth exchanges, without forgetting the motivated experienced people Methodology of the activity The activity will follow the methodology of blended learning: residential non-formal learning activity (Turn the Youth Exchanges ON(line)) will be complimented and supported with the on-line learning environment and tools before and after the activity. Before the physical activity, selected participants will be invited to join the on-line learning environment which is created for the activity. As soon as they will join, they will be able to start their learning by using various on-line tools for project planning. After the Partnership Building Activity, participants will continue working on their project, supported by their peers and the team working with the on-line support tool. Team of facilitators • Jo Claeys, freelance trainer and boardgame designer Produções Fixe. Find out more from trainer’s profile on SALTO: http://www.salto-youth.net/tools/toy/jo-claeys.8/ • Elizabeth Kasa-Mälksoo, freelance trainer. Find out more from trainer’s profile on SALTO: http://www.salto-youth.net/tools/toy/elizabeth-kasa.149/ • Nerijus Kriauciunas, free-lance trainer and coach for youth projects. • Paavo Pyykkönen, Senior Programme Adviser at the Finnish National Agency of Youth in Action Programme