The project aimed to achieve two main goals: 1. Develop the skills of 15 youth workers in using non-formal educational methods when working with young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. 2. Create a comprehensive organizational strategy to help each partner plan and implement long-term educational programs adapted to their local context.
We applied for this project because all three partner organizations — YOUTH ALMA (Romania), Asociación Juvenil Manfred on Tour (Spain), and Reykhólahreppur (Iceland) — we know each other from previous projects and during our mobilities we identified a shared need to improve their capacity to offer long-term, high-quality educational and recreational programs for disadvantaged youth, especially those from rural areas or in the child protection system. Our self-assessment and SWOT analyses highlighted gaps in strategic planning, limited use of non-formal education methods, and a need for better staff training and youth worker support. The needs of the target group (staff members, youth workers) are: - Low level of skills to implement a long-term educational and recreational program for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds (rural, NEETs and from the child protection system); - Low project management skills; - Low level of skills to motivate young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to get involved in non-formal educational activities. We started working on the project during a workshop organised by the National Agency from Romania and developing it with our partners.