Neighbours Discovering Internationality Together!
International opportunities for rural youth work!
OBJECTIVES
Internationality can be a very effective tool for youth work, but many youth workers lack the skills, awareness or networks to use it in their work. This project aims to address this need by bringing together youth workers motivated by internationality from the Southern Savonia region of Finland, and from the Kalmar region of Sweden to create networks to learn about international opportunities in youth work and to cooperate. The aim is to:
- Raise the awareness of participating youth workers of the various international opportunities available in the European Union, which they could use in their daily work with young people in their home countries.
- Provide participating youth workers with the opportunity to network and peer-learn with colleagues working in a similar rural context (Sweden and Finland) and facing similar issues in their work with young people.
- Provide participating youth workers with practical understanding and skills to start international activities and help them map out project ideas suitable for their home organisation.
- Create a practical handbook of participants’ learning outcomes and experiences, as well as concrete tips and solutions for all youth workers who would like to broaden their skills in international youth work.
What we do
IMPLEMENTATION
The project includes local and international meetings in Southern Savonia and Kalmar. The local meetings will bring together youth workers to discuss their needs, wishes and challenges related to international youth work. On this basis, two international meetings will be organised, one in Southern Savonia and one in Kalmar, to network and peer-learn about youth work in both countries, to visit local organisations and learn about their practices, and to start future collaborations, e.g. project preparation. The project activities will improve the quality of local youth work, raise awareness of the EU and provide more opportunities for local young people. In addition to the local results, we also want our dissemination activities to have an impact on youth work on a wider scale, which is why we will create a handbook “ABC to Internationality: Practical Guide and Extra Tools for Rural Youth Work” for youth workers who would like to expand their knowledge in internationality.
RESULTS
This project will help both Finnish and Swedish youth workers to discover the different options how they can use internationality. They will also gain practical knowledge and skills for starting this work, since we will already take concrete preparatory steps during the international meetings of this project. Furthermore, the manual that will be published as an output of this project will provide concrete practical help for internationality for any European youth worker in a similar
situation.
Contact:
Project manager Antti Rantaniva
P. +358 40 623 3082
antti.rantaniva@xamk.fi