Project title: BOCOTO - Boosting Community-based Tourism and Youth Work for Global Sustainable DevelopmentDuration1/11/2018 - 5/5/2021The project proposed an international capacity building program by exposing participants to various aspects of “community-based tourism” & youth work from different countries & organizations from Italy, Spain, Nepal, Vietnam, Turkey, India & Kenya. Through a transnational approach, the project was examining concepts & practices underpinning “community-based tourism - CBT” & its potential in the youth field in all targeted local communities & regions. Perspectives on CBT was explored through a holistic concept of protection & valorisation of biodiversity, cultural diversity, local development and the promotion of human rights. The project was engaging youth organizations & stakeholders to work together to develop & promote CBT as a catalyst for inclusive & sustainable economic growth, youth employment, social inclusion, well-being & poverty reduction, while at the same time protecting cultural values and the natural heritage.Target groups- Youth workers and young leaders who work in community-based projects with & for young people & that are interested in community-based tourism and sustainable development.Final beneficiariesRural communities involved in the project, who can benefit from increased touristic activities bringing local economic & social benefits.General objectiveTo strengthen the capacity of youth organisations & local communities to promote community-based tourism in rural and remote areas.Specific objective- To enhance the socio-professional development of youth workers and organisations to promote CBT in their local communities and regions.- To encourage the exchange of experiences, community approaches and organisational cooperation among youth organisations from EU, Asia & Africa in the field of youth work and CBT.Results achieved- Increased socio-professional development of youth workers who are equipped with knowledge, key competences & employable tools on “community-based tourism & sustainable development” through different cultural perspectives, educational approaches and community experiences from different regions of the World.- Increased transnational cooperation, exchange of good practices and capacity building between youth workers, organizations and NGOs active in the sustainable development field from different World context.Outputs- BOCOTO learning platform: an open educational resource targeting young people and youth workers and serving as a key tool in the awareness-raising on the CBT concept, in the promotion of 'community-based tourism' packages and in reaching the audience of young people & responsible travellers interested in taking part. - Sustainable Development and Community-based Tourism Training Manual: presenting a full learning module of non-formal learning activities on Sustainable Development and Community based tourism, designed for international context for the benefit of youth workers and trainers who aim to enhance the competences of young people on SD and CBT.- BOCOTO Catalogue: including CBT packages developed and offered by partners (2 weeks, 1 month and 3 months duration) characterised by holistic discovery of cultural diversity, natural products and gastronomy, while giving opportunity for travellers in the engagement of local social, educational and environmental initiatives.- Country analyses on CBT in 7 partner countries: SWOT analysis of resources & good practices in the local contexts.Mobility activities including a TC & a final seminar in Italy (Caltanissetta), study visits in India (Bhubaneswar & Odisha), Kenya (Kisumu), Nepal (Palpa), Spain (Elche), Turkey (Istanbul), Vietnam (Hanoi & Ha Giang).

Lack of active citizenship, fragile democracies, outdated educational systems, religious agendas and high youth unemployment rates are some of the main concerns in MENA region. Young people are left on the margins of the job market, often lacking the employability skills, facing gaps in terms of usage of innovation and technology and not rarely being part of political and religious agendas. Although the social entrepreneurship (SE) has become a “mantra” for solving these issues in the MENA region after the Arab Spring, simple analyses of the local realities show lack of social entrepreneurship infrastructure as well as lack of sustainability of the social businesses.The lack of sustainability, does not only refer to the lack of resources for sustaining the business, but also to the format in which the SE is being practiced and how it is positioned in the socio-economic system. We believe that using innovation and digital learning are the main assets to maximize the potentials of SE and to provide tools that can contribute to its sustainability.Social innovation as such should not be only perceived from the perspective of newly born startups, but should be seen as an opportunity for further growth and development of already successfully operating businesses, even more for capacity-building of impact-making CSOs operating in the regions. In addition, the digital learning serves to provide exploitation of the social innovation through usage of newest technologies and to guarantee its durability and expansion over time. Therefore, through SOciaL Innovation and Digital learning Platform (SOLID project) we would like to empower youngsters and youth organizations to exploit innovation and technologies for social impact, thereby, making their mission durable and sustainable. SOLID will be a unique opportunity for exchange of know-how, replicating good practices, networking and capacity enhancement in intercultural communication and intercontinental project management.The project activities will be expand over 15 months and will include: kick-off meeting, methodology workshop and pinpointing and research on social innovators, social innovation voyage to Tunisia, training course: Digital Tools for Social Innovation Sustainability, Local promotional events: Go Digital! Advancing and Inspiring Social Innovation in Community as well as online evaluation meeting. Through the project we will create a network and community of min. 50 innovators, they will be pinpointed on a map in Europe and MENA and will be presented using unique youth friendly narrative. In addition, we will develop a brochure on digital tools for social innovation in MENA and Europe.We expect at least 2000 youth from participating countries will have their awareness raised on social innovation and/or will get empowered to start own initiatives through the project activities, the platform and/or the brochure on digital tools for social innovation.

"Equality between women and men is a fundamental principle of the European Union that has made ""gender equality"" one of the global goals of the millennium (Objective 5).The Europe 2020 strategy makes gender equality a lever for economic growth, employment, social cohesion and sustainable development. At the same time, Europe is facing a major migration crisis with urgent needs linked to a very vulnerable and defenseless population - unaccompanied migrant minors. The Council of Europe and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) have both called for European programs to be designed to support unaccompanied migrant minors and to ensure better integration.The ""My Gender Rights"" project was developed over two years and brought together seven actors from six different countries: Internationaler Bund Berlin-Brandenburg GmbH Betrieb Brandenburg Nordost (Germany), STUDENT COMPUTER ART SOCIETY (Bulgaria), Ni + Ni- ( France), CIAPE - CENTRO ITALIANO PER PERMANENT LEARNING (Italy), Fastrak Consulting Ltd (United Kingdom), YOUNCLUSION (Turkey), Unis-Cité (France).All these countries are facing the migrant crisis, which has made it possible, through this transnational approach, to considerably enrich the effectiveness of the project. Indeed, this approach has resulted in the sharing of experiences and good practices of each partner country allowing complementarity towards a successful completion of a toolbox of 5 educational productions.The three objectives of ""My Gender Rights"": ""Inclusive Education, Training and Youth"", ""Youth: Promoting Better Work"", ""Open and Innovative Education, Training and Youth Work in the Digital Age"" were achieved.The project, led by cross-border multi-stakeholder work, has implemented and disseminated five educational tools aimed at training the public on gender equality:- e-learning on gender issues for youth organizations and centers dealing with unaccompanied migrant minors- A cartoon on gender equality for unaccompanied migrant minors- A video of testimonies of former unaccompanied migrant minors- A gender equality gaming workshop for unaccompanied migrant minors created with the contribution of their peers- A guide on gender equality for newcomers created with input from their peers.The different target groups set at the beginning of the project have been reached to the extent that these productions have been provided to organizations and centers hosting unaccompanied migrant minors. Each tool is freely available and is numerically downloadable. The MMNA reception and care centers, the MMNA organizations, the young workers and all the MMNA professionals, the services and all the other volunteers and public interested in the subject can use them and thus enrich their knowledge and skills.These five tools have been translated into all the languages ​​of the partner countries. They have already been distributed and are downloadable (open access) on various public channels: website (https://mygenderrights.org/), social networks (Facebook ...), Youtube.Finally, this project had a triple impact: impact at local level (partner structure implemented locally), impact at European level (funding by Erasmus +, collaboration between European transnational actors), impact at international level (unaccompanied minor migrant beneficiaries from international countries)."

“Youth Citizenship Activators” is a 10-day Mobility of Youth workers-Training course, organized by Omladinska Kulturna Organizacija from 24th of November to 3rd of December 2016 in Belgrade, Serbia that brings together 35 youth workers, young leaders, trainers and young professionals from Serbia, Macedonia, Turkey, Poland, Greece, Portugal, Albania, Czech Republic, Italy and Romania. Being active citizen in social, political and economic life has many advantages and almost always brings positive impact and benefits on people lives. It brings experience, knowledge, skills, contacts, education, mobility and job opportunities and friendships that otherwise we would hardly get in the comfort of our homes. Active participation widens people horizons, enriches lives, increases self-confidence and esteem, opens new doors for personal and professional development and often leads to job offers or increased chances for employment. But, if the benefits are so high, then why youth doesn’t take active participation in societies and practice their citizens’ rights to be active in the political, economic and social processes in their countries and EU? Why European youth show little or no interest and motivation to be engaged in democratic life, why are they losing community ties and there are declined levels of trust in democratic institutions? The answers on these questions are not easy to get, but we’ve asked these crucial questions to ourselves and our partners and found out that youth workers and youth organisations can greatly help in addressing these issues and inspire and enable active youth participation in democratic life by providing training, education, coaching and information through their work and activities. Therefore, project supports the personal and professional development of youth workers and young leaders by training, equipping with competences and empowering them to work on citizenship education, especially in the context of active citizenship and European citizenship. In the same time, the project creates a new generation of Youth Citizenship Activators (educators) who will be able to encourage active youth participation in socio-political democratic life on local, national and European level in order to strengthen youth voice and role in Europe by using different tools for empowerment.Through successful realization of project and fulfilling its aims and objectives, the project on the long run can significantly help to raise the quality of (European) citizenship education and improve active participation of young people, especially those with fewer opportunities in participating countries and European democratic life.Project methodology is based on non-formal, experiential and informal learning methods and intercultural learning that will aim to foster the personal, social and professional development of all participants though it’s inclusive approach to everyone and adaptation according to their needs and expectations.

"Project ""Sustainable youth work on sustainability"" was implemented by consortium that includes youth organisations from Serbia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Romania, Albania, Turkey, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia. Applicant organisation was Ecology Club Energy from Serbia, Belgrade where mobility activities were hosted in 2016 and 2017. Main aims of the project are to develop and build capacities of involved organizations from European Union and Western Balkans, to implement and run activities promoting sustainable development using experience from EU with additional focus on young people with fewer opportunities in Europe through social and sustainable entrepreneurship. In order to achieve this aims project have following objectives:- To exchange experience and identified obstacles among youth workers involved in sustainability education in Balkans and European Union- To exchange experience and information about previous work of partner organisations and empower their international cooperation, particularly in case of organisations from Western Balkans;- To create at least 10 workshops that will be developed, implemented and adapted aiming to give innovative answer to sustainability education in Europe today, gathered in one universal Tool Kit that will be used and disseminated;- To empower youth workers to promote their work and get support from decision makers and other relevant stakeholders, trough meetings and discussions that will be done within the project.- To create new project ideas among partners, empower them to use Erasmus+ and do other kind of fundraising and continue cooperation in the future involving existing and new partners from different European regions and countries.Trough achievement of this objectives and implementation of the project in general, organisations developed capacities to implement projects and activities that are aiming to educate young people about sustainable development, ecology, protection of environment through perspective of European citizenship, support young people with fewer opportunities in social inclusion and well-being. It has also changed perspective of citizens understanding of their responsibility in European perspective and raise their European awareness, since capacities of organisations were builder and developed."