European Youth Villages

CONTEXT:

European Youth Village is a programme launched in 2019 in Romania to develop the rural youth sector by activating and enhancing the cooperation between the young people from rural areas and the decision makers, while also developing and strengthening the public youth policies at local, national, and international level. The programme is piloted by 2 experienced organisations: Asociatia pentru Dezvoltare Activă and Go Free-Asociația pentru Sprijinirea Societății Civile with support from the European youth programmes. In 5 years there had been 18 rural communities in Romania granted the title on the base of a plan of activities for the local youth development. The study visit will allow to visit some of them.

OBJECTIVES:

• to develop contacts between the rural youth organisations / groups from across Europe;
• to learn from experiences of European Youth Villages in Romania;
• to discuss quality of rural youth work;
• to build partnerships for international rural youth cooperation.

PARTICIPANTS and the TEAM:

There will be approx. 24 participants coming from Programme and Eastern Partner countries:

• active in rural youth work;
• interested in international rural youth cooperation;
• having potential to influence rural youth work development in their community / region;
• having a working knowledge of English, the working language of the activity;
• available to actively attend the full duration of the activity;

The activity will be supported by a learning facilitator, and officers from Romanian National Agency and SALTO EECA.

EUROPEAN RURAL YOUTH SUMMMIT:

Study visit participants are invited to join the big European Rural Youth Summit with ca. 120 young leaders and youth workers from all around Europe. It will be a natural continuation of the study visit, giving more global insight into the development of European rural youth movement and enhanced possibility for networking. The programme of the summit is composed of active and diverse discussions among participants and with experts throughout 3 days of 24-26 July. The application for the study visit also covers the summit, so there is no need to apply twice.