Joining the EU is a common goal for entire Western Balkan but developing European identity and resolving conflicts inside borders of Europe is goal of all of us. Reconciliation and normalization of ordinary citizens’ life in frozen conflict areas or areas that still have disputes has still not been in the full focus, due to lack of opportunities or interest for dialogue, exchange and creation of long-term sustainable relations and communication. During implementation of the project Lajk it in 2015, and Exchange it 2018 we met over 6000 young people from Kosovo and Serbia to talk about dialogue among citizens. Whenever we approached a school/institution working with youth (e.g. for space for workshop), we had to negotiate. Even if we wanted to speak about importance of youth exchange, it was seen as a political issue only because it was Serbia-Kosovo related. Same experience we had in Greece and FYROM/Northern Macedonia if we wanted to talk about why it is important to have exchange between people sharing border. In Spain we are seeing conflict arising inside of one territory where young people in all sides are taking extreme stands. We can see similar behaviour in different territories in Europe where reconciliation is still needed process. We believe that opportunities provided for young people through ERASMUS+ programs as well as programs of RYCO and other institutions if used properly will help young people meet through exchanges and overcome these barriers. Project Consortium (hereinafter PC) believes that by fostering proactive participation of youth organizations in creation of opportunities for youth exchanges, we can contribute to reconciliation, creation of atmosphere of trust and improvement of young citizens’ life. Having this in mind, PC designed project activities in such order and fashion to provide systematic approach to the problem, while building up on already existing initiatives and capacities. Main idea is to identify existing potentials of organisations to carry on youth exchanges in post conflict and frozen conflicts areas and then to increase their capacities through the platform with tailor made trainings and mentoring support, networking and updated and relevant information on the subject. It is expected that organisations and individuals involved in the project will increase their level of know-how and capacities concerning youth exchanges, but also will gain practical knowledge in strategy planning, advocacy, lobbying and independent work. They will also learn on how to use ERASMUS+ and other donors’ opportunities to conduct exchanges for reconciliation.Youth are susceptible to both positive and negative influences and have a potential to induce positive changes and intercultural dialogue for reconciliation, thus youth exchanges are perceived as a perfect “medium” to support such processes. Therefore, it is important to strengthen the role of youth organisations, especially the ones conducting youth exchanges.
The aim of this project was to foster proactive participation of YO in order to contribute to the building of trust and work on reconciliation. We worked on identifying existing potentials of organizations to carry on youth exchanges in post conflict and frozen conflicts areas and ton increasing capacities of YO and individuals involved in youth exchanges. All parties involved in the project gained practical knowledge in strategy planning, advocacy, lobbying and independent work.
In previous two decades many youth exchanges were organized in WB region and in Europe. The need for them is evident as well as enthusiasm of all involved but their quality regarding technical and program aspects was questionable. We decided to work on standardization of YE by offering to YO open learning tool which could benefit them in any time for all questions related to YE contributing to intercultural learning and reconciliation in participating countries.
<< Background >> In previous two decades many youth exchanges were organized in WB region and in Europe. The need for them is evident as well as enthusiasm of all involved but their quality regarding technical and program aspects was questionable. We decided to work on standardization of YE by offering to YO open learning tool which could benefit them in any time for all questions related to YE contributing to intercultural learning and reconciliation in participating countries. << Objectives >> The aim of this project was to foster proactive participation of YO in order to contribute to the building of trust and work on reconciliation. We worked on identifying existing potentials of organizations to carry on youth exchanges in post conflict and frozen conflicts areas and ton increasing capacities of YO and individuals involved in youth exchanges. All parties involved in the project gained practical knowledge in strategy planning, advocacy, lobbying and independent work. << Implementation >> Project is implemented in challenging period of Covid-19 time. Team managed to implament it as closely to the main idea knowing that in-person meeting for this kind of exchange and learning was important. Partners communicated intensively to cover all the new opened challenges and managed to achieve planned results of all activities and defined project objectives. << Results >> Results achieved:-Research for scanning the capacities of YO regarding YE implementation-YO that are working/willing to work on YE are identified during 14 Info days in 6 partner countries-Exchange it online mechanism available as open resource at http://exchange-it.org/ -72 youth workers from different YO raised capacities to conduct YE-600 different users went through EOM -355 400 youth workers and stakeholders informed online and 500 of them in person-YO working on exchanges linked