The project idea was born out of experiences with cross-border youth encounters in the Eifel-Ardennes region. The experience gained so far, with positive and sustainable effects for the participants, prompted the applicant organisation to further develop the idea of exploring a route together in a strategic partnership and to extend it to organisations and individuals who are to be involved in activities to be organised in the future. In this way, cross-border cooperation in the Eifel-Ardennes region will be strengthened and young people will be made more aware of belonging to this socio-culturally and economically disadvantaged rural area. The target group of the project are young people who, with the support of the organisations, are to be motivated to take an active part in social life. The project is intended to show in an exemplary way how young people can make an active contribution to cross-border European cooperation. The most important goal of the project is to get to know each other better with regard to an improved future cooperation and the further development of the quality of previous cooperation. Young people are to be motivated to develop a stronger awareness of their regional affiliation to a common natural and cultural area across national borders with the aim of assuming long-term responsibility in existing structures. The establishment of cross-border youth hiking trails is to facilitate the way to the neighbouring country, and intercultural and media competence, civic engagement and awareness of the environment and cultural heritage are also to be promoted. The paths created are to be filled with life through new, cross-border projects and concepts. This results in a considerable increase in the quality of the youth work of the participating organisations. Basic ideas on cross-border youth hiking trails and international youth hiking guides are presented in a concept attached to this proposal. The participants in the project are actors in the youth sector of the participating partner organisations, leaders and supervisors of youth encounters and volunteers in the organisations. Beneficiaries during the project period will be participants in the training and further training seminars as well as children and young people who make use of the offers of the designated youth hiking trails. The sustainable effect of the project is that the youth hiking trails can be used on a long-term basis and motivate to exchange experiences. The most important activities are encounters and measures to get to know each other better, to create trust as a basis for successful cooperation. The transnational meetings form the framework for the project period, the four planned training, teaching and learning activities serve the further training of multipliers in youth leader training. The exploration and identification of youth migration routes is the main activity prepared in national and bilateral groups. Bringing together the different routes then leads to cooperation between all those involved in the project and to the desired result. As a result we expect a better mutual knowledge of the partner organisations involved as a basis for an improved and more trusting cooperation. This should lead to a continuation and intensification of the cooperation so that multilateral cooperation projects can be initiated and jointly organised. The visible result is the identification and documentation of cross-border youth hiking trails and their virtual representation. A European added value is created by the increased individual and professional qualification of the volunteer participants in the training seminars within the framework of this project. The project will permanently increase intercultural competence within the partner organisations and among the people involved and raise a positive awareness of the importance of transnational cooperation. Furthermore, young adults will be shaped by these "European" experiences throughout their lives, so that they will also have a positive influence on their future behaviour. A heightened interest in other countries and cultures, a greater tolerance of what is foreign, the motivation to learn a foreign language increases, and lasting personal contacts are established. The visible results of the project work, the designated cross-border youth migration routes, will continue to be used and form the basis for an expansion of transnational cooperation between neighbouring countries.
The application for the project resulted from the positive experiences of an earlier European project (cycling media) run by EVEA. An important goal of the “Youth Hiking Trails” project was to bring the participating partner organizations closer together with a view to thematically oriented joint cooperation in the youth sector. Comparable experiences with youth hiking trails already exist on the German side, where the youth organization of the Eifel Association has been maintaining and further expanding a national youth hiking trail network on a voluntary basis for some time. Here, too, it becomes clear again and again that through their direct contact with nature, culture and the local population, the young hikers get a more lasting impression of what they have experienced on the left and right of the hiking route and thus gain a closer relationship with the region they hiked. In summary, the needs for the present EVEA project can be focused on the intention to intensify cooperation in the participating countries Belgium, Germany, France and Luxembourg and thus contribute to strengthening European awareness in the region..
Young people from Belgium, Germany, France and Luxembourg should be motivated, with the support of those responsible from the youth sector, to develop a greater awareness of their belonging to a common natural, cultural and social area across national borders. They should receive incentives by participating in the project content, implementation and support, to volunteer within the structures of the partner organizations, to take responsibility for non-profit projects and to actively participate in the strategic and operational orientation of the organizations in order to ensure their continued existence and further develop. The collaboration required in the joint project leads to a deeper understanding of the partner structures involved. This provides creative space for intensive exchange for the qualitative further development of international partnerships, especially in the youth sector. This corresponds to the desired project goals.