Example of good practice

How to use the YOUTH programme with young people with fewer opportunities, and how to combine A1 and A2 projects

More specific: How to link a (short term) EVS project to a group exchange (before or after)

Partners involved:

Arbeidsinstituttet I Ringerike ( AIR ) from Norway has been cooperating with two Danish “produksjonshøjskoler” the last 10 years. (Sophienlund and Silkeborg) in addition to the cooperation with Galway City Community in Ireland.

Profile of the target group:

We are working with the same group of young people; they who have dropped out of the ordinary school system. Our aim is to motivate them for further education or a job. These are young people who have failed in their attempt to follow “normal school education” and often in addition face different social problems. Many of them suffer from very low self esteem, and lack of experience with operating on their own. Their local environment is often the only arena where they have any experience. Age 15 – 21.

History and context:

It started approx. 10 years ago, when AIR organised its first group exchange to Denmark. As a result of this, there have been more or less regularly volunteer-exchanges between AI and the two Danish schools. Our aim is to give our target group the opportunity to enlarge their experiences concerning meeting and understanding new conditions and cultures. We find this of great importance, due to the fact that our learners very often have the idea that they are living in the centre of the world, and what you meet outside is odd and something you should avoid and try to protect yourself from.

There should also be no secret that young drop-outs are easily victims of marginal youth-cultures, often connected to racism and destructive behaviour. From this point of view, an exchange has a great potential for learning and positive experiences connected to improvement of social skills.

Conditions:

Important conditions for this, is that the sending organisation has a close relation to the host-organisation, built up by common experiences. The group-exchanges have been good “starters” for such relations. It is necessary to know the contact persons by the exchange partners, to be sure that the volunteers get the kind of support they need to carry through the exchange. In addition to this, you should also know the culture at the host organisation, to ensure that you are speaking in the same terms, if some trouble during the stay there should occur.

To illustrate this step by step:

Get in contact with a potential cooperation partner. Trust and common understanding and approach to the youngsters is important in order to lay the best foundation for a successful project.

Through a group exchange, the staff will learn to know the other organisation. In addition to this, the young person will come in touch with other young people. This will maybe motivate them to apply for an exchange when they come back home. Such a procedure will enlarge the number of young people who would dear to go for an exchange.

Before you do an EVS short-term, a pre-visit is also important; to get sure that you can offer the volunteer conditions which are of such a character that the exchange has a possibility to become successful. Sometimes we travel with the young person and stay for a few days. This is to help them in the first insecure period of the stay. We have experienced that this is fundamental for many.

Routines for following up during the stay is also important, at least as a kind of backup. The young person will then more easily come forward with the problems the face at an early point.

A combination of A1 and A2 gives the young person a possibility to be the “experienced” one, if they do the service before the group exchange, and to have some first experience in a group they will return to (e.g. make friendship, know the place, be realistic..) if they do the EVS period after a group exchange.

I will also like to mention that we have had, and still have, exchanges with Ireland and The Netherlands. This is both group exchanges and volunteer projects.

Further information:

For further information contact: Rolf Simonsen or Ole Hermann Hollerud at:

Arbeidsinstituttet I Ringerike, Lundstad Vestre 3514 Hønefoss

Mail: Rolf Simonsen

Mail: Ole Hermann Hollerud