A, The birth of the project

In December 2005 four members of the Kistérségi Ifjúságsegítő Szolgálat (Territorial Youth-assisting Service) took part in a partner-seeking seminar (www.exchange-seminar.de) in Ottersleben, Germany. The members of more than ten nations’ youth organisations’ represented their homelands. We had been invited by an organisation called KLJ from Magdeburg due to many years of successful co-operation. The organisers subjected the participation to the condition to have at least one concrete idea of a project for all of the organisations. For us it was not a problem. Our Service’s special line is community-development, which is carried out within the scope of the visiting youth work among the local communities of youth at a disadvantage living in small settlements. So we arrived with the plan to find partners for a seminar with the themes: methods and experiences of the visiting youth work. That is to say we think we had succeeded to obtain some experience on this area but the opportunity had not arisen for international comparison. We thought maybe there would be some people who are not only curious about possibilities and of course problems of the city but the life of the youth living in rural areas and the work in connection with them. Unexpectedly big number of applicants ‘swooped on’ this theme. Mainly organisations whose profile fits in well with ours. The French partner can be enhanced because they realise a similar project mainly with the purpose of improve the knowledge of the volunteers and official experts working in small settlements of France in connection with the youth.

B, Preparation, the initiation of the partners

We could arrange to crosscheck with almost all of the partner organisations, clear up the main questions of the project and fill in the declarations of the partnership necessary for the application, already on the seminar at Obersleben. After the homecoming the team of the Service had a meeting which supplemented with four new members in the autumn of 2005. We acquainted the plan of the project with the members, wrote the application and won on it. The partner organisations’ task as the next step was to enrol participants who have experiment and would like to get new knowledge on mobile youth work. Information in connection with the project is available on a website (www.informansag.hu/facetoface) already in the phase of preparation. The website is at disposal of the inquirers as a communicational surface as well. We expect questions, requests, notes in connection with the plan of the project here.

C, Objectives

The main goal of the project is to point out those methods which can make the work of the volunteers and official experts working with accummulatedly disadvantaged youngsters living in regions with small villages. Our further aim is that a system of connection comes into being, a formal or informal network between the ones dealing with youth work helping the exchange of experiences and evolvement of new methods. This process, of course provides with creation of new and qualitative projects to raise the level of youth work in our homeland as well as at our partners internationally. We hope the development of the professional competence of the applicants by the discussion of the realised projects and applied methods, so the young professionals coming from Europe’s every part can ameliorate the life concerning the profession. So we plan the first part of the project to Pécs where the participants can become acquainted with the regular background of the youth work. Then the second part will be held at the Ormánság area where they can meet and get to know the local youth in among managed conditions, so they can understand the differences between the state of a young person living in an urban or a rural area.

D, The profiteers of the project

The participant young professionals taking part in the project can benefit the most advantages of the project who have the possibility to form an opinion of the utility of some initiatives by making comparisons between numerous practical examples. So they can create the collection of the most useful methods of these or by reforming some. The project can be useful for those interested or professionals, who do not take part in the project directly but later study the documents or publications of it because it is an emphasised aim to make the outcome of the project reachable in a wide range so naturally we create the website and the publication of the project in English as well.

E) Methods

We apply the methods of informal learning which emphasises the process of playful learning and needs intense self-reliance and creativity completed with talks during the programmes because these methods had already worked well during earlier projects. We had laid down the plan of the programme so the participants can learn about the mobile and visiting youth work on their own experiences. First, the young professionals play as participants in the games then later, we analyse together why and how we had used the concrete game or method. They get to know the literary background used during this activity.

During the project we often plan the arrangement of the workshops in mixed nationality working parties (mainly in equal ratio of the nations), then we talk over the experiences on a common plenum, so the results become reachable for the whole of the group.

F) Intercultural elements

The intercultural learning plays a special role in this project’s case because it is not only the meeting of young professionals with different professional experiences, but it is a place for people with different cultural background to meet in the case of everyday life. There are lots of methods and games which the managing team already knows from earlier projects’ knowledge to experience all of the diversity and to direct it to a positive way. To help the rapprochement of the youth we hold international nights, we have rooms on the accommodation with people from different nations and the teamwork is done in mixed groups.

We ask everyone to bring publications and other materials (Power Point presentations, Dvds, CDs) of their organisations’ work and the results they had reached. In addition we would like to ask the groups to bring the requisites (national food, drinks, music, dance, etc.) needed for the international night.

H) The results of the project, prospects for the future

We are planning to create a new network with the organisations taking part in the programme. The first step to reach this is this seminar combined with the exchange of experiences. Concretely, we would like to go ahead with our initiation by multiplying the number of exchange-programs, other meetings and voluntary services and by starting a common network-like collaboration within the compass of the Youth 2007-2013 Programme.

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