EuropeanDream

<< Background >>For a strong European Union, it is crucial to be in constant exchange with neighbouring countries, to develop intercultural skills and to promote understanding for other cultures and strengthen youth education work. Erasmus+ funding offered us the opportunity to create European partnerships to come closer to realising a more open and inclusive society. This is why we launched the EuropeanDream programme: We wanted to gain initial experience at European level, promote the exchange of experience between different organisations and strengthen cooperation in the field of education. The aim of the EuropeanDream was to share methods and knowledge with our partner organisations to improve the quality of our educational offers and to meet the needs of our target group more effectively. Through the project following needs were addressed: - Networking with organizations that have similar target groups. - Exchange experiences and methods for long-term cooperation with partner organizations. - Dialogue about the current political and social situation and the challenges faced by young people. - Questioning, improving and evaluating our own methods by obtaining input from the partner organizations << Objectives >>By implementing the EuropeanDream, we wanted to achieve several goals: - Our main goal was to reach as many young people as possible from different countries and encourage them to engage with European values and work out what significance these values have for them and why they are important for our European society. Therefor we developed a method to compare the results and identify similarities and differences in the understanding of values. - Strengthening cooperation: Our aim was to build long-term partnerships and strengthen cooperation in the field of education to jointly develop innovative solutions to current challenges. - Expanding and improving our practical methods: We wanted to expand our repertoire of methods by identifying and implementing best practices and innovative approaches to improve the quality of our educational offerings. - Promoting intercultural exchange: We endeavoured to create an environment that encourages intercultural exchange and deepens understanding of the diversity of European cultures and perspectives. We wanted to defend the values of the EU, which guarantee an open, tolerant and free society in which origin, religion, sexuality and external characteristics do not play a role. << Implementation >>- Digital online workshops: We held numerous online meetings to enable a first in-depth exchange with the organisational partners. - We held online meetings to enable a in-depth exchange with our partners. The first meeting was about the general organisation and working methods. Here we determined which platforms we wanted to communicate and work with. In addition to email, we also created a WhatsApp community group and involved all relevant stakeholders from the organisations. In meetings 2-5, one organisation took it in turns to chair the meeting and report on their own work and their current challenges. In the last meeting, the presence meetings were planned and initial ideas for our methods manual were collected - Face-to-face workshops: Each organisation organised the meetings in its own country independently. - Developed an interactive method manual that can be used with young people, which is free and available in different languages. It addresses the key topic of European values and is a playful method to address topics like discrimination but also promoting a pro-European narrative. - Concepting, implementing and evaluating the “Value Quiz” to exchange and reflect with young people on the values of the EU. << Results >>On the one hand we were able to realise all our 12 Online-Meeting via the platform Zoom. On the other hand, we organised four Face-to-Face meetings. Together we created an interactive method manual that was made available to all the organizations in five languages (German, Greek, Slovakian, Hungarian and English). The document is available on each of our homepage and printed out on their own premises for workshops with young people. Additionally, we have decided to create the methods manual in English language. This also increases the likelihood of reaching a larger target group who can use the methods for their own youth work. With our project we were able to reach over 60 educational and organizational staff from the four organizations. The employees each had different educational backgrounds and professional experiences in their field. These differences proved to be a fruitful addition, as everyone was able to learn something new from each other due to the different approaches. Each organization tested and implemented the “Value Quiz” with the young people between the meetings. Over the course of the project, we were able to reach a total of just over 12.000 young people.