We designed the “Shift Perspectives” project with the intention to address intercultural learning, the development of intercultural competence, and the prevention of prejudice, stereotypes, and discrimination in nonformal education and youth work. We believe that youth work can play an important role in shaping the attitudes and behaviours of young people and that it can have a large impact on how people perceive and treat each other. Through this project, we aimed to prevent discrimination and the replication of stereotypes and to support respect for diversity, openness to the unknown, and acceptance of each person’s unique identity, no matter their origin, age, gender, or religion. If the motto of the European Union is “United in diversity”, we, as youth workers involved in international youth education and youth work, need to be able to address these topics and support young people in building healthy and respectful attitudes towards others. Yet, often in the context of international mobilities for youth and youth workers, we saw the same scenarios — people jumped to stereotypical conclusions based on the question “Where are you from?”, putting others into a “box” based on their nationality. However, many people do not live in their country of origin, do not identify with their origin, and do not want to be defined by others through this criterion. Still, when culture is represented in educational programmes, it mostly reflects a culturally standard approach: the introduction of typical food and drinks, songs, dances, etc. This represents an approach that is far from the actual reality of the lived culture of each individual. We started from a belief that there was a need for a deeper understanding of what it meant to be “interculturally competent” and that “culture” did not equal “nation” but had a much wider sense and encompassed a variety of elements that related to the identity of each person. Through this understanding, youth workers learned how to work with young people and support them in their uniqueness and personal self-identification. We wanted to support the creation of safe spaces for young people where they felt heard, respected, and understood. That was why we designed this training course — with the aim to bring awareness to different elements of intercultural competence, explore them, and look for ways to firstly “shift perspectives” of youth workers and then bring these topics into their work with young people. The inspiration for the content of the project came from transcultural and anti-bias approaches, represented, for example, by Dana Moree (Czech pedagogue and anthropologist), the anti-bias methodology of the organisation ARPOK (https://arpok.cz/novy/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Anti_bias-metodika-v-cj.pdf), and the methodology of the Among Others programme (https://www.dzs.cz/sites/default/files/2021-01/AMONG%20OTHERS.pdf). PROJECT OBJECTIVES The participants would: Gain understanding of what is culture and what are different educational approaches to culture Deepen their understanding of what is intercultural competencies in the framework of European Training Strategy and what knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours it consists of Expand their sensitivity and self-awareness in recognizing stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination and look for ways how to prevent it in their learning programmes when working with youth Become more aware of unequal distribution of power in the world, how is it related to culture and identity and gain insights into how they can contribute to creating a more fair and equal environment in their youth work Learn basics of nonviolent communication as a tool of handling conflicts and training empathy towards people with different opinions and from various backgrounds Acquire project design tools and nonformal education methods and techniques that will support them in designing their own intercultural activities with quality Raise their motivation to design interculturally sensitive programmes for young people Gain experience and receive feedback on designing and delivering their own workshops focusing on intercultural competence