What is the youth exchange?

What is a Youth Exchange?
A Youth Exchange is a project which brings together groups of young people from two or more countries, providing them with an opportunity to discuss and confront various themes, whilst learning about each other's countries and cultures. A Youth Exchange is based on a trans-national partnership between two or more promoters from different countries.
According to the number of countries involved, a Youth Exchange can be bilateral, trilateral or multilateral. A Bilateral Youth Exchange is justified especially when the promoters are at their first European project, or when the participants are small-scale or local groups without experience at European level. A Youth Exchange can be itinerant, implying the movement of all participants at the same time, throughout one or more countries participating in the Exchange.
A Youth Exchange project has three phases:

• planning and preparation
• implementation of the Activity
• evaluation (including reflection on a possible follow-up).

Non-formal learning principles and practice are reflected throughout the project, whitin the sessions and the spare time activities.

Our organization participated over the last 5 years in multiple youth exchanges. Our youngsters had the chance to familiarize with various themes like media, enviormental protection, intercultural learning, health care, youth policies, active citizenship in different countries like Portugal, Spain, France, Germany, Estonia, Austria, Italy, Poland, Chez Republic, Bulgaria, Macedonia, and Turkey. And all of them got the chance to reexperiance the multitude of a youth exchange either by participating in further programs, either by helping us, to organize our own exchanges, where we are hosting participants from 6 or 7 countries, in youth exhanges regarding enviorment, sports, media, and art.