Training Seminar "Let's meet between regions: Baltic & Dead seas"

Background

The idea of this activity arise during the TCP officers meeting in Bonn in October 2007.

Why to cooperate?

• Baltic region is Christian; the Christianity originated in the Middle East;
• At the collapse of the Soviet Union, many individuals from the Baltic region emigrated to the region, mostly to Israel because of their Jewish origin;
• English language is the most common second language in both regions;
• All countries involved in the Seminar have been under the control, influence and administrations of other political powers, countries, nations;
• All six partners are small in their territories as well as the amount of inhabitants

Countries	Territory in square kilometers	Inhabitants
Estonia	45.266	1,324.333
Israel	20.330	7,150.000
Jordan	91.971	5,600.000
Latvia	62.589	2,294.590
Lithuania	65.200	3,575.000
Palestinian Authority	10.435	2,535.927

Needs Analysis

Baltic National Agencies

• to support youth organization in finding good, trusty partners from the Mediterranean region;
• to foster the exchange of information about the Youth in Action Programme and EuroMed Youth Programme, been the last the one allowing to participate in projects hosted in Meda countries;
• to offer the best environment to the Baltic organization, youth workers to understand and learn the reality of the Meda region, their youth policy and youth work;
• to encourage the good cooperation, to promote the real partnership building between European and Meda organizations.

EuroMed Youth Units

• to support youth organizations in finding good, trusty partners from European Union countries, specially those EU regions that are not in geographical closeness, such as the Baltic region;
• to foster the exchange of information and already existing experience about the Youth in Action Programme and the EuroMed Youth Programme, as the tools for implementing international youth activities;
• to give a chance to Meda organization to learn the reality of the youth work and youth policy in the Baltic countries;
• to encourage cooperation promoting real partnership building between Baltic and Meda organizations.

Youth organizations

• contacts with other organizations;
• knowledge on different programmes supporting youth activities;
• understanding about the reality in other regions;
• planning for cooperation with international partners in long term, establishing the mechanism to keep the partnership by distant communication in the long run;

Organisational Frame

This Trainins Seminar is organised in cooperation with the SALTO-YOUTH EuroMed Resource Centre, the National Agencies for the Youth in Action Programme from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and the Euromed Youth Units from Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority.

Participants and team will meet in the Dead Sea area, visiting both Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority, from Sunday September 14th., 2008 between 16:00-20:00 (arrival day), till Sunday, September 21st., 2007 by 9:00 (departure day).

Limited to 24 youth workers coming from Israel, Jordan, Palestine, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania.

Aim

To promote effective cooperation between youth organizations coming from Baltic and Meda regions in order to give intercultural learning opportunities to more youngsters through different youth projects in the framework of the programmes Youth In Action and EuroMed Youth.

Objectives

• to increase the motivation of youth workers from Baltic and Meda regions to cooperate between regions not linked geographically;
• to find and recognize in this cooperation learning opportunities for youngsters of both regions;
• to contribute to the creation of better understanding of national and regional specificities in youth work, youth policy and needs of young people;
• to develop cooperation skills, to acknowledge difficulties and challenges of the international cooperation and to further the long term partnership strategy creation in order to foster continuous EuroMed cooperation in youth field;
• to explore opportunities and challenges of the programmes Youth in Action and EuroMed Youth as tools for development of international youth activities, projects and cooperation between partners.

Program Elements

• Getting to know - interpersonal, organizational, national youth work, regional specificities (cultural and social);
• Youth Programmes - Youth in Action and EuroMed Youth, as tools for development of the cooperation between partners and learning opportunities for youngsters.
• Youth Policies in the different activities;
• Partnership and cooperation, long term cooperation;
• Projects development;
• EuroMed tools - EuroMed Game;
• Visits to NGOs;
• Meetings with Baltic immigrant youth;
• Visit to Jerusalem.

Profile of participants

• youth workers and youth leaders with at least three years in international youth work;
• having authorization for developing projects on behalf of their NGOs;
• having a serious interest and motivation to cooperate in EuroMed context;
• having a basic knowledge about EuroMed cooperation;
• able to communicate and work in English.

Participants: 4 participants per country, accompanied by NA/ EMYU representative.

Financial Aspects

Hosting and travel costs will be covered by the Euromed Youth Units and National Agencies involved in this project.

Please, note that your accommodation will be covered only between these dates. Otherwise this will be at your own expenses.