"Cooking Europe 2014"

JUVENTUD EN ACCIÓN
Action 1.1 Youth Exchanges
“COOKING EUROPE”

1. Introduction
‘Aielo de Malferit’ is a town in the Valencian Community surrounded by mountains. It is located in the south of the province of Valencia, more specifically in the northwestern area of ‘la Vall de Albaida’, at a height of about 281 meters. Aielo is a calm town with a population of 4.637 inhabitants, number increased during the holidays because of the tourists, who come for a rest or even looking for its landscapes, festivities and traditional culture.

Moreover, it is an industrial town which is suffering the current economic crisis. However, the agriculture, which years ago was succumbed by the industry, is gaining ground nowadays and it is even giving job positions to lots of unemployed people. Regarding our cuisine, rice, sweets and fruits are the most important products, and typical recipes would be ‘rice casserole’ (cooked in the oven), paella with cabbage or soupy rice, with many variants. During the summer, we normally eat apricots, peaches and melon from our own land. Sweets, candies and desserts will vary regarding the season: carquinyols (a pastry cooked with flour, egg and almonds mainly), coquetes de sagí (a kind of lard pancakes or doughs), almond cofafes…

2. Contextualisation
Aielo de Malferit town hall promotes, from the youth department (located in the building Youth House – Recreational space), this youth initiative. It is integrated in the Juventud en Acción project, and its main objective is taking part in the key 1, named Youth Exchanges.

The Youth House (or ‘La Casa de la Juventud’) is a space which was born in 2003 with the objective of being a meeting point for teenagers and children. Thus, we offer, from this House, the most adequate answer and response to their necessities regarding their spare and leisure time, training, information, guidance and even advice in any field, topic, subject and area.

This House has two different spaces, the recreational space and the CIJ (‘centro de información juvenil’, or youth information centre). Every week, lots of teenagers and children from the town and the surrounding areas meet here in order to use the facilities depending on their necessities.

The fundamental or main objective is, then, promoting the participation of the young population in the society, understanding this as a lifestyle in which the community is extremely important. In this House, young people find the opportunity of expressing themselves without restrictions, and learn how to do the same in the school, high school or outside them, without forgetting their education, training and preparation for real life.

During the last season our task has been centered in the following areas:

• Youth information and dynamization.
• Social, entertainment and cultural activities.
• Recreational and training workshops related to sexual and healthcare education in the highschool and the Youth House.
• Educational workshops in which we teach how to use the spare time regarding the new technologies.
• Promotion of the non-formal Youth Associativism thanks to the support of several centres.
• Personalized counseling to enterprising teenagers.
• Educate in and for the spare time throughout several activities carried out from the Youth House.
• Social, labour and professional guidance for young people looking for a job.
• Active participation in the management and administration of the Youth House and other services in the town.

Besides, we support and promote the creation of youth groups and associations which meet around a common interest and participate actively in the Youth House. In fact, it is one of these groups, called ‘Joves per la Diversió’, where it raises the idea of this project and activity.

3. Characteristics of the group: participants
The group consists of 30 participants with ages between 18 and 30 years old who are looking forward to meet and discover other countries and cultures. Furthermore, the group is led by two youth and culture technician or experts from the town hall. All the members are unemployed, apart from the leaders. A 75% of the group has finished their university or professional training studies, meanwhile the others have done primary studies and are still developing academically in different courses and conferences. Moreover, they all have training and experience in non-formal education as well as in social and cultural activities. The group is involved and engaged, with many proposals and initiatives, and actively participates as volunteer in stimulating activities for the youth promoted from the youth department.

4. Type of exchange
Our collective expects to organize a unilateral exchange being the ‘sending organization’ the current year 2013. However, we would like this to continue the following year 2014, being the hosting organization and receiving then the collective in our country. Additionally, we would like to keep in touch along the whole year, making the experience more enriching and rewarding for both groups.

5. Chosen topic and reasons
The name of the project is ‘Cooking Europe’, since we think gastronomy and cuisine are very important resources that facilitate our communication and the cultural exchange with other countries. We would like to discover the culture of our partners and show them our own. Eating is a part of every country and region but also a common duty which will join us and get each other closer, without forgetting other topics that will be reflected in the aims of the program.
These cross-curricular topics can be, for instance:

• Non-formal education
• Environment
• International youth work
• Education through sport and games
• …

6. Aims and priorities
The objectives proposed for that activity are:
• To enjoy the gastronomy of different countries and cultures and to interpret it as a symbol of identity, giving us information about the others.
• To discover other cultures and appreciate their diversity.
• To understand cuisine as a communication and exchange tool.
• To develop a project of youth exchange as a way of enriching ourselves social and culturally.
• To learn how to manage and get along in surrounding countries regardless their main language.
• To exchange experiences with other young people from European cultures.
• To develop several activities as a way of meeting all the participants from the exchange group.
The continuous priorities we will work will be:
• European citizenship: to make teenagers aware of the fact they are European citizens, making them think about European questions and take part of the discussion about the construction and future of the European Union.
• Youth participation: to encourage and motivate the youth to be active citizens, participating in the civic life of the society they live in as well as in the representative democratic system, supporting the different ways of learning to participate.
• Cultural diversity: to develop the intercultural learning of the youth making activities together, mixing people from different cultural, ethnic and religious environments.
• Inclusion of young people with fewer opportunities for several reasons, such as social, economic, educational, cultural, geographic and health problems or obstacles. To afford an effective access to the formal and non-formal education for the youth.
The long-term and annual priorities we are going to work in the project are:
• Promotion of youth employment and training.
• Promotion of mobility among the unemployed youth.
• Stimulation of creativity, business spirit and employability among the youth.
• Fomentation of the social inclusion as well as the active participation of the youth in the society.
• Promotion of healthy lifestyles throughout outdoor activities and sport.

7. Dates of the exchange
Below you can see the dates in which we will develop our exchange project.
• Arrival in to Spain: Saturday, 26th of July.
• Staying: from Saturday, 26th of July until Sunday, 3rd of August.
• Departure from the exchange country: Sunday, 3rd of August.

8. Conclusion
As a project conclusion, we expect this to be an enriching personal and peer experience, making us European citizens and opening new paths and ways for our labour and professional future. The project ‘Cooking Europe’ is thought and designed so that every participant can show and teach their culture and identity, meeting new people and discovering other social realities we are not used to.