This Erasmus+ KA220 Strategic Partnership project is a  continuation of the already implemented mobility project Meet Your Neighbors, where within 1 week young people from Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, Northern Macedonia and Turkey managed to break their stereotypes about each other and draw conclusions, that all conflicts in the past must remain there and that young people must live in harmony, tolerance, and understanding. In the context of the events that took place between Russia and Ukraine at the end of February this year, the project partners decided that it was necessary to upgrade the work on this topic and to develop tools aimed at youth organizations in the Balkans to promote young people to come out of their trenches and overcome their differences and possible conflicts by connecting with each other by telling stories and by learning how to deal with differences and conflicts in a constructive way.

The main goal of this project is to develop new tools to connect young people from the Balkan countries to enable them to build strong, sustainable, respectful and peaceful communities. To this end, the project partners will develop a combination of products that can be used by youth workers throughout the Balkan Peninsula. The end result of the project is a digital toolkit containing these newly developed tools, which will be freely available to anyone working with young people from different backgrounds inside and outside the EU.

The project takes place from 1/10/2022 until 30/9/2024 and the following activities will be implemented within this period:

"The image of the other" - The aim of this activity is to conduct a qualitative and in-depth study of the main problem areas leading to hatred and division between the participating countries, as well as to outline mythologies that glorify one's own and denigrate others and thus begin to break and overcome them. The survey will be conducted through a study of what is studied at school, in terms of neighborly relations and relations with participating countries, a public survey, based on questionnaires, and the attitude of the media to these issues in each country. This study will be the basis on which other activities will be built, as it will give a real idea of where the problems and conflicts between the participating Balkan countries may come from and thus find the right solution to overcome them.

"Youth workers toolkit" - The implementation of the activity will be realized as follows: Creating a guide for youth workers, in what cases and when to use the developed exercises, Development of a set of informal exercises aimed at overcoming stereotypes and prejudices at the Balkan level - workshops, simulations, role-playing games, discussions, etc., Picture your Balkans life - a set of photos will be created showing different aspects of life in the Balkans, and instructions for its use and reference points for discussion will be developed for each of them.

"NoConfilct Videos" - This activity will be the creation of video content. It is envisaged that each partner will create 3 videos with a duration of no more than 2 minutes each, the content of which will be aimed at promoting dialogue between countries to establish peace as a core value, paying attention to what unites us - common traditions, culture, folklore, customs and others. The videos will be distributed on TikTOK and Youtube so that they reach more young people.

“Free open – space platform” - All materials on the project will be uploaded in it, and it will give the opportunity to directly connect youth organizations from different countries for the exchange of experience, contact, implementation of joint activities.

In addition, there will be several international project meetings among the involved partner organisations, a training course and a youth exchange, and two large scale multiplying events. 

Partner organizations:

Center for educational initiatives - Bulgaria (coordinator), YC EPIRUS - Greece, Center for Educational and Development Initiatives  INNOVA LAB Bitola -North Macedonia, Asociaţia Tinerii 3D - Romania, European Movement in Serbia – Serbia, Egitim ve Genclik Calismalari Enstitusu Deneregi - Turkey. 

 FOLLOW THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE OF THE PROJECT - https://www.meet-our-neighbours.eu/

From 13 to 15th of September 2024, representatives of the Erasmus+ project "Meet Our Neighbours 2" partner organisations met in Leskovac, Serbia. It was the final transnational meeting within this project, which is coming to an end after 2 years of active and productive work. 

During the meeting, representatives reflected on this long adventure, the results of the project, and the management aspects of the project closure. Read more about the project on our website, and don't miss the chance to join any of the last two youth events on 24th of September, online or at the youth center venue at Kaplani 10, Ioannina! Visit our social media to learn more about the upcoming events and sign up!

During one of the final stages of the Meet Our Neighbours 2 project, we hosted an international youth exchange in Sofia, Bulgaria. For a week, young people from all partner countries, together with team leaders and facilitators, joined this activity prepared by the consortium of the project. 

The activities were planned by partner organisations according to the previous project results, especially those from the research and the training course for youth workers. It was a successful opportunity for the trained youth workers to implement activities with youth, to practice the ones from the toolkit produced within this project, and to have even further conclusions on the activities and their quality of youth work within the context of Balkans. 

One Greek participant of the youth exchange writes:

"Participation in the youth exchange in Sofia, Bulgaria from 8th to 13th of July 2024 was an unforgettable experience. For almost a week, an interesting youth exchange was implemented, with the main theme of unity between young Balkan people. During the youth exchange, our knowledge about our connection with other Balkan countries was enriched, our cooperation skills were developed, and our thoughts and ideas about Balkans were analysed through creative activities. 

The facilitation by the hosting organisation was excellent, demonstrating subject expertise and planned creative activities that provided a positive experience. The participants from Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Turkey, and Serbia were very friendly with each other and contributes valuable ideas for conversations. The original activities used by the trainers encouraged teamwork and the creation of friendly relations between countries, focusing on what connects and holds together our participating countries. 

Overall, the youth exchange was tailored t meet the needs of the participants, and it met our expectations. The benefits of participating in this mobility were significant: new friendships with peers from neighbouring countries, understanding their culture, increased interest in similar projects in the future, and gaining new knowledge and creative ideas for youth activities".

From 22nd to 27th April, a training course took place within the Meet Our Neighbours 2 project, in Ioannina, Greece. The main aim of this mobility was to train 30 youth workers in the area of coexistence among the Balkan countries, in order to promote critical thinking, peaceful dialogue, inclusion,  and intercultural dialogue among the youth of Balkans. The course included dynamic activities based on non-formal education, in which participants could experience and discover the cultural relations with their neighbouring countries, educational approaches and methods that create inclusive and cooperative spaces for youth. The activities were experiential for the youth workers, keeping in mind that eventually the activities should be appealing to the local youth and adapted to the specific local realities of the youth workers. Some examples of the activities include creation of short cultural comics, cultural exploration within theatre, creation of TikTok videos, storytelling, and others. The main activities were based on the created Toolkit of this project, as well as the created Guidelines for Youth Workers were followed, as proposed in the previous stages of this project. The training course also served the purpose to perform a final test and disseminate the Toolkit and the Guide, which was appreciated and will be further spread by the participants of this training course, as well as practised during the upcoming stage of the project - a youth exchange in the summer of 2024, inviting youth from 6 Balkan countries.

All the experiences during the training course resulted in the acquisition of a set of competences focused mainly on improving the quality of youth work, promotion of inclusion, peaceful dialogue and cultural understanding.

Representatives of each partner organisation took part in an international project meeting in Craiova, Romania, from the 10th to the 11th of June, 2023. During the meeting, partners reconnected, reflected on the work done, especially the Intellectual Outcome 1 results, as well as worked out details of the next project steps and activities, both on local and international levels. It was a great opportunity to evaluate the progress of the project, and to share experiences and support among the partners. 

The first international meeting of the project took place in Sofia, Bulgaria on 3rd of December 2023, hosted by the coordinating organisation Center for Educational Initiatives. 2 representatives from each partner organisation joined the meeting in order to discuss details of the upcoming project activities. The meeting especially included preparation for the work on Intellectual Outcomes that would start right after the meeting. It was a great start of the project and everyone got inspired to carry out the activities that will follow soon!