Une Terre Culturelle, Pangera and Dock Europe noticed that too many young people with fewer opportunities and far from the European mobily circuit do not dare to participate in our actions, although international educational mobility as a change of our cultural, linguistic, social, psychological scenery and as life and socialisation changing experiences should benefit everyone. In 2019, UTC and Dock Europe began the “Youth Relays of Mobility” project with the support of the French-German Youth Office (OFAJ) in order to prepare young people who have already participated in an European mobility program to become “multipliers” of mobility for other young people. Today, we want to extend this project with 24 young and motivated people with fewer opportunities who already have a positive experience of European mobility. They should be between 18 and 25 years old and coming from Marseille, Hamburg and Berlin. To accompany them will be 8 youth workers from our organisations. Twelve young people and 4 youth workers will participate in the mobility part of the project (8 people from UTC, 4 from Dock, 4 from Pangera) when 12 others youth and 4 youth workers will receive the newcomers. French-German pairs will be built among the youth workers, they will accompany the youth individually and collectively. The aims of the project are: >Accompany and coach the young people to become “relays” of mobility and reciprocity for their peers by promoting their own experiences >Increase every participant interpersonal, intercultural, linguistic skills and employability >Reinforce young people engagement on their territories as well as their European citizenship >Consolidate cooperation between partners >Improve professional skills and collective work of youth and mobility workers by observing and participating in the daily work of the partner >Give opportunities to everyone to be confronted to a new language and working culture >Initiate best practice exchanges which will be transferable to other European partnerships >Capitalize and share experiences of young people and practices of youth organizations in France and Germany The youth workers in mobility will, all along the way, accompany and support the young group in the process leading them to become “mobility relays”, each participant will help consolidate our partnerships with Dock Europe and Pangera. They will all develop professional, linguistic and intercultural skills, will be more fit to promote international mobility to their youth audience, will support young people and exchange best practices within the French-German pairings in each city. All participants will be trained together, this is part of the learning process based on exchanges and sharing, moreover, it allows everyone to benefit the knowledge and skills of the others. The “youth relays” of the group staying in their hometown will receive the newcomers and integrate them to the working group. Weekends of intercultural cohesion will take place in each cities or region participating. Eventually, the evaluation of young people and youth workers will be completed with the capitalisation of the outcomes which will be shared to our peers, helping therefore to enhance our own practices. Thanks to this project, young people profiles will be highlighted, it will be more likely for them to get involved in the social and cultural lives of their own territories and they will feel more self-confident. Youth workers will benefit new skills and a larger professional network. Cooperative relations between our structures will be consolidated, local partners will discover new opportunities and their local work will be valued to the European level. Indirectly, young people with fewer opportunities far from mobility devices and their close ones will be positively affected by the “youth relays” actions when local institutions will recognize the added value of European mobility and practical internships. After the project, the “youth relays” will keep on doing local actions, as an example they could set up events at the Maison IV. They will be more motivated and will dispose of resources to develop local projects. Moreover, local players would likely ask them to share their experience. Youth workers will daily reuse their knowledge and expertise, meanwhile, thanks to the project, the relations between local and international organisations will be significantly consolidated. Eventually, the project is to be transferred and adapted to other European countries and partnerships according to their needs.
Une Terre Culturelle is located in the heart of Marseille's 'North' neighbourhoods and has been working for over 30 years to promote international mobility for young people. Since 1992, we have been running intercultural youth exchange projects, internships and volunteering projects mainly aimed at young people with fewer opportunities. We work with European and international partners who are involved in youth mobility and encounter similar problems in youth work: lack of access to and knowledge of international mobility opportunities, especially for young people with fewer opportunities. We wanted to strengthen our local work for international youth mobility by supporting young people to become more active players themselves and to pass on their experiences. Indeed, the best people to promote international mobility among other young people are young people themselves: they can best answer the questions and apprehensions of their peers, and encourage them to "try" the mobility experience, to get out of their neighbourhood or town to meet other young people and discover their own continent, Europe.
The project was born out of the need for mobility for young people, particularly those with fewer opportunities, who do not have easily access to mobility programmes. We mainly work with young people who are far from opportunities of international mobility, and face economic, social and geographical obstacles... However, international mobility has a strong positive impact on these young people, who gain in autonomy and self-confidence and learn more about "the other" as well as themselves. That’s why we have developed the "Youth mobility pilots" project. Initially conceived as an experimental French-German intercultural project between dock europe and Une Terre Culturelle, we wanted to continue and extend the project to support young people who had already undertaken international mobility to become "relays" of international mobility for their peers. We have therefore submitted a strategic partnership project aimed at "training" young people to take on the role of relaying experiences and strengthening cooperation between our European associations and the training of our workers.