The project "Arts against Violence" is a project for Exchanges of Practices and starts from the existing context in the 6 partner institutions in Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Italy, France and Spain and their common needs: the manifestation in various forms of aggressive behaviors of young people, inefficient national efforts for social inclusion and the need for new practices, strategies and resources for youth workers as target groups. Its purpose is to build a strong partnership, an international synergy - more organizations with the same needs: the education of non-violent and responsible young people, to bring up tolerance – it means "I know who I am and I respect who you are". PROJECT OBJECTIVES 1. The professional development of each partner organization through European collaboration, through direct learning, acquiring new working practices, identifying, designing and planning effective clear strategies for combating violence and social exclusion of young people. 2. Rethinking youth work on a new support that will lead to the formation of young people tolerant, actively involved in community life as European citizens. 3. Building a web site of the project, as a true resource of international value, bringing together the best European practices and mechanisms to combat violence and social exclusion of young people. 4. The knowledge of the cultural values of the 6 European countries, which will lead to the renunciation of prejudices, to a larger opening, to a change in future partners' interests. The theme of the project is based on the idea that the use of artistic practices could help young people to solve their problems through relationship, discover them-selves, become friendlier and more tolerant, improve their behavior. Cultural activities stimulate the social inclusion of young people from vulnerable groups, give dynamism to creativity. The project's partners are institutions (NGOs, associations and networks, foundations) with good experiences in the field of youth work through local, national and Comenius/ Erasmus projects. They will offer training activities that will provide at least 6 types of working techniques with aggressive young people from various backgrounds and for their social inclusion. METHODOLOGY USED In C 1 training: visits followed by debate and exposure on girls' inclusion victims of domestic violence In C 2 training - Forum Theatre, a method which combines theatre and education for life, successfully applied and widely used in violence prevention and developing social skills with remarkable results; In C 3 training: visit to a Women’s Association, aimed at promoting fight against violence and to local School of Arts working with special needs students. In C 4 training: theoretical presentations ad many examples, case studies; debates on the integration of the youth migrants in society; visits of Youth's Houses and exchanges with specialists. In C 5 training: cultural events involving young people at risk; debates with experts and directors of cultural institutions, teachers with experience on the topic of violence and the social inclusion; exposures: "European Youth Strategy" and the reality at national level; presentation: the European Youth Newspaper “Eurappeal” ( eurappeal.eu ). In C 6 training: visits to many educational institutions, debates with teachers, psycho-pedagogical counselors, about prevention of violence; visits to the inclusion centers for women victims of domestic violence followed by debates; a short presentation on the inclusion of migrants; artistic performances including young people from different backgrounds. Expected results and impact Youth workers, as direct beneficiaries of the project, will acquire 6 types of learning activities, multiple working practices with young people, which can be good supports for rethinking and improving their future activities. They will become more competent in educating young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. The project's web site and the “Good Practices Guide to Youth”, two resources of European value for youth workers can be useful as learning tools, that can improve the skills of youth workers from all over the world. Each partner institution will become more visible in cooperation with local and regional institutions in the youth field, more involved in projects focused on young people with aggressive behaviors and at risk of social exclusion. The knowledge of the experiences and cultural values of the 6 European countries will improve the interest of the partner institutions for European cooperation. The partners will spread results as "Open Educational Resources" and will maintaining the project site at least two years after its completion; In this way, long-term project results will be used by many European institutions involved in educating young people.
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