The project aimed to strengthen the Forgotten Lands European network and develop a common agenda for our future collaboration, creating opportunities for youth in marginalized urban and rural contexts, grounded in principles of inclusion and with a focus on art, social cohesion, ecology and sustainability. Via the project implementation we wanted to strengthen our common vision and shared values, develop innovative proposals and methodologies for using the arts as a tool to empower disadvantaged youth and put in place a clear framework for co-coordination and co-delivery of joint activities, providing a strong basis for future collaboration. By fostering a deeper understanding of the specific needs of each local organisation and target group, we aimed to develop our activities relevant to the unique circumstances of young people in different regions, and identify opportunities for encouraging greater connection, civic engagement and participation of, and between, youth on a European level. We aimed to strengthen the capacity of each organisation to delivery their activities locally and internationally, providing a network of support and exchange that would be sustainable post the small-scale partnership project.
The 5 FL partner organisations aimed to establish a small-scale cooperation network to develop arts-based, non-curricular education opportunities for young artists from disadvantaged backgrounds, in a diversity of geographical locations in Europe. The diversity of the organisations - in terms of expertise, capacity, local environment, target group etc - led to the need for an initial series of exchange opportunities and trans-national meetings. These exchanges were focused on partner needs to share experiences and knowledge, develop an understanding of each local context, witness the existing activities of each organisation and their engagement with local youth, identify the needs of the local target group and develop closer collaboration with other local associated partners, in particular those working with disadvantaged youth. In addition to the need for stronger European level cooperation between the organisations, on a local level the partners were able to address their specific needs of involving more youth in their activity programs, developing their methodologies to use art as a tool within youth work and creating cross-cultural exchanges for young people in their local community.