A young person or a child that commits a crime is not only a massive cost to the society, but also a personal tragedy. And, we are talking about universal problem, with millions of such cases across the EU (Barry, 2006). The charges are ranging from minor status offences, such as theft, to such serious crimes such as burglary, robbery, violence, homicide etc. Afterwards, they more often than not face social exclusion and very limited future prospects, which leads them back to crime. How to avoid that? It is socially accepted that youth centre/worker is a good investment if it/he/she diverts at least one youngster from crime. The project “Climb-Over” is just about that: making good use of youth work to prevent teens/youth from making offences, as well as help reintegration of young offenders. In essence, CO aims to create a special programme in which youth workers would include young offenders in their work with youth. Objectives to achieve this: 1) identify the most common crimes youth are committing, and look for ways to reduce them; 2) enhance youth’s awareness on the impact of crime on communities and families; 3) re-integrate young offenders faster by involving them in youth work; 4) prevent young offenders from re-offending; 5) raise the qualifications and competences of youth workers, who could work together with young offenders; 6) spread tolerance and mutual understanding between young offenders and non-offenders. Naturally, the main target groups of the project are young offenders, non-offending youth (and youth at risk), youth workers and parents. The number of them to be benefited directly by CO is 2550. However this does not include people that will be reached by continuing dissemination activities and self-sustainable deliverables after the project. To fulfil what is planned, CO will have a total duration of 2 years [from IX 2018 to VIII 2020]. Its activities will take place in Lithuania, United Kingdom and Croatia. These can be grouped into the following: - Research on the best ways to integrate young offenders & youth at risk into youth work; - Staff training on how to re-integrate young ex-offenders through youth work; - Methodology creation on how to include young offenders & youth at risk into youth work, as well as prevent juvenile delinquency; - Multiplier events to promote the methodology, match young offenders and youth workers and prepare for social integration events; - Pilot programme that would test the methodology through events for youth in UK, Croatia and Lithuania. - Online platform creation for re-integration of young ex-offenders through youth work; - SOcial Shock (SOS) – youth competition for developing social advertisements aimed at increasing awareness of re-integration of young ex-offenders; - Creation of social advertisements on youth delinquency; - Further dissemination & continuation activities. As it is seen from the above, the project will produce a range of tangible results, which are essentially grouped into 2 intellectual outputs: 1) CO methodology to include young offenders into youth work & prevent juvenile delinquency; and (2) Tools for Re-integration of Young Ex-offenders. These products are going to impact the target audiences in all the project countries. Firstly, youth work will be improved by involving young offenders & youth at risk with their skills and experience. This will, in turn, add up to qualifications of the youth workers. Both participating young offenders and youth will also improve skills & competencies, extend their social networks and decrease xenophobia and ghettoism coming from both sides. All of this will have a positive impact on their future careers/life. Looking from a purely young offenders’ perspective, they will be able to reintegrate back to society faster. CO’s results will also give more recognition of similar social initiatives aiming to support young (ex-)offenders. Ideally, this could lead to more of those being implemented and, generally, a more accurate public opinion towards ex-convicts. Partner organisations have designed the project with self-sustainability in mind. That is why, the focus is on quality of the resources produced and their universal applicability in the European context. In line with Erasmus+ standards, the deliverables will be made free and openly accessible. That and the fact that juvenile delinquency is seemingly without an end and felt across all of the world including EU, ensures that CO stays relevant in the long-term. Its results are envisaged to be reintroduced elsewhere and make an impact beyond the project countries.

"Even though there are numerous European policies that tackle juvenile delinquency, there still is a lack of clear instruments and methodologies targeted specifically at young (ex)offenders & their reintegration. Research shows that re-integration to the society is very difficult for young (ex)offenders. The ""Second Chance"" project focuses on non-discrimination, which is the goal of European policies of Education & Youth. Partners from Lithuania, Vietnam, South Africa and Peru join the forces with an intention to exchange the good practices in young offenders' social integration field & diminish the society's stigma towards these people (since it also poses a barrier to the successful integration).Main AIM: help young people prevent from offending and improve youth work methods of crimes’ prevention and re-integration.OBJECTIVES to reach this aim:-develop YWs’ understanding of youth delinquency;-identify the most common crimes youth are committing in participants’ countries & find ways (NFE methods) to reduce them;-launch, test & develop a training programme on “the prevention of youth re-offending”;-equip YWs with knowledge, key competences & employable tools that would help prevent young offenders from reoffending;-foster capacity building and new social initiatives in the field of youth work related to tackling youth crime;-increase transnational cooperation & exchange of good practices between target groups on the issue;-spread project’s ideas to wider audiences.TARGET GROUPSYouth workers & young leaders who:- work with vulnerable groups (among them young offenders);- face social, economic, geographic or cultural obstacles INDIRECT TARGET GROUP- A wider audience of youth workers & young people;- Young offenders in the partner communities and beyond.ACTIVITIES-Research on youth crime & integration in partner countries;-3 short-term training courses in Vietnam, Peru and South Africa;-Job shadowing to exchange and implement different practices on (ex-)offenders' integration;-E-learning platform for youth workers willing to work with young (ex-)offenders;-""Social Shock"" contest & campaign to break stigmas towards (ex-)offenders;-Public photo exhibition ""On Goodness"" in Vilnius, Lithuania to change the opinion towards people in prison;-Local educational activities with youth at risk / young offenders;-Local and international conferences;-And others.All of this improves the capacity of youth workers to help young (ex)offenders and facilitate the integration processes of the latter."

Throughout the world, women have to deal with day-to-day discrimination. Surely, the forms of it are different, but all of them negatively affect women´s life quality and their self-dignity. To tackle this, youth organisations from Lithuania, Honduras, Senegal and India united for a common project – “Step Up for Rights of Females”. The main goal of the project was to empower women by boosting gender equality across communities in the participating regions. This was aimed to be done through a stronger role of local youth workers and youth leaders; as they can be viable community ambassadors able to communicate the project’s message to their peers.In general, the project aimed to take a small step towards improving women’s situation worldwide, with more specific objectives being:1. Identify the main threats and obstacles for gender equality within the participating countries;2. Equip youth workers & young leaders with knowledge and employable tools related to women protection;3. Foster capacity building and new social initiatives in the field of youth work related to women protection;4. Strengthen partnership between European and non-European organizations. 5. Improve the capacity of the partner organisations to protect and develop women´s rights, as well as spread the project’s ideas to wider audiences.To achieve the above mentioned objectives, we developed, tested & launched a capacity building programme on women protection & development, targeting youth workers & young leaders from EU & Partner countries. The capacity building programme included: (1) analysis of women discrimination in partner countries, and creation of a training material for youth workers to tackle it;(2) 3 training courses for youth workers on women rights protection, which were hosted in countries suffering from women discrimination (India, Honduras, Senegal);(3) 3 job shadowing activities in the above mentioned countries for youth workers to increase their capacity to address education, health, social, environmental, and economic issues related to women protection and development;(3) Open educational resources, including an online platform and e-learning course on women rights protection, which allows youth workers and youngsters to be able to access the educational content developed in the frame of the project at any time;(4) Launch of “SHERO” contest for youth to support new social initiative creation for empowering women;(5) Creation of “For Her!” validation badge to be awarded to youth organizations working on women empowerment; (6) final conference & local conferences on women rights protection to share the results with wider target audiences.All of this improves the capacity of youth workers to tackle women discrimination and facilitate further initiative creation for stepping up for female rights.

"Current European refugee crisis is one of the biggest threats to the European Project (Angela Merkel, 2015). Media is full of scenes with thousands of people flocking to Europe from the war zones looking for a better life. However, more often than not they end up in the place that does not want to use their potential nor welcome them. Is Europe going to keep these refugees out of work & societies? It would be a huge burden and a fast track to a clash of cultures. How to avoid that? Refugees must be integrated. Their potential is an opportunity for growth. Therefore, with this idea in mind, “Together: Refugees & Youth” (TRY) project was implemented. In essence, TRY aimed to create a special programme in which youth workers would include refugees in their work with youth. This way, youth could get a chance to develop in a multicultural environment; thus building up their tolerance and increasing multilingualism. Meanwhile, the refugees had a chance to integrate into the society faster, since the youth helped them with the local language, culture and traditions. To achieve this, these objectives were set: 1) integrate refugees into the societies faster by allowing cultural exchange with local youth; 2) raise qualifications and competencies of youth workers, by providing them with tools & standards for multi-cultural element in their work; 3) lower xenophobia, racism and foster multilingualism of the local youth;4) help refugees' integration by promoting more favourable public opinion and employment opportunities for them; 5) improve local youth work by involving refugees with their skills and experience.Naturally, reufgees, youth and youth workers were the main target groups of the project. Thanks to the activities, carried out by TRY project, more than 3000 people were positively influenced and benefited through various ways. Furthermore, this number does not inlcude people what were and will be reached by continuos dissemination acitivies, as well as self-sustainable deliverables long after the project has ended. Core activities of the project were carried out in Latvia, Lithuania and Croatia from 2015 to 2017 (total duration of 2 years), which can be grouped into following:- Research on the best ways to integrate refugees into youth work; - Staff training event;- Creating a methodology of how to include refugees in youth work & setting-up web-platform to help that;- Multiplier events to promote the methodology, match the refugees and youth workers and prepare for the pilot;- A pilot programme that will test the methodology in a variety of events for youth in Latvia and Lithuania;- Social Business Idea Challenge (SBIC) – competition for youth to develop their business ideas aimed at helping refugees;- ""Everyone Welcome"" badge (EWb) creation to award organisations working with refugees;- Further dissemination & continuation activities (e.g. crowdfunding to further support refugee integration to youth work). TRY was managed collectively by all the partners (representing diverse sectors), which had separate tasks & responsibilities and the official language for activities being English. The entire programme was monitored by the project’s quality board. Project has produced a range of tangible results, among which the most important ones are: 1) methodology and standards for youth work to include refugees; 2) SBIC and generated business ideas that could be turned to social enterprises; 3) EWb, which serves as recognition for companies/institutions that help refugees; 4) Web-platform, which stores the main project resources and includes a crowdfunding section.These products have impacted the target audiences in all the partner countries and beyond and still continue to do so. Firstly, local youth work improved by involving refugees with their skills and experience. This has, in turn, added to the better qualifications of youth workers. From a purely refugees’ perspective, they are able to integrate faster. In addition, both participating refugees and youth also improved their skills & competencies, extended their social networks, fostered multilingualism and became less xenophobic. Furthermore, these activities made a positive impact on their future careers/life. TRY’s results also gave more recognition of similar social initiatives aiming to support refugees, which leads to more of them being implemented and, generally, a more favourable public opinion towards refugees. Partner organisations carried out the project with self-sustainability in mind (e.g. through crowdfunding efforts), which allowed the creation of high-quality resources being universally apllicable in European context. This includes deliverables being free and openly accessible on the project's platform. That and the fact that refugee crisis is seemingly without an end and felt across all of the EU, ensures that TRY stays relevant in the long-term.TRY project results are available here: http://www.refugeeseurope.com"