Youth in Action examples

• Add your Youth in Action project examples below - and what you thought went well or what not (log in with your SALTO username or create one)

A Youth Initiative in the streets of Kaunas, Lithuania

Already for quite some years a group of young people from Kaunas wanted to find a way to show their hip-hop culture to the outer world. But they didn't find any possibility to do that. Till the moment that a local NGO 'Actio Catholica Patria' informed them about the possibilities of the YOUTH programme and especially about 'Youth Initiatives'.

These young people were between seventeen and twenty-one year old scholars and students. But in fact they don't go to school or university very often. They are ´anti/school´ and at risk of dropping out. Most of them have problems with alcohol and drugs. Their behaviour is not accepted by society which brings them in an isolated position. Some of them started to commit small crime. To put it short, young people at risk.

They immediately got themselves organised and applied as a group to use 'Youth Initiatives' as a possibility to organise a two day hip-hop festival in Kaunas.

Their main aim was to inform people about their subculture and to give them an opportunity to take a closer look at the different elements of that culture. They wanted to show that the hip-hop culture is tolerant and universal and at the same time they wanted to invite the community of Kaunas to be more open minded towards the young people of today.

Many famous bands were playing at the festival. But there was also space for people not that famous but very active in this culture. Activities as DJíng, MCíng, break-dance and graffiti were offered.
If brought the young people space to create, to dance and sing and to express themselves in various ways.

The youth initiative project gave them the possibility to show themselves and to start to communicate to society. By doing the project they managed to organise a two day event and to acquire all the skills and competences that come with an activity like that. They worked as a team, they made a lot of contacts and they communicated to sponsors.

After the festival the young people went on and are still now organising other hip-hop events. Next to that the group was active in informing other young people about the possibilities of the Youth in Action programme.

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De Zande - Youth exchanges with special girls - Belgium/Flanders

"The Governmental Youth Care Institution 'De Zande' (a closed educational community facility for minors under the official government of the Flemish Government in Belgium) is very enthusiastic about the results of their youth exchanges. The girls, between 14-18 years old, are placed by the juvenile court due to a great diversity of reasons. The institution deals with non-accompanied minors, gypsies, girls victim to 'smuggling-refugees, victims of incest, drug-addicts, girls coming out of prostitution etc.

The background of many of the girls gives them a very limited view on the world; they are confined in their own small world. Youth Exchanges offer them the possibility to meet different cultures, different habits, different languages and different perspectives.

Often the girls have gone through bad experiences when it comes to schools and learning. Youth exchanges gave them the opportunity of learning experiences without being taught in a class room.

During the different activities the young people experienced working together with others and are in a way forced to 'consider the other'. They get responsibilities for certain tasks and learn how to make decisions. For most of them these are big steps and new challenges. The positive reactions on their achievements bring them self-confidence in a relatively short time.

The main outcome is that the youth exchange helps the girls to broaden their options.

Not only the young people benefit. While doing the international projects De Zande found out that also the staff, who worked with the girls, had multiple benefits out of the exchanges. The educators involved in the activity found new inspiration and impulses. The 'normal' way, the well-known 'daily' solutions, often don't work in such a project. You have to be inventive and flexible all the time and many times people are amazed by how inventive they can be, which is a motivating experience.

Team work is essential in youth exchanges and people are in a positive way forced to work together with colleagues from other countries and to build a team spirit. The different approaches of the foreign colleagues were experienced as enriching and valuable.

There is a lot to learn in Youth Exchanges, also for the staff. When being confronted with another environment and culture, new innovative ideas come up and new oxygen is provided. Contacts with other institutions from all over Europe open up new views.

• Add your Youth in Action project examples below - and what you thought went well or what not (log in with your SALTO username or create one)

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