“Unite for Change” is a networking and community building activity which aims to connect youth workers from different youth organizations in order to: 1) Network and form new partnerships 2) Exchange their good practices and look for solutions for their common challenges 3) Plan new projects and international activities together 4) Gain new motivation and “drive” for their work on youth projects We came up with the idea for the project with some of the partners, when we were talking about the common challenges that we are facing in our youth work and agreed on how much pressure youth workers are under these days and that they need as much support as possible, which they are unfortunately often not getting. - Covid19 pandemic disturbed our social bonds, left us feeling more isolated and in need for the feeling of community, togetherness and support. - The war in Ukraine brought two huge challenges to our work - the integration of refugees into our societies and the unprecedented information warfare, which targets the whole society incl. young people with disinformation and manipulations. - Facing all the new wars (in Ukraine, Gaza and information sphere), youth workers are struggling with how to address such heavy topics in their work and give youth the knowledge and tools they need to navigate the situation. For that, they need inspiration, concrete tools and support from people dealing with the same problems. - This new pressure and feeling of being overwhelmed changes also the partner relationships between youth organizations active internationally. Many organizations are becoming less active and losing their capacities. Therefore, we find it important to network with reliant partners and find partners motivated for future common work. - As youth NGOs are busy, applying for new projects tends to become a routine. We often observe that organizations don’t take the time to discuss the common challenges and goals to be addressed properly in the application stage, which then causes problems during implementation of the project. We want to give space to youth workers to discuss deeply their needs and challenges, so that the new projects are highly relevant and beneficial for their organizations and young people they work with. - The lack of motivation and feeling of being overwhelmed has also a negative impact on communication within the partner organizations. Youth workers need the space to talk about their needs and reflect on their work with their colleagues. After these needs were discussed in the initial team, we came up with the idea for a networking project that would address them. Each of the initial partners searched for other partner organizations that are aware of the same needs. Based on the needs we discussed, we created (during a common online call) the concept of the project and its objectives listed below. The project is going to consist of one activity, which will be a networking and community building activity. First, we will deeply discuss the needs of young people we work with, in order to create a common ground for common projects. Then, we will talk about the most pressing challenges that we are facing in our work. In the end of the activity, we will plan common projects to address these challenges together. The aims of the project are the following: 1) To bring together 30 youth workers from EU as well as non-EU countries to exchange good practices and help each other to find new components and ideas for their own work. 2) To form new partnerships between the participating NGOs. To draft min. 15 new projects together, which will be applied for in the next deadline. 3) To raise the capacity of the NGOs to deal with the concrete needs of the young people they work with by discussing these needs and developing ideas on how we can address them on local and also international level. 4) To create an online support group in Gather.town to motivate youth workers to remain active in their work and give them an effective platform for further exchange and contact. 5) To create 30 short videos (reels for social media) with the good practice examples shared within the project and share them with other youth workers online. 6) To develop a workshop plan for reflecting on the needs of target groups and finding ways to address them. Implement the workshop in each of the partner organizations.