SALTO Inclusion & Rural Youth

SALTO Inclusion in its work over the past years has been focussing on different target groups - because the different groups of young people have very different needs, challenges and aspirations.

The European Commission's Inclusion Strategy for the Youth in Action programme lists a number of obstacles that young people can face, which prevent them from taking part in international YiA projects. These can include:

• Social obstacles: discrimination, limited social skills, anti-social behaviour, (ex )offenders, young single parents, broken homes, etc.
• Economic obstacles: low standard of living, low income, dependent on social welfare, long-term unemployed, homeless, in debt, etc.
• Disability: mental, physical, sensory or other.
• Educational challenges: learning difficulties, early school-leavers, school dropouts, no qualifications , different cultural/linguistic background, etc.
• Cultural differences: young immigrants, refugees, national or ethnic minorities, linguistic adaptation and cultural inclusion problems, etc.
• Health problems: chronic health problems, severe illnesses, psychiatric conditions, mental health problems, etc.
• And last but not least:
  Geographical obstacles: remote, rural or hilly areas, small islands or peripheral regions, urban problem zones, less serviced areas, etc.

The Youth in Action National Agencies and the SALTO Inclusion Resource Centre should take action to pave the way for more of these young people with fewer opportunities to become involved in the Youth in Action programme. In 2003, SALTO Inclusion started its target group approach, bringing together youth workers who work with groups of young people with specific disadvantages:

• young people with disabilities (2003),
• gay-lesbian-bisexual youth (2005),
• young ex-offenders (2006),
• youth in disadvantaged (sub)urban areas (2007)
• and young people from rural and geographically isolated areas (2007)
• Find a complete overview of the SALTO Inclusion courses at www.SALTO-YOUTH.net/InclusionCourses/

In April 2007, SALTO Inclusion, in cooperation with the Turkish National Agency, organised an international training course for rural youth workers on how to set up international projects in their rural or isolated area: called 'TC Rural'. SALTO brought together 25 youth workers from all over Europe, who had one thing in common: they were all working in similar, geographically isolated areas, far away from the capitals and big cities.

For this training course, SALTO Inclusion cooperated with the two big umbrella organisations for rural youth work in Europe: MIJARC and Rural Youth Europe. SALTO Inclusion brought in its expertise on inclusion, international youth projects and youth worker training. The two rural partner organisations contributed to the course with their knowledge of the target groups and organisations working with them. This led to a fruitful cross-fertilisation, making the link between Youth in Action opportunities and rural youth work.

• More about the SALTO TC Rural 2007 at www.SALTO-YOUTH.net/TCrural/

The SALTO TC Rural allowed the participants to get to know and learn from each other's realities and projects, and set up projects together for the future, to create more opportunities in the countryside across Europe. The concrete impact of the TC Rural is documented online, and Village International is one of the outcomes of this successful course.

Young people in rural and geographically isolated areas often simply don't get all the information that is available in the busy city-centres. Distances and lack of public transport and infrastructure make it more difficult to set up international projects. Often youth work (and youth workers) is scarce, so no initiative is taken.

• However, Youth in Action projects are also for young people in rural areas!

Based on the SALTO TC Rural and the work done by the participants and the trainers' team, SALTO Inclusion developed the educational booklet 'Village International'. It aims to disseminate the ideas, practice and methods from the course to a wider audience than only the 25 lucky youth workers who participated. This way everybody can benefit from the SALTO investment in the course and we hope that this booklet will help make international rural youth projects easier and better.

• Village International is part of the SALTO Inclusion for ALL series of publications. Find the complete collection at www.SALTO-YOUTH.net/InclusionForALL/
• All methods and exercises used at the SALTO TC Rural are also documented online in the SALTO Toolbox for Youth Work & Training at www.SALTO-YOUTH.net/Toolbox/

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