We are searching for partner organizations for a project of Youth Exchange that will take place in Varna, Bulgaria.

Name of the project : Youth for Social Change

Type of project : Youth Exchange

Number of partners : 4 countries, including Bulgaria

Duration : 7 days

Taking place : September-October 2019

Where ? Varna, Bulgaria

Description of the project : The project aims at raising awareness about social entrepreneurship and giving some tools in order to develop a project by oneself successfully (means of financing, funds, pieces of advice, (). It is targeted at underlining the personal strengths and qualities of the participants and encourage them to take action. This will be done using practical activities that will emphasize these individual strong points and passions.

Moreover, this youth exchange will be aimed at raising awareness over social problems and focusing on the problem itself before even thinking about a solution.

The method used will be non-formal education. This will be achieved through interactive group games, debates, ice-breakers, brainstorming, personal and group reflection, practical work, workshops, feedback and creative evaluation.

Also, some activities will be focused on intercultural differences and similarities between countries.

Finally, at the end of the YE, participants will have the opportunity to develop a socially innovative project, and the best ones will be elected by vote.

On both sides, social entrepreneurship can be beneficial to society: firstly, as it is trying to solve social problems and / or raise awareness on them, but also because it is a key solution to the increasing unemployment faced by most of the European countries . It enables at the same time the youngsters to enter the labor market and the public sphere. It can also be a mean of including some people from minorities or with a disadvantaged background.

Objectives :

• To involve the youth in entrepreneurship
• To encourage to have a social impact
• To promote Europe
• Pro-social attitude: volunteering opportunities
• Promote mobility, Erasmus + financing opportunities
• Intercultural understanding
• Increase self-confidence
• Improve communication in a foreign language
• Develop new skills
• Solutions to unemployment, whatever the educational background
• To unfold one’s creativity

Conditions of the youth exchange :

• The youth exchange is open to people between the ages of 18 and 30
• The youngsters should have an interest in social entrepreneurship, or at least in acquiring new competencies and skills that can be useful for employment or university application
• There should be at least one participant by partner organization that is facing socio-economic difficulties, unemployment or is a disadvantaged situation in general
• The group leader should have at least some experience, knowledge about social entrepreneurship

If interested, feel free to send an email to a.teichmann@foryoubg.org !