We have received several inquiries from youth groups from different European countries who are interested in working with us, improving or expanding their youth work overall, and engaging in European exchange. Many of the new groups have little experience organizing their youth work with the involvement and participation of young people. Therefore, the goal of our first exchange of experts with a preparatory visit was to bring all partners together, inform them about principles, youth and quality goals, and the European context, exchange experiences, and formulate further quality goals in order to build a solid partnership that functions sustainably. This overarching goal was important in building on our organizational goal number 1, which we developed as part of the accreditation process (developing methods for use in youth work, creating access to young people and motivational factors, and promoting their personal and social skills). Further sub-goals were: 1. Analysis of our youth work and past encounters to improve our offerings for young people and to increase their participation. 2. Exchange of experiences and reflections on supporting youth leaders and regional groups, networking, and improving supra-regional and cross-border exchange. 3. Establishment of quality criteria for general youth work, the organization of events and European youth encounters, and the participation of young people. 4. Preliminary planning for the Activity Year and rough planning for the entire accreditation period. A key goal of our youth encounters was to promote international understanding. Since the war in Ukraine, we have observed blatant prejudices and resentments between young people of Russian origin and Ukrainian origin, as well as high tensions between Russians and Ukrainians. There is a lack of any differentiation. On both sides, there seem to be purely emotional and unreflective preconceptions, which have a high potential for conflict. Therefore, we wanted to use the unifying thread of comedy to communicate, to be reflective, personality-building, and relaxing. We have already tested and experienced that our methods have this potential. In line with our first goal, we wanted to further develop our repertoire of methods together with the young people, create access to them, and strengthen their personal potential as well as their ability to reflect. The European setting was particularly important for this purpose. Digital presence, digital appearances, and the creation of digital content on social media are particularly attractive to young people and provide another connecting path between language cultures. Therefore, we also wanted to use comedy to strengthen the young people's digital skills and to pedagogically optimize their work with digital tools, Social Media and knot production and moderation techniques (Goal 3). We also aimed to break down the relatively narrow structures and mindsets in the Russian-speaking community. We want to motivate young people to open their "cultural bubble" and engage with and enrich themselves with ways of thinking from other cultures (Goal 2). This spirit of optimism is intended to further deepen international understanding and European awareness.