Youth Mobilities
Context
Erasmus projects have become a vital tool for supporting young people and the organizations working with them in skill development, intercultural learning, and promoting social inclusion.
The Romanian Angel Appeal Foundation (RAA) has accumulated experience in non-formal education and youth engagement, making the 2020 accreditation a natural extension of activities with and for young people.
In a lengthy process of mapping community needs and developing a strategic plan for the next five years, we decided that between 2020 and 2025, we would focus on increasing youth capacity and community involvement, paying attention to vulnerable and rural communities.
We aim to address issues such as youth unemployment, involvement and participation, non-formal education, training, and exchanges, so it is essential to address the themes of interest at the community level.
We also want to provide learning and mobility opportunities for young people from the communities we work with, and for this, we implement projects, mainly targeting the systemic and sustainable transformation of communities.
After consulting partners, the main thematic directions of our activities will be:
- Working with young people in the digital age
- Well-being and mental health
- Social and school inclusion
Their approach will be mainly through youth mobility activities and increasing youth workers’ capacity.
The youth sector in general and youth issues can be seen as transversal problems, and addressing them generates responses to various social issues at the heart of community concerns.
We can only imagine a better future for the European Union by working together with and for young people, aiming to promote inclusion and diversity, intercultural dialogue, solidarity values, human rights, and equality for all.
The year 2020 showed us that young people and youth workers are entirely unprepared for digital youth activities, and adapting methods to new contexts is a stress factor.
In anticipation of the changes that the pandemic has created in youth work, we are motivated to work on developing new tools and improving youth workers’ skills, including our staff.
Activities
Starting from the pandemic reality and post-pandemic perspectives, in 2020, we aimed to support the digitalization of youth workers’ activities, along with the social inclusion of young people with fewer opportunities, and to introduce as many digital tools as possible into youth work to support their socio-emotional health and well-being.
For young people to develop for the society of tomorrow, it is important that our actions meet their needs.
The main needs of young people for the coming years are related to:
- Providing a degree of autonomy to become their own architects
- Offering a wide range of resources for personal and professional development
- Developing greater resilience and adaptability to increasingly diverse social contexts
- Encouraging and empowering young people to get involved at any level
- Transforming them into agents of change by involving them in policies that concern them, especially in the fields of education, health, and social inclusion
The activities proposed within the Erasmus project will target both the young people involved and the youth workers and other professionals working with young people.
These will be designed to meet their specific development and learning needs, having an interactive nature and ensuring the exchange of knowledge and experiences.
1. Youth Exchanges
These exchanges are opportunities for participants to interact with each other in intercultural environments.
They aim to promote mutual understanding, solidarity, and tolerance among young people from different countries.
Their format involves young people participating in various activities, including workshops, discussions, games, and joint projects, conducted in a safe and supervised environment.
Exchanges also encourage the personal and social development of participants, encourage them to become active and engaged citizens in society, and provide opportunities to develop new skills and competencies.
2. Empowering Youth Workers
For youth workers and other professionals working with young people in the digital age, there is a need to change practices and develop their own skills through training courses and learning activities by observation.
Such activities, such as study visits, job shadowing, or training sessions, develop the capacity of RAA workers and other participating organizations to better address the needs of young people and develop new activities.
3. Adult Education
The purpose of mobility in adult education is to provide participants with the opportunity to acquire new knowledge, skills, and competencies by attending courses, training, seminars, or internships in other countries.
These mobilities offer opportunities for professional and personal development and contribute to improving the quality of adult education at the European level.
Their format may vary depending on the type of activity or the specific needs of the participants, but generally involves attending theoretical courses, practical workshops, visits to workplaces, or institutions relevant to the participants’ field of activity.
These mobilities offer opportunities for professional and personal development and contribute to improving the quality of adult education at the European level.
Results
You can read more about our activities so far here:
1. Re-writing the Refugees Life
2. Rebuilding Hope and the Future!
3. Non-Formal Festival in Hârșova
4. Youth in a Digital World
5. For Yours and Mine Well Being
6. Study VISIT Estonia
7. Harvesting Conference
8. Inclusion & Diversity Forum
9. Job Shadowing Estonia
10. Study Visit Slovenia
11. Study Visit Greece
12. Job Shadowing Valencia
