You[th] for Participation!

 You[th] for Diversity!" 

 An International Youth Exchange to Strengthen Democracy

Project by 

Schottener Soziale Dienste gemeinnützige GmbH

The project "You[th] for Participation! You[th] for Diversity! is a trilateral youth exchange project that brings together young people from Romania, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Germany to exchange ideas on the topics of "participation", "diversity", "inclusion" and "discrimination".

The project is funded by the Foundation "Remembrance, Responsibility, Future" and within the framework of the ERASMUS+ programme of the European Union. In addition to the Schottener Soziale Dienste gGmbH, the Romanian "Asociata PLURAL" and the children's village "Selo Mira" of the Stiftung Kinderzukunft in Bosnia & Herzegovina participated in the project.

Initially, it was planned to carry out the project in the presence of the respective countries so that an intercultural exchange could take place.

Through a youth exchange, project participants have the opportunity to develop their own intercultural competence. They learn how circumstances are organised in other countries and can transfer and reflect this to their own environments.

The project was supposed to start in March 2020 with a trip to the children's village "Selo Mira" in Bosnia & Herzegovina. But when a trip was not possible due to the Corona pandemic, all project activities were paused for the time being.

At the end of last year, it was decided to implement the project as an alternative: For this purpose, a concept was worked out that takes into account the applicable hygiene regulations and enables an exchange in digital form.

Thus, the project participants could get together in national groups, which were then connected with the young people of the other countries via video conference. And then it started: The project in action

The implementation of the project could begin between 21 and 30 June 2021. A total of six days were scheduled for this, during which the young people from Romania, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Germany could enter into an intercultural exchange.

With a mixture of small group work in the national groups and discussion rounds in the plenary, the possibility was created to enable an exchange between the young people.

For this purpose, both informal and interactive elements were worked on in the daily programme.

In order to promote an individual exchange, project participants were divided into so-called "breakout rooms", in which they could experience an intercultural exchange in a small setting.

In summary, it can be said that the "new" form of a virtual youth exchange project was a complete success.

On behalf of the project team, we would like to thank all those who participated in the project and made it what it was: 

An experience from which everyone can benefit from.

*Photo by Chang Duong on Unsplash

....................................................

Office for Project management and Fundraising Vogelsbergstraße 212

63679 Schotten

Tel. (06044) 6009-0

Fax (06044) 4394

www.schotten-sozial.de info@schotten-sozial.de

Herr Philipp Weißenstein 

Tel. (06044) 6009-158

weissenstein@schotten-sozial.de 

Schotten, 2021-11-16