The Strategic Partnership “Europe for all” made a contribution towards a more diverse conscious and inclusive EVS/ESC and thus implement one of the major priorities of the program strand. The Strategic Partnership is a cooperation project with organisations from Scotland (A&M Scotland), Italy (Porta Nuova Europa Pavia), Bulgaria (Associaction “Inspiration” Ruse) and Germany (Jugendakademie Walberberg). The research unit “nonformal education” of the TH Köln -University of Applied Sciences participated in the project as well. They conducted scientific research of the project and evaluated it. The project reaches out for the following objectives:1. Exploring the conditions for tailor-made EVS-Projects for the diverse target group of young people with fewer opportunities2. Setting up and offering training measures for the regional networking organisations in the field of peer education, project monitoring andapplying for European youth mobility projects3. Participation of the regional politicians working in the field of youth policy: The cooperations aim to improve the regional conditions for international mobility measures 4. Preparation and supply of the project result for organisations who work in the field of international voluntary services plus presenting recommendations for a changed program implementation of the ESCThe following activities took place in order to achieve the objectives:1.) Setup of regional networks (4-6 organisations from the field of youth work) who took part in training activites in order to implement high-quality EVS activities by themselves and to cooperate in the field of youth participation, Peer Education and Blended Learning2.) Realization of 15 volunteering activities for about 100 young people with fewer opportunities (volunteering teams, long term services and short term services in pairs) and multiplier events in the field of Peer Learning/Blended Learning 3.) Implementation of 4 international team meetings of the consortium, the regional networks, young people with fewer opportunities and regional politicians who are responsible for youth policy in order to reflect on success factors, exchange Best Practise and initiate structural changes in regional youth policy 4.) Dissemination of the project results within the framework of a multiplier event/on meetings in the field of international voluntary services and presentation on regional events The following conclusions can be drawn:-Most young people are highly motivated in taking part in an international voluntary service. They and also the multipliers often lack knowledge about short term services and volunteering teams. Also, many organisations do not offer these formats due to financial reasons because they are too expensive. Research has shown that adequate funding for these formats is necessary. In addition, more information events are needed as well as a subject oriented funding system: the young people should be able to develop their own voluntary project according to their needs and should take the necessary financial resources for the specific projects for granted (for an assistance, for a wheelchair friendly apartment or counselling). A paradigm shift is necessary within the funding logic. This means it should be made possible to apply for a funding sum in a specific height and then use it according to requirements of the individual voluntary services. Then, it would no longer be necessary to label young people as “young people with fewer opportunities” in order to fit them into a funding system.-The project “Europe for all” has also shown that establishing networks and cooperation among local and international partners can open doors to low-threshold access for young people with fewer opportunities towards international youth mobility measures who did not have access before. From the participants´perspective, we should ask how the European political actors can continue to support exchange, consultation and networking between local and international civil society actors.-In this respect, it is very important to strengthen the position of young people as spokespersons: creating an international network of experts and youth participation was another special feature of the network. We should not only approach the creation of a specific youth network and the adjacent idea of peer education pragmatically to acquire new volunteers but also to give ex-volunteers the chance to become involved politically (e.g. stronger participation at an organizational and programme level).-There are major differences among the various national agencies concerning processing applications. The staff of the national agencies have an important supporting role in supervising projects where they should show a high degree of transparency, good communication with the organisations and active support when needed. Thus, actions of the national agencies can help or limit some inclusion strategies followed by the organisations.

"<< Background >>The Strategic Partnership “Network for the active improvement of Youth Work” (NAIYW) takes place in the context of a 5 year-lasting programme called “Generation Europe: The Academy” (GenE:A). 45 European youth work organisations from 16 EU-countries work together in trilateral partnerships and in various working groups with the aim, to improve youth work structures and capabilities in Europe. One of the aims behind this is to support organisations to excite youths with fewer opportunities to become active on local and European level according to the concept of Critical Youth Citizenship.To support this, the official Partners of NAIYW will actively involve in and contribute to the Bonn-Process and make it feasible also for the associated partners for their work on local level. The aim is to connect local and European youth work by supporting local structures. This will be done, among other activities, by collecting best practices, by working on strategies for lobby and advocacy work, by training professionals, and by disseminating the results. Further, the inter-level-connection will be strengthened by finding a common language for ""non-formal civic education'', inventing and improving participatory methodology for diverse target groups, and connecting local youth work with European strategy instruments.NAIYW systematically builds on the results of the project ""Network for Active European Citizenship” (NAEC, 2018-2-DE04-KA205-016959), thus making this project even more sustainable. The experiences gained there and especially the developed products ""Guidance Papers'' and ""Methodbox'' are the starting point for NAIYW.Based on research, the Guidance Papers describe the conditions and needs of youth and youth policy in the countries of the (associated) partners of NAEC. During the process the network realized that youth work organisations are often not used to doing advocacy and lobbying for their needs and for the field of youth work in general. However, this is necessary for recognition of youth work and youth work organisations as well as for real improvement in the field.Further, the Guidance Papers identified the following shortcomings of youth work and in youth policy:- a lack of structured and long term youth work in the local communities and therefore a lack of networking in the european youth work- a lack of support from policy makers to the youth sector- lack of support for the youth work organisations during and in the aftermath of the covid-19-pandeminc on several levels (mental health, economic, guidelines how to start again, pedagogical level...)- lack of representation of the sector youth work on a local and international level- lack of exchange/share of experience and best practice of lobbying for the youth sectors.Additionally, the work over the Methodbox revealed the following needs in local and european activities in the field of non- formal education:- lack of appropriate tools and methods for value-based education in terms of Critical Youth Citizenship (CYC),- lack of understanding of participatory and inclusive pedagogical approaches by local youth workers.All activities of NAIYW are dedicated to address the above-mentioned needs and to develop new strategies on how to deal with them.Task Forces (Professionals from the 11 project partners who are in the same time being active in the network of GenE:A) will work on the aims in the frame of the project for and with the associated partners in the network GenE:A. Further they will open results up to the community of practice (COP) (including the fields of science and political and institutional levels) beyond the concrete network.<< Objectives >>The Network for the Active Improvement of Youth Work (NAIYW) takes place in the frame of a 5 years lasting programme called Generation Europe: The Academy (GenE:A). During GenE:A, 45 European youth work organisations from 16 EU-countries work together in trilateral partnerships and in various working groups (for example, Generation Europe: The Ambassadors, 2020-3-DE04-KA205-02058) with the aim to support the inclusion of all young persons and especially of those with fewer opportunities in activities of international youth work, explicitly in international projects that work on the topics of Critical Youth Citizenship (CYC) and European values. Moreover, GenE:A aims to provide inclusive and qualitative non-formal civic education for youth with fewer opportunities. The way to achieve this is to stimulate a European exchange with young people about European values, solidarity and CYC. Thus, GenE:A is coherent with the EU Youth Strategy and supports the implementation of its core ideas and objectives. Eventually, GenE:A aims for quality development of youth work, professional development of youth workers, as well as for strengthening international youth work and its recognition.More specifically, NAIYW sets as main objectives of its work (also in line with the national priority set by the National Agency in Germany) to be committed to recognition, innovation and development of the youth sector in a qualitative way in this post-pandemic period and to support and implement the EYWA (European Youth Work Agenda) as well as the Bonn Process on different levels.In particular, this strategic partnership with its implementation and with the development of the project results (see section below), will achieve to ensure the connection of local and European youth work and a long term support for youth work, on three main dimensions (these main aims will be specified in the project description):InclusionNAIYW will allow the exchange and support of the professional multi-level experiences (educators, youth workers, psychologist, sociologists), within the official and associated partners and indirectly within their local and national community. The dialogue is directly connected to the needs of the community of practice and the direct experiences from different European local communities. This also ensures that the needs of youth work organisations and young people are heard and further solved.Recognition of youth work on a local, national and European levelNAIYW will contribute to the increase and development of youth work by supporting the Community of Practice in its dialogue with stakeholders, coordinating actions, and motivating to bring youth work to the political level through strategic advocacy or lobbying. By training the associated partners, they are encouraged to work for the improvement of youth work conditions at local, national and European level. Moreover, NAIYW will inspire the associated partners and indirectly their local and national community to get involved in the EYWA / Bonn Process in a strategic way and as a common European Process. Lastly, NAIYW will promote non-formal European civic education activities and their value for supporting democratic culture on local, national and European level.Development of youth work qualityNAIYW will provide long term instruments to maintain and guarantee the quality of youth work at the local, national and European level, will contribute to the international dialogue on non-formal civic education and stress its role in democratic societies. Further, it will support with practical know-how the activities with the target group in order to improve and develop the local work. Eventually, NAIYW will develop a concept on non-formal european civic education to be used within the youth work of the associated partners and to be used as an experiential document in the international dialogue on non-formal activities about CYC and “Politische Bildung''.<< Implementation >>To achieve the goals, many activities are building the project structure. They can be summarised as follows:Preparatory activitiesThe implementation of an in-depth survey to better understand the status quo and the needs of the project partners and the associated partners will be carried out in the very beginning of NAIYW. The Survey will build on the recommendations described in the Guidance Papers and also on the learnings from developing the Methodbox. The survey is a starting point to adjust all further project activities and the concrete project results.Project management and monitoring activitiesSeven Transnational Meetings will be organised. Most meetings will take place within the Task Forces. During the meetings, the project partners will focus on project management within their defined area of responsibility. Beyond these meetings, the detailed plans are regularly brought together: Transnational meetings in which all task forces (being built with members from all project partners) come together for general decision-making, monitoring and planning steps of the overall NAIYW project. In addition, there were and will be numerous other digital or presence meetings financed by other sources within the task forces (see Management section).Feedback loops and other activities with the associated partners from the GenE:A networkHere the annual 5-day GenE conferences and interface activities with the young professionals from the Ambassador Network (2020-3-DE04-KA205-020581) and the associated competence group shall be mentioned. Also we will evolve and include feedback from early Pilot Workshops and Trainings to strengthen the concepts for the LTTAs.Communication with the youth work world outside the GenE:A networkActive involvement in conferences, meetings, political events and committees especially on the Bonn Process (all funded from other sources) is planned.Learning, Teaching and Training Activities.Trainings: Building up on the Methodbox as a concrete result of 2018-2-DE04-KA205-016959, a Task Force will develop and execute two seven days lasting training sessions for project partners and associated partners. Methods and tools for non-formal civic and value-based education will be collected, adapted and often developed completely new. The training will enable the participants to initiate, implement and exchange context- and needs-based solutions in youth work, to facilitate educational activities for youth with fewer opportunities based on principles of CYC.Workshops: A concrete result of NAIYW will be a manual for advocacy and lobby work in youth work. A corresponding series of four workshops will be developed and offered as LTTA within the framework of NAIYW. Later, the workshop concept and the manual will be published and offered as part of NAIYW's dissemination strategy (see below).Multiplier Events (MEs)A series of MEs will take the project results far beyond the circle of official and associated partners and reach the larger COP. One project partner from each project country will organise an ME. Target groups are professional youth workers from other organisations in the region. Additionally, there will be MEs organised by the coordinating organisation IBB. They will be in an international context, inviting international representatives of the COP.Activities in the Field of Youth PolicyTogether with the connected project GenE:A the strategic partnership implements further activities (funded by other sources) to engage in a constructive, empathetic, and versed way with the power of all (associated) partners in the Bonn Process and to motivate the associated partners of the GenE:A Network to engage as well.<< Results >>During its 23 months, NAIYW will reach different results to address current needs of European youth work (see section above).NAIYW will create three concrete products, along the lines of the objectives of the Bonn Process: ensuring a long term support for the youth work on professional level, giving long term instruments to ensure the quality of youth work and promoting the recognition of the youth work on local, national and european level.The products will be created with the support of the associated partners and youths. There will be a constant exchange within the official partners, associated partners and youths to assure the inclusion of their perspectives. This cooperation will strengthen the quality of the final products.Collection of Booklets on participation and inclusionThe five booklets will focus on: supporting the motivation and engagements of local groups in civic education and in the participatory process, making the local youth work inclusive and connected with European values and activities, creating long term and strategic structures for youth work and supporting mental health practice in uncertain post pandemic times. At the end of the project, these booklets will be gathered in one collection. The collection will be a support and source for the community of practice in order to help them in their work on European non- formal civic education on different levels. Moreover, the collection will support the work on a local level with methods and practices. This product will bring structure to the community of youth work, will develop and innovate the quality of its work.Paper on civic educationThis paper will be the result of research, discussion and exchange within the groups of official and associated partners and also external experts about existing concepts of non-formal civic education in Europe. The paper on civic education aims to connect European values with non-formal activities. It will be the basis for the methodology of the booklets and for the associated partner’s activities with the target group. Moreover, it will be used to promote non-formal European education activities and their value, to support democratic culture in local communities and on national and European level. Manual for lobbying in Youth WorkThe Manual shows a strategic process that youth work organisations can follow to make advocacy for their own work (mostly on local level) and for youth work policy on European level, in a network of practice. Moreover, it shows how to lobby for concrete changes in local communities: giving advice on how to implement the European Youth Work Agenda on a local level, giving advice on how to connect with existing networks and structures on a European level and mapping a European Stakeholder-Schema. Additionally, a series of workshops for the associated partners is going to be developed in a parallel process of mutual adjustment loops.NAIYW also expects through the training to make projects on CYC accessible and attractive for diverse target groups. With its associated partners, NAIYW integrates substantially different youth work organisations and thus holds great potential for the professional exchange about how to make non-formal civic education more inclusive. NAIYW will include policy makers from different political levels to promote the dialogue between them and youth work organisations: we expect to raise the interest in supporting further projects in the regions to become an active part of a European network that works on a common strategy.Eventually, by the combination of the GenE:A and the strategic partnership we aim to improve the accessibility of international projects in the field of CYC for youths with fewer opportunities."