Projects for Youth from Rural & Geographically Isolated Areas

Young people from rural or geographically isolated areas often have limited opportunities (all the action is happening in the cities). However you as a youth worker can set up projects to make things happen rurally as well. These resource pages help you to explore how.

A bird’s eye overview of Village International

Find an overview of all the different chapters of Village International. This page shows you the way to the different challenges AND solutions that young people faces in rural areas.
Rural & geographically disadvantaged youth

Who and what are we actually talking about when we say Rural Youth, or Rural Areas. Here are some attempts to grasp those concepts and stimulate reflection.
SALTO Inclusion & Rural Youth

The SALTO Inclusion Resource Centre's mission is to stimulate the Inclusion of ALL young people within the European Commission's Youth in Action programme. Various types of young people are missing from international youth projects for a variety of reasons, for example geographical isolation.
Role of the Youth Worker

You, as a youth worker, are a motor for change in a rural setting. You can build up relationships with the young people there and stimulate them to become active in their rural environment and improve their living conditions and opportunities.
Why go international with rural youth? - Benefits

Internatiional projects do have an added value compared to local projects. Find some arguments here to convince the sceptics about the benefits of international projects.
Setting up a rural youth project? – Project management

There is already a lot of material on project management in youth work. Here, we just want to remind you of some of the principles of setting up a project and point out the specifics of rural youth projects.
Starting international youth work – Step-by-step

If you think it is a bit daunting to do your own international youth activity, no worries: you can first experience someone else's project before doing one yourself.
Find project partners and build partnerships

Once you've got the international bug one of the biggest challenges when setting up an international youth project is: how to find the perfect partner?
Money for international rural youth projects

Taking part in and organising international projects doesn't come for free. Travelling, eating, sleeping & working together costs money. But there are a number of funding opportunities around for youth projects in general, and even some specifically for rural youth.
The Youth in Action programme

The YiA programme offers various opportunities for young people to set up projects with an international dimension - and it has special measures and money to include rural youth in those projects!
Resources for Youth from Rural & Geographically Isolated Areas

Besides these Rural Youth pages and the Village International booklet there are quite some resources available on the internet to make the most of your rural youth work. We give you a short overview.
Involving & motivating rural young people

How can you get young people in rural areas interested...in international youth activities? They might think it is something strange, but we give you tips on how to get them on board anyway.
No organisations doing international projects

Often there are no organisations doing international activities in small villages and towns. So how can young people in rural areas catch the international bug anyway?
Overcoming linguistic barriers in international youth activities?

Young people in rural areas have less international contacts and might be more shy to participate in a project in a foreign language. We explore how we could overcome these linguistic barriers.
Involving and changing the local community

Small communties have a lot of social control and tend to think a bit more 'traditionally'. How can you use a youth project to open up people's minds and challenge stereotypes.
Make young people proud of their rural heritage

Young people tend to go where the action is: which often is the big cities. A challenge for you as a youth worker is to keep the young people from leaving the villages. Here are some suggestions how.
Solve transport and mobility issues

Rural areas are in general less serviced by public transport, and distances from their place to shopping, schooling etc tends to be higher. How to solve this in a youth project?
Follow-up, dissemination and exploitation of results

A project should not stop at the last day of the exchange. You can use the project as 'an excuse' to do reach a lot more visibility and impact. Find some tips on how to go about the follow up & exploitation of your project.
Examples of rural projects – Get inspired!

Find inspiration from different types of projects and organisations in different countries all over Europe. Stealing ideas doesn't cost anything:

Downloads

The following downloads are available:

Village International - rural youth projects - 2010 update
Setting up international projects in rural and geographically disadvantaged areas. With information on where to find partners, money, ideas - and how to overcome challenges. Based on SALTO TC Rural 2008.