What is a youth exchange? (action - 1.1)

Aims of the tool

Showing to people who never participated in a 1.1 youth exchange what it is about, and what are it's main activities through the use of this video. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oG80J6sK91Y)

People who never participated in a youth exchange, are often puzzled about what they really look like, and can have difficoulties in developing a project. The only way to really understand it is experiencing one!
Since it's hard to make them experience one, during a training course, this video allows them to have a second hand experience of how a 1.1 looks like.

It also breaks down 1.1 in various components, helping participants in building timetables of activities.

Description of the tool

The activity consists in showing the video,
providing a small input, and then organizing roundtables.

The expected learning outcomes are:
- People will have a general feeling and image of what a youth exchange is.
- People will have a better idea of what type of activities can compose a youth exchange.
- The list of many possible activities can help participants in developing timetables for projects.
*(It is important to explain to participants that the list of activities shown is not a fixed, but simply a set of options and examples. A project can have only few of them, more or be completely different!)
**(It can be usefull to also show other videos of past projects, since this one mainly focuses on activities, but less on content)

1) It starts by showing this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oG80J6sK91Y
(feel free to download it from YouTube or ask us to send it to you via dropbox, damianoram@hotmail.com)

As you will see on the video, the subtitles are organized by colours in various sections; each section is a piece of what a project may be composed of.

2) You should write the list of activities (which you can find below) on a flipchart, using the same colours: after showing the video you should go again through each type of activity making sure participants have a clear idea of what each one of them is about. Ask if there is any question!

Glue the flipchat on the wall, so that if participants will be creating timetables later on in the training course, they can go back to it and get ideas for what type of activities they can include.

3) Divide the group in roundtables, each one with a trainer with at hand a timetable of a good project. The trainer, will now show how the activities shown in the video, compose the timetable of the project. After 5-10 minutes the groups can rotate, and meet another trainer with a different timetable.

- It can be usefull to show very different projects, to give an idea of how much youth exchanges can differ from one another.
- If the participants are familiar with the concept of aims and objectives, you can use the timetable to show how the activities reflect the aims/ojectives of the project.

Here is the general list of activities shown in the video that you can rewrite on the flipchart:

Main activities:
-Sharing and discussing (blue)

-Learning through experience (Green)
a) young people's participation
b) creative workshops
c) roleplays and simulations

-Planning together and developing positive
contributions (Orange) for example, activities for local impact.
a) analysis of specific topics/issues
b) developing ideas and solutions together
c) implementing ideas (for example local actions during a project)

Other activities:
- Team building activities
- Ice breakers and warm-ups
- Intercultural activities (such as intercultural dinner)
- Free time and socialization
- Excursions