Erasmus+ project "Diversity & Inclusion: Building Strengths Together (DIVE-IN)" is delivered by 5 partner organisations from 3 countries: Valmiera Development Agency from Latvia, YC "Vinda" from Latvia, NGO "Natura Hungarica Foundation" from Hungary, a school "Kiskunhalasi Szakképzési Centrum Kiskunfélegyházi Közgazdasági Szakgimnázium" from Hungary and NGO "Innovation Office" from Lithuania. As European Union Youth Strategy 2019-2027 highlights, 1/3 young people in Europe are at risk of poverty and social exclusion. So, the project seeks to find youth STRENGTHS and to enable and ensure the INCLUSION of all young people in society. DIVE-IN project focuses on: 1) to strengthen the capacities of educators to work with youth having fewer opportunities; 2) to ensure that all young people have equal access to formal and non-formal learning environments, addressing all the dimensions of inclusion; 3) to provide more spaces, opportunities, resources and programmes to foster dialogue and social cohesion, and combat discrimination and segregation. The project also refers to Inclusion and Diversity Strategy in the field of Youth (2014) as it actively involve young people with fewer opportunities (providing tailor-made preparation, support and follow-up) in local activities and the project will be mainly focused on youth workers/leaders working with young people having fewer opportunities, while finding these persons strengths (talents) in their diversity. The European Union Youth Strategy 2019-2027 acknowledges: young people are not a homogenous group, and thus have diverse needs, backgrounds, life situations and interests, promoting activities and policies that are inclusive for all young people, especially those with fewer opportunities. Project priorities are focused on social inclusion, promoting quality, innovation and recognition of youth work and supporting educators, youth workers, educational leaders and support staff. The project lasts 19 months and during the period we are planning to share good practices in the field of youth. All partner organisations are looking for better approaches and methods to use in daily work that will help to support young people in their life and career choices, and motivate them to work hard and independently. Participating organisations have very similar mission and approach, but they are acting in different environment and reality. They are facing problems which have the same roots, when examining them in depth (bad career orientation, learning difficulties, fewer opportunities because of social, economic background). The main aim of the project is to develop the knowledge and skills, the set of tools and methods used by youth workers/people working with young people. Thanks to this development daily youth work will impact positively and reach young people in the local community and will develop deeper inclusive attitude finding their strengths. Two topics what project DIVE-IN addresses are - STRENGTHS and INCLUSION that will be discussed and developed deeper during this project. Discovering and „strengthening” strengths is more crucial as basis regarding inclusion. Motivation is also the factor for sustainability of inclusion and success but, to find and start inclusion and acceptance of differences is strength. To achieve our aim there are several objectives: - to develop youth workers/leaders competences; - to share practical methods and tools replicable in partner reality; - to cascade and test methods at local level; - to share results and collect them into a toolkit useful in youth work, focusing young people with fewer opportunities. There will be 2 trainings organised for youth workers/leaders. Between these trainings, local activities and transfer of knowledge to other colleagues will be delivered. Main questions we want to get answers: - how to discover the strength of a youngster, - how to empower youth by awareness of their strengths, - how to show the youngsters that diversity, having different strength contributes to a higher, team success, that he/she could have reached alone, - how to show that different people, activities are compulsory to each another, and the result will be complex and holistic. Project partners have different background and experience in project topic but all of them will acquire certain results based on their needs. Common results will include: - stronger international cooperation between organizations on the quality of youth non-formal education; - improved knowledge and skills of youth workers and youth educators on inclusive education, the use of innovative practices in youth work; - enhanced staff competences; - enhanced quality and diversity of youth youth work approaches that also broadens youth horizons, motivation and strengths. - increased readiness to engage more in international projects; - an attractive project toolkit has been developed and made accessible to a wider audience.
Diversity & Inclusion: Building Strengths Together project addressed the following topics: Inclusion - equity & Youth (Participation, Youth Work, Youth Policy). More specifically, this project focused on exchanging non-formal education practices in order to foster the social inclusion of marginalized young people. We approached this goal from 3 different levels: 1) improving youth workers' competencies of working with marginalized youngsters and discovering their strengths; 2) involving young people facing fewer opportunities in local activities and supporting their further inclusion; 3) exchanging knowledge and best practices, and creating a toolkit of non-formal education methods that support inclusion and diversity. This was done through the cooperation and exchange of practices between the 5 partner organizations from 3 countries. The qualitative results were: - international cooperation between organizations; - Improved skills of youth workers on inclusive education, the use of innovative practices in youth work; - enhanced collaboration skills, intercultural experience, presentation skills and improved English language skills; - increased readiness of organizations to engage more in international projects.
Diversity & Inclusion: Building Strenghts Together (DIVE IN) project addresses issues in the field of youth that is noted in the following documents: 1) European Union Youth Strategy 2019-2027 highlights that 1/3 of young people in Europe are at risk of poverty and social exclusion. 2) Inclusion and Diversity Strategy in the field of Youth 2014 emphasized the need of supporting the inclusion of young people facing fewer opportunities through non-formal education/ 3) The European Union Youth Strategy 2019-2027 acknowledges that young people are not a homogenous group, and thus have diverse needs, backgrounds, life situations and interests. Additionally, our partners also shared the need of increasing their capacity of working with youngsters facing fewer opportunities by gaining new tools that they could use in their daily work and improving their youth workers skills and competencies. As well as broadening their horizons by gaining international cooperation experience and improving their skills. - In Valmiera county, young people`s overall growth and development through inclusion and appropriate support as been mentioned as one of the priorities in their Valmiera Youth policy development programme 2018-2020