With the meeting of the international partners in Brussels, we wanted to create a space for discussion for reflection and exchange instead of a group of volunteers going to a new country. During Toestand international a diversity of themes come to the surface, but during the rebuilding of a vacant property or site there is often a lack of time to explore the different questions and challenges that arise during and after a project. The purpose of this exchange was to provide practical training to volunteers, and raise awareness among Brussels residents, about the theoretical side of the temporary implementations, sustainable communities, horizontal decision making, networking possibilities, gender equality, grassroots initiatives and partnerships. The project aimed to contribute to a strong chain of international collectives that learn from each other and through a shared set of goals will be able to conduct big projects. The goal was both for individual participants to be provided with a lot of skills and knowledge,as well as challenging different organizations to constantly question and reform the ways in which their projects work. In this way, not only are we promoting growth of individuals (especially through mobilization), we are inherently providing an experience that strengthens organizations in different parts of Europe, while creating an inter-european collective. We believed that this kind of exchange was crucial to work on future projects, consisting of converting vacant spaces into socio-cultural centers, such as in Podgorica in 2023. The Brussels Exchange wanted to build a strong connection between all collectives, strengthen the mission and vision, and provide the skills necessary to follow up with our upcoming projects and plans. The envisaged activities should be a major force in shaping our long-term goals. After a series of ongoing discussions within each collective, we identified the following goals: TO PRACTICE COLLECTIVITY - Participants wanted to organise a project collectively without drifting off into classic time-consuming and non-action based 'participation procedures'. We wanted to experiment with ways of deciding and achieving goals together. We wanted to give everyone the opportunity to engage in participatory decision making. TO BUILD A FOUNDATIONAL HUMAN CONNECTION - A strong team is one where the members enjoy understanding one another, and enjoy each others’ presence. Through the exchange we wanted to explore opportunities to share knowledge, have discussions and learn different skills from each other. By building relationships, we would prevent the rise of future conflict or misunderstandings, and easing our way into collaboration. TO BUILD KNOWLEDGE - We wanted to offer volunteers learning opportunities during the project. Participants wanted to learn at a project management level (making decisions and implementing them, ...) at a practical level (wood or metal working, taking pictures, ...) and at an interpersonal level (skills and knowledge transfer from other groups). TO HAVE A CULTURAL EXCHANGE - Driven by positive previous experiences, we wanted to give the participants a window to different cultures. Participants would get the opportunity to develop an international network, practice solidarity, and actively engage in supporting initiatives for inclusive and participatory organizations of spaces for youth. Participants would be provided with the opportunity to bring about a tangible difference, a real long-term impact by participating in a short-term project with long-lasting consequences. TO ENGAGE PEOPLE - Participants wanted to involve (new) people in the organisation during the preparatory year and afterwards. Participants wanted to attain ownership over (a partial aspect of) the organisation and the project. We believe in the positive group dynamic effect of an international project, and can say that since the past projects, the number of engaged youth has grown and the network has expanded to include many more youth. TO HAVE FUN - Informal moments during the exchange would serve to support the group dynamics and the internal cohesion. Having fun is crucial to any project as it prevents the members from getting burned out and sustains the levels of overall engagement. The range of activities that we envisaged can be divided in technical workshops (woodworking, metalwork, electricity, ...), social & community organizing workshops (division of responsibilities, applying for grants, decision-making processes...), art workshops (crafting, clay sculpting, ...), discussions that promote critical thought (concept of urban commons, understanding grassroots collectives...) and activities regarding the European collective as a whole (anticipating problems so that the project can develop smoother in the future, re-thinking and evaluating our working methodologies).