The reason for implementing this project is so that the youth of the three countries in the consortium (Spain, Croatia and France) are more integrated into the reality of Europe. To find out, by means of living with with one another and cultural exchange, what possibilities there are for the empowerment of young women, and to exchange new ideas that could be developed in the programs for voluntary work. “HDW: looking for true leadership” has as its principle objective the holistic development of young women (the project is directed towards young women) who will be leaders in their communities, making advances in gender equality by improving their aptitudes and competencies. We talk of an holistic development in the integral sense of the word. On this occasion, the project is directed only towards women because we see there is still a wide gap between men and women and we want to enhance the training and capacities of more women, as, although a lot is spoken about equality, in reality women continue to receive lower salaries than men, even though they may be better trained, women have less possibilities to be chosen for higher or director positions in companies, etc. This project completely identifies with the objectives of the Erasmus+ program to promote European values, since the young women will grow in active citizenship (voluntary work is a clear example of this), intercultural dialogue (young women from 3 countries and voluntary work with the population of serbs) and solidarity, encouraging them to give themselves to care for the disadvantaged, respect for the dignity of people and of not discriminating. All this in an international environment which will help the to increase their sensitivity and understanding towards other cultures and countries. At the same time, as the language which will unify the three groups in the project will be English, the young people will improve a language that is different than their mother tongue, which they usually study in schools and provides an opportunity to practice it. The project also has the following objectives: • Promote the active citizenship and European citizenship of the young people in general and of women in particular, as the participants will carry out voluntary projects in their countries and they could therefore exchange experiences and ideas in this activity • Encourage solidarity and promote tolerance between young people, especially the reinforce cohesion in the European Union • Favour the mutual understanding between young people from different countries by participating in a social project that has a theme that unites them and enables them to exchange life experiences • Contribute to the empowerment of women by training them in leadership and the development of skills, and thus reducing the gender gap The topics and needs which the project includes are: • Gender equality by the empowerment of the women taking part in the activities of leadership formation Sensitivity towards disadvantaged minorities in preparing and carrying out the voluntary work. In the stage prior to the mobility stage we will have worked in the three countries with the objective of making the young people more aware of the conditions in which many people near us live in, and sensitize them for the voluntary work, encouraging openness to people in need, helping them to have a real interest for these people and making them aware of the help that they themselves can give these people (and what they themselves can receive by doing so), by dedicating a few days of their free time to voluntary work