Our Approach
[1] Exchanges
An international youth-exchange offers young people from several different countries the possibility to meet each other and to learn from each others cultural backgrounds. In an exchange the young people will learn how to deal with social and cultural situation in an international setting, they will acquire new skills, and they will become more aware of the (local, national and European) society which they are part of. Each exchange has a specific theme with the accompanying learning goals to explore this theme. The daily schedule and the implementation of the theme is designed in such a way that the young people will be motivated to take initiative and actively participate with a creative and active attitude towards the program. The duration of an exchange can vary from five days up to two weeks.
Substantive criteria
• The exchange is an extracurricular leisure project where the young people participate in voluntarily. By using non-formal learning methods the young people will acquire skills and competences during the project.
• All the partner organisations are equally actively involved in the organisation of the creation, execution and evaluation of the project.
• Starting from clearly formulated goals, participants and group leaders will set up an daily schedule around the theme of the exchange.
• Young people will be actively involved in all phases of the project (setting up the project, execution and evaluation).
• The groups from the different country are all approximately equal in size to ensure an equal exchange.
• The personal, profession and intercultural competences that the young people acquire during an exchange will be documented and acknowledged by using a Youth-Pass: a certificate recognized by the European Union.
[2] Trainings
Setting up international seminars, trainings, network meetings and study visits for youth workers and other professionals and volunteers that work on a substantial basis with young people. ‘Job shadowing” projects are one of the possibilities: a short period in which the participant can take a look into the professional life of an employee of a partner organisation, focusing on gaining new skills by looking at the best practices from foreign partners. The main goal of these kind of activities are to acquire and exchange knowledge and skills with European partners working with young people. Additionally on these learning goals do these activities form the basis for long term partnerships with foreign organisations (for example for exchanges).
The trainings can take place in the Netherlands as well as in foreign countries. The duration of an activity has a minimum of two days and a maximum of two months with the maximum capacity of 50 participants from the Erasmus+ program countries.