Tackling poverty and discrimination through non-formal education

Poverty is an umbrella concept that affects social inclusion dimensions at all levels, including social, cultural, civic and political one. It is one of the first problems related to social services, starting from social inequity and ending with European poverty level. At the present moment, Romania is on the last position on the European Chart of relative poverty, which can be defined as a lack of a minimum level of resources that can assure a normal functioning of a person in the social and cultural context it lives in. Combating poverty is one of the 17 Sustainable Goals of United Nations, as well as well as one of the priorities of Europe 2020 Strategy. For this aim to happen, the actions towards it need to be done at all levels: personal, private sector, government and regional and international institutions.
Regarding the framework mentioned before and the workshops we had with our young volunteers, we identified the following needs:
- The need of knowledge regarding how to involve the young local community members in working with disadvantaged groups;
- Lack of a clear link between public and private institutions that work with youth from disadvantaged groups;
- Know-how on using the methods and tools of non-formal education in working towards combating poverty and social exclusion;
The youth exchange “Tackling poverty and social exclusion through active and innovative youth involvement” comes as an answer to the European and international priorities and the needs identified, by supporting and developing the competences of 35 young people, students or recently graduates of social sciences and education. Understanding the concept, its structure and its effects on different risk groups, youth will be more able to offer qualitative social services to its target groups, being the core of social change in the local community.
The objectives of the youth exchange are the following:
- To support 35 participants from the partner countries in gaining knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to involve the young local community members in working with disadvantaged groups;
- To support 35 participants in developing competences on leadership, teambuilding and management of informal groups;
- To support 35 participant in learning how to use and adapted non-formal education methods and tools to different disadvantaged groups;
- To support 35 participants to develop a connection between youth organisations within Erasmus+ programme.

In order to achieve the set objectives, the eligible participants must have the following characteristics:
- Aged between 18 and 25 years old;
- Young people active in the field of youth work, education, training and social services;
- Motivated in the field of combating poverty and reducing social exclusion.
- Young people able to organize dissemination activities.
Each partner must have an active participation during the duration of the project, in all phases: preparation, implementation, dissemination and reports. They will select the participants according to the profile mentioned above, organize a pre-departure training and keep in contact with the coordinating organisation, ASproAS. The impact will be related to a personal, organisational, regional and European level, by having as result a guideline for combating poverty in each partner country, but also the meeting with the International federation of Social Workers, that will help disseminate the thematic and the results of the project.