Building bridges for youth empowerment!

"<< Background >>The vision of the project was to promote the exchange of good practices among the youth centers in Europe partners in the project. We wanted to do this project to learn from other Youth Centers how to communicate better with the community, what recurrent activities to introduce in our organizations, and how to empower young people to become resource people for the Youth Center.Most of the partners are located in small cities like Ramnicu Valcea and all of them needed information exchange, and research of new resources adapted to today's youth.We wanted to expand our ideas for the development of our Youth Center program and we would like to strengthen an international network of small Youth Centers that want to learn new ways to grow in the community.Another need was that we don't have a European network of youth centers with information on the unicity of each space that has a common purpose in youth work.<< Objectives >>Building Bridges for Youth Empowerment"" had as its main goal the improvement of the work with the young people and the increase of the impact in the community of the youth centers partners in the project.The project had the following objectives:- promoting the exchange of good practices of the 5 youth centers from European partners in the project- connecting people from local communities so that the 5 youth centers included in the project to become open spaces for all categories of young people.- creating an international network of your youth centers that can be extended every year with a new youth center from Europe.<< Implementation >>A1. Design thinking course and community participation for all project partners. The course was held on May 2022 in Ramnicu Valcea by a trainer with experience in the youth field. Here, the partners united their creative forces to explore innovative ways to engage and support their communities and the young people working with them.A2. Building networks for youth centers. Each Center organized two community meetings where young people connected with key community members. A3. Sharing good practices. Each Youth Center hosted the partners for 4 days between October 2022 - and October 2023. During the visits, the partners had the opportunity to see how they work and to exchange good practices in youth work. This was a great opportunity to see the unicity of each youth center, to be aware that we have a common purpose, building trust and expanding our horizons. A4. Final meeting - Evaluation and Follow-up event held at the end of January 2024. At this meeting participants not only reflected on their achievements but also laid the groundwork for future collaborations and strategic alliances. Also, they review the website that was created during this project https://www.buildingsbridges.eu/<< Results >>On this project, we had concrete results:- one anonymous questionnaire offered to parents of the youth center's beneficiary to understand the challenges of the organization- one Facebook page with information from each activityhttps://www.facebook.com/buildingbridgeseurope- Ten local events organized by the partners to solve their issues regarding youth work- Five study visits hosted by each partner involved in the project- One website with 4 youth centers in Europe https://www.buildingsbridges.eu/- One sisterhood agreement between the partners that remains also after this project https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-N0eR7dQXnWbllVw3V7KSl7urxy09vka/view?usp=sharing- One new idea of a project focused on sustainability and green politics at the local level. The Polish organization will apply for this project on the October 2024 deadline because they have more experience on this topic. - three Erasmus+ projects were approved in 2023 in the youth field in which partners from Belgium, Poland, Romania, and Slovenia are involved- 5 dissemination events made online/psychically with the results of the project."