The aim of the 2-year long project “On the Move” is to explore youth mobility as a transversal theme for youth work all over the world, and to equip youth organisations with the competencies to support young people on the move. Young people cross borders to get to know new cultures, new perspectives and learn from others. They cross borders for short times to help them find employment in their own country. It helps them in becoming independent, in reflecting their own communities, in taking responsibility. Young people also cross borders to work and find self-fulfillment elsewhere. They cross borders because there are no opportunities for decent life where they come from, or even little chance of survival. Mobility means opportunity for young people, but also comes with many challenges: How to get a visa? How to take the opportunity, when someone doesn’t speak any foreign language and has never even left their own town? How to find a place in a new community when someone came to find refuge? The project “On the Move” will address these aspects of youth mobility to equip youth workers with competencies to support young people on the move, especially those who have fewer opportunities in their lives. Objectives: - To raise youth organisations’ awareness of the benefits of youth mobility- To support youth organisations in better dealing with visa obstacles in international youth work- To share experiences in youth work with young refugees and migrants and equip youth workers with competencies to better include them in their organisations- To share the experience of European youth mobility projects with African and Latin American youth organisations and explore possibilities for regional youth work in these two regions. - To use online tools throughout the project period to share results, offer online training and develop the partners’ ICT competencies The project involves 12 partners from Europe, Latin America and Africa, as well as IFM-SEI as coordinating organisation. After a kick-off meeting, three groups of experts will meet to share experiences and knowledge on visa obstacles, regional youth mobility and youth work with refugees and migrants. They will develop information and tools for youth workers and share their experiences via two online training courses and an educational resource platform, including a space with useful tips on visa applications for young people. Finally, also two regional meetings in Africa and Latin America will be organized to start regional youth mobility schemes within the network. The online phases will also be open to other partner organisations of IFM-SEI. At the end of the project, a high-quality educational resource website with information and educational activities for youth workers and peer educators to support youth mobility will be widely disseminated in English, French and Spanish. The meetings will take place in Germany, Spain, Austria, Cameroon, Peru and Brazil.
The aim of the two-year On the Move project was to explore youth mobility as a transversal theme for youth work all over the world and to equip youth organisations with the competencies to support young people on the move. Young people cross borders to get to know new cultures, new perspectives and learn from others. They cross borders for short times to help them find employment in their own country. It helps them in becoming independent, in reflecting their own communities, in taking responsibility. Young people also cross borders to work and find self-fulfillment elsewhere. They cross borders because there are no opportunities for decent life where they come from or even little chance of survival. Mobility means opportunity for young people, but also comes with many challenges: How to get a visa? How to take the opportunity, when someone doesn’t speak any foreign language and has never even left their own town? How to find a place in a new community when someone came to find refuge? The On the Move project addressed these aspects of youth mobility to equip youth workers and young leaders with competencies to support young people on the move, especially those who have fewer opportunities in their lives. The objectives that the projects achieved were: - To raise youth organisations’ awareness of the benefits of youth mobility -To support youth organisations in better dealing with visa obstacles in international youth work - To share experiences in youth work with young refugees and migrants and equip youth workers with competencies to better include them in their organisations - To share the experience of European youth mobility projects with African and Latin American youth organisations and explore possibilities for regional youth work in these two regions - To use online tools throughout the project period to share results, offer online training and develop the partners’ ICT competencies The project started with 12 partners from Europe, Latin America and Africa, as well as IFM-SEI as coordinating organisation. One of the partners withdrew at the end of the project after not attending the last two activities. The project was led by a steering group of four people representing each of the three regions participating in the project and IFM-SEI as the coordinating organisation. After the kick-off meeting, three groups of young people with expertise of interest in the topics met to share experiences and knowledge on youth work with refugees and migrants, visa obstacles and regional youth mobility. They developed information and tools for youth workers and shared their experiences via two online training courses and an educational resource platform, including a space with useful tips on visa applications for young people. The online phases were open to other partner organisations of IFM-SEI and youth workers from the wider youth and civil society sectors. Two regional meetings in Africa and Latin America took place to start regional youth mobility schemes within the network. Throughout the project, an online platform was developed, with a focus on the visa hub. At the end of the project, a printed and digital resource was created with information and educational activities for youth workers and peer educators on the topics of migration, refugees, visas and regional youth mobility work. The resource is available in English, Spanish and French and was launched on World Refugee Day 2018. The meetings took place in Germany, Spain, Brazil, Austria, Ghana and Peru.