Are you 18 years old and dreaming of travelling around Europe? Discover how to organise and how to embark on an unforgettable trip with the “DiscoverEU” program, which will allow you to explore all of Europe by train completely free!

Hurry up! In fact, 36,318 travel passes are available for young people from all over Europe (who are 18 years old). The applications for the project will remain open until 18 October.

Read on to find out how to get your travel pass!

What is DiscoverEU?

DiscoverEU is a key initiative within the Erasmus+ programme. The aim of the project is to give young people the chance to embark on a journey of exploration across Europe’s diverse culture and deepen their understanding of its history.

Participants will receive a travel pass that will primarily facilitate rail travel, but there are also some specific guidelines for residents of islands or remote areas.

They will also get a lot of discounts encompassing cultural excursions, educational pursuits, sporting activities, local transportation, accommodations, and dining experiences.

How does it work?

To meet the eligibility criteria, you must fulfill the following conditions:

• Your birthdate must fall between January 1, 2005 and December 31, 2005.
• Provide the correct identity card (ID), passport, or residence card number when completing the online application.
• Be a citizen or resident of one of the following:
  • Any European Union Member State, including Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs).
  • One of the third countries associated with the Erasmus+ program: Iceland, Liechtenstein, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, or Türkiye.

You will also need to take part in a quiz (unless you’re applying as part of a group).

If you are selected, you can embark on your travels for a minimum of 1 day and up to 30 days, spanning from March 1, 2024, to May 31, 2025.

Can I travel with friends?

You have the flexibility to travel on your own or invite up to four friends to join your group, as long as they fulfil the eligibility criteria mentioned earlier.

They should use your application code to submit their own applications.

Furthermore, if you’re interested in coordinating travel plans with other DiscoverEU participants, you can join DiscoverEU Facebook Group that serves as an excellent platform for this purpose.

Once you’re chosen, the Erasmus+ National Agencies will facilitate the process and they will organise pre-departure meetings and traveler meet-ups to enhance your experience.

How to apply?

If you meet all the requirements mentioned above and are willing to leave for this adventure do not wait any longer: the deadline for applications is October 18, 2023!

To send your application and find out more about this opportunity visit the official website of DiscoverEU!

Read also

Entrepreneur + | From Idea to Business is Already Available!

The Energy Crisis and Inflation | Dialogue with Young Europeans

L'articolo The DiscoverEU call is open | Get ready to explore Europe! proviene da Youth Networks.

Do you work with young people and are you interested in expanding your knowledge in the field of communication? Do you want to discover how through art, nature, mindfulness, embodiment, eco-art and poetry you can mentor in youth work?

Continue reading and discover “Mentoring Through Nature“, an online seminar that will take place on 18th of July that will allow you to deepen these topics!

Mentoring Through Nature

During this online seminar the facilitators will discuss many topics, including:

• The art of Mentoring through Nature: learn how to create and connect with nature and how to use it during youth working activities
• Mindfulness and Embodiment: discover how to mentor through mindfulness and embodiment practices, creating a safe space for the growth of youth.
• Poetry and Eco-Art: explore the power of poetry and eco-art to encourage self-expression, reflection, imagination and ecological awareness in mentoring.
• Earth-Heart Community: Join a network of like-minded mentors dedicated to youth well-being and the environment, fostering collaboration and innovative approaches to mentoring through nature.

The organisation will provide participants:

• A special digital journal to track your practice during the projects
• Shared common materials and resources to deepen their understanding and expand their mentoring toolkit
• A certificate of attendance, acknowledging the participation in the seminar

Participation requirements

No specific requirements are necessary to attend the online course, all that is needed is curiosity, openness, and willingness to learn and grow as a mentor.

The organisation require a participation fee from 20 to 50 euros, depending on the economic possibilities of the candidates. This fee helps sustain the seminar and ensure its quality.

This seminar offers a unique opportunity! Deepen your understanding and expand your mentoring toolkit. Do not miss this opportunity and apply here!
The application dead line is 13 of July 2023.

Read also

TOOL: Intercultural Dialogue Through Art

Embrace a More Sustainable Diet | “Eat4change” Training Course

L'articolo Mentoring Through Nature | Online Seminar proviene da Youth Networks.

Agenzia Nazionale Giovani (Italian National Agency) presents the research report “Effects of Active Citizenship on the Employability of Volunteers Participating in the European Solidarity Corps Programme“.

Effects of the European Solidarity Corps on Youth Employability

Open mindset, networking, active participation in social and democratic life, transversal skills: these are, according to the research carried out by the Agenzia Nazionale per i Giovani “Effects of Active Citizenship in the Employability of Volunteers Participating in the ESC Programme”, the main characteristics acquired by the Volunteers participating in the European Solidarity Corps, a project based on more than 25 years of European programmes in the fields of youth and solidarity.

The EU programme, managed in Italy by ANG, since 2018 allows thousands of girls and boys to live voluntary and solidarity experiences all over Europe within projects designed to help communities or populations. In fact, the programme’s activities support the objectives of the EU Youth Strategy 2019-2027, which encourages young people to active and responsible participation in social, economic, cultural, political and civic spheres through exchange opportunities in a European context.

The Research

The primary aim of the research was to identify the potential impact of the programme on the world of work for Italian volunteers who participated in European volunteering projects, investigating to what extent this experience has a positive impact on employability, but also on the improvement of their personal skills and abilities.

42.5% of the interviewees, out of a total sample of 244 subjects (64 men and 153 women) with an average age of 27.8 years, 60% coming from Northern Italy, followed by 20% from the South and Islands and only 13.5% from Central Italy, highlight how the experience abroad proves to be a strategic lever for the development of a more open-minded personal and professional outlook; 8.63% emphasise an increased awareness of the value of diversity and inclusion obtained by strengthening their networks of extra-national relations and learning new cultural models in the organisational sphere and in the management of relations; again, 12% highlight how participation in the programme favours the development of specific and transversal skills.

An important element to underline, in order to reinforce the message that emerges from these data, is also that at the time of the interview, the population under analysis was mostly in a condition of employability or training (55.3% employed and 30.3% student/trainee) and only 9% were seeking employment. In addition, 85% confirmed that they intended to undertake further mobility in the future, demonstrating an awareness of how investing in their training can be a driver for finding employment.

Among the main motivations behind the decision to join the European Solidarity Corps programme are in fact both the need for personal development in order to experience and deal with a context different from the domestic one, and the desire to expand one’s professional dimension, improving one’s skills and competences, and the desire to network in order to build new relationships.

“Youth volunteering through the European Solidarity Corps programme,” says Lucia Abbinante, Director General of ANG, “is an extraordinary opportunity that broadens the cognitive horizons of the young volunteers involved. The comparison with other cultures, personal growth, active participation in political, cultural, democratic and civic life in a European context contributes to forming citizens of the future who respect the values of inclusion, equality, social, economic and environmental sustainability. The photograph returned by the research overcomes and demolishes all the clichés about a generation that, when not ignored, is portrayed as disinterested and apathetic: nothing could be further from the truth. It is the duty of the institutions, on the contrary, to widen these opportunities, make them more accessible and overcome the gap that can still be bridged in this age group, before it is too late. Training even in non-formal contexts is a driving force for the future, and the research carried out by the Agenzia Nazionale Giovani shows precisely how much experiences of this kind help to enrich knowledge and skills with positive spin-offs in terms of employability. A new generation of European citizens is growing up and deserves more attention’.

In fact, the research shows how participation in the ESC programme increased participants’ awareness of social issues (72.65%) – such as democracy, immigration, sustainability, equality, exclusion, citizenship, equal opportunities – confirming how experience abroad facilitates the development of multifaceted knowledge.

Critical thinking, greater self-confidence in oneself and in one’s choices, the ability to mediate and adapt to different contexts and cultures, and language skills are the main competences learnt detected by those who, between 2018 and 2020, took part in the European Solidarity Corps projects: a crucial training background to face future challenges in the world of work, but also in life.

L'articolo Italian National Agency Research | Effects of the European Solidarity Corps on Youth Employability proviene da Youth Networks.

It is thought of as a tool for organisations, trainers, educators and teachers who want to make international and local activities with young people on the following topics:

• exploring the body,
• physical and mental health, and
• well-being.

The Youth Exchange “Body&Bodies”

The aim of the project, implemented in Genoa (Italy) on July 5-15 2022, was to improve the relationship between young people and their bodies, guiding them through a process of exploration, awareness and research with the help of various physical disciplines (theatre, dance, circus arts, yoga, play education).

The idea was born from the need for young people to do activities that would differ from their vision of traditional physical activity – at least from what they are proposed at school level. This need was followed by a research, which has shown how the pandemic has affected everyone’s social and personal life, and that a tool to get out of it is to consult the inner connection between body and mind, intended as being aware of ourselves, in order to know how to take care of our own well-being.

Objectives of the Project

The specific objectives of the project were:

• exploring the body as a tool for understanding oneself and the world around oneself;
• gaining confidence in bodies as tools for sociality and communication, particularly after the negative impact given by the Covid-19 pandemic;
• promoting physical and mental well-being, a healthier body image and healthier relationships;
• promote knowledge and practice of new physical disciplines among young people;
• promote a more conscious, respectful and open approach to one’s own and others’ bodies;
• sharing knowledge and experience on the topic with organizations from different European contexts;
• receiving tools and strategies, useful for organizations and youth workers, to promote physical disciplines and healthy lifestyles among young people;
• promote intercultural dialogue and self-management skills among young people and promote the Erasmus program.

Check out the complete toolkit for a wider understanding of the project and of the general flow of the activities!

L'articolo Toolkit | A New Collection of Non Formal Methodologies for Body-Related Activities proviene da Youth Networks.

How is the European Union supporting Ukrainian pupils, teachers and people fleeing from Ukraine?

Let’s have a look at the initiatives.

The Cohesion’s Action for Refugees in Europe (CARE)

The Cohesion’s Action for Refugees in Europe (CARE) allows Member States and regions to provide emergency support to people fleeing from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as it:

1. Swifts reallocation of available funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the European Social Fund (ESF) and the Fund for the European Aid to the Most Deprived (FEAD) to finance a wide range of measures supporting people fleeing Ukraine.
2. Provides emergency support covering the basic needs of people fleeing Ukraine. These needs include access to services such as temporary accommodation, food and water supplies or medical care.

The Erasmus Plus Programme

There are many ways the Erasmus Plus programme is helping Ukrainian people:

1. Ukrainian young people and pupils can be welcomed quickly by education and training institutions involved in Erasmus+ cooperation projects, with flexible use of project funding.
2. If you are a Ukrainian teacher or trainer, you can receive financial support to facilitate your integration.
3. If you are a qualified staff, you may be sent, on a temporary basis, to regions where refugees are accommodated.
4. Institutions benefiting from ongoing Erasmus+ projects in areas such as inclusion, diversity and integration of refugees can, on a voluntary basis, reallocate part of their funds in support of activities for Ukrainian refugees.

The School Education Gateway

The European Commission will also set up an EU Education Solidarity group for Ukraine to pool the expertise of every Member State on the continuing training of young Ukrainian refugees. 

Read the full statement.

See also

Ukraine: How To Manage European Projects as Provided by the European Commission

L'articolo EU Support to Ukrainian Students, Young People, Teachers and Educators proviene da Youth Networks.

Around 120 young people coming from all over Europe will meet to discuss about political participation among youngsters. They will discuss the current trends in which youngsters are being involved in political life and analyze the tools to overcome the limit of democratic participation, in order to make it wider, more accessible and to make the people more aware of what happens around them.

The goal

The symposium aims at defining what politics mean to youngsters. The starting point is the nature of interaction between them and the political sphere: why some take an active part, and why some don’t? Why non-traditional ways of participation (not always positive, indeed) are being sometimes preferred? What can stakeholders and youth organisations do to make the young people feeling closer and more committed?

The event

The sessions will be designed in a participatory way. In the application form, participants will have the chance to indicate what issues or questions are most pressing for them in their work as it relates to the main theme of political participation. The answers will define the topics of the discussions. They may range from the level of engagement in political participation nowadays (characterised by economic tensions, crisis of democratic institutions, digitalisation, social media, fake news and other manipulations of the public opinion etc.) to the reasons that drive youngsters to commit to politics, from the european values to the role of civil society and citizen movements, and much more.

Further information, also about the requirements for the participants are provided at the following link. The deadline is 22 April 2019, 23.59 CET. People wishing to apply must fill the following application form. The result of the selection will be published on 15 May 2019.

L'articolo Call for participants: political commitment among young Europeans proviene da Youth Networks.

Young entrepreneurs have the chance to be hosted by small and medium enterprises all over the European Union, with no extra costs – the programme is co-funded by the European Commission through its COSME (Competitiveness of SMEs) programme. It’s the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs Programme, that turns 10 this year.

The programme was created in 2009 and it allows young entrepreneurs to get a cross-border field training, enabling them to spend a period of time at another European small or medium enterprise. The call currently running covers the period 2016-2021 and, in this period alone, over 250 new companies and more than 2,000 jobs were created thanks to the EYE experience. As it’s stated in the call, “Small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) play a crucial role in reaching the objectives of the Europe 2020 Strategy” (here further infrmation about this last initiative).

EYE is a combination of fostering the entrepreneurial activities in the EU and, at the same time, their internationalisation, to exploit every aspect of the Single Market – one of the pillar ot the European Union. SMEs make up for “99% of businesses in Europe and contribute to 60% of European private sector employment, creating 85% of new jobs”, as reported on Forbes. Developing the skills of the young entrepreneurs is then fundamental to improve European economic performance as well, not last in terms of employability.

How to do so?

It works trhough a call for proposal. The main characters are the new and young entrepreneur, the hosting enterprise and intermediary organisations (IOs), that are selected to manage the programme local level.

What’s the role of such organisations? The call specifies nine main tasks:

• Promotion of the programme;
  
• Enrolment of entrepreneurs;
• Assessing applications from NEs (new entepreneurs) and HEs (hosting entepreneurs);
• Building relationships;
• Management of grants, commitments and financial support to new entrepreneurs;
• Preparation of the exchange;
• Follow up of the exchange;
• Active networking;
• Reporting.
  

Further details are available in the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs Implementation Manual for Intermediary Organisations (Quality Manual).

How much is the budget?

The total budget for the whole programme amounts to 80 million for the years 2016-2020. However, the allocation for each single year depends on the annual budget adopted for that year.

As stated in the call, during the first SGAs (specific agreements) arranged from 1 February 2017 to 31 January 2019, “Financial assistance to new entrepreneurs participating in a mobility action shall take the form of a scale of unit cost of maximum EUR 6.600 per entrepreneur. The maximum grant amount per Specific Agreement resulting from the first consultation for SGAs will be EUR 800.000“.

Speaking of which…

If you’re interested in youth entrepreneuership, have a look at some of the project results available here on the dedicated page.

L'articolo Erasmus for young entrepreneurs 2009-2019: ten years of innovation proviene da Youth Networks.

SEEDS2 brought together eight organizations, four from Europe (Italy, Finland, Turkey and Spain) and four from Latin America (Peru, Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina).

The main goals of the project were:

• Fighting unemployment through the creation of Social Entrepreneurship projects for young people;
• Creating a Youth Exchange in order to enhance the internationalization of the project and underpin the local context from where the participants came from;
• Increasing the competences of the staff members of the organizations through a Training of Multipliers, two Youth Exchanges and six local trainings on the topic;
• Applying methods of non formal education, peer to peer education, active participation and intercultural learning;
• Inspiring young people to have a proactive part in Social Entrepreneurship and attracting the youth from Latin America to the methodology of youth exchanges following the model of the Erasmus+;
• Reinforcing the networks between the participants and the stakeholders and among the participants themselves;
• Making the organizations that were part of the projects more visible and, by this, reinforcing their mission through an increase of the resources;
• Testing new dissemination tools, like innovative media;
• Becoming a benchmark in the field of Social Entrepreneurship.

The goals have been achieved in a rather satisfying way. An entire section of tools and methodologies is available, providing a social-economy mindset and entrepreneurial skills for the organizations that took part to the capacity building.

L'articolo SEEDS2: social entrepreneurship for the youngsters proviene da Youth Networks.

As for the methodology, it was released a toolkit that encompass the topics of ideology and ethic, business plan, marketing and communication and project cycle management. Through the use of the means and resources explained in the videos, the participants could acquire new competences and a new awareness to harness in the field of social entrepreneurship. Here they are:

The capacity to have clear in mind the concepts of social and business entrepreneurship (and the difference between them):

To work in groups capable of performing and get to common conclusions by complementing each other for a common social interest:

To start and get through the process of creating a business and social entrepreneurship idea:

To grow familiar with the different concepts (business/social entrepreneurship, civil society work/NGO):

And, finally, to enable the participants to turn the outcomes, the ideas, into concrete business models.

L'articolo SEEDS2: social entrepreneurships and how to manage them proviene da Youth Networks.