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Make the difference 2014-2016
Start date: Sep 1, 2014, End date: Aug 31, 2016 PROJECT  FINISHED 

Our municipality has decided that in order to host people that come to our town in the best possible way we can, we have to develop our hosting ability. The aim is to focus on the individual person that comes here and try to discover his/her skills, abilities, assets and strengths. The aim is also to include all new citizens into our society. Our department, "Municipality Development Department" where Ideum belongs to, is responsible for this matter and we are given the task to work and develop this issue. Because of this great amount of work we think it would be useful and a great value for our department to have volunteers helping us to find good ways to realize our aims. This project is strongly linked to the unemployment issue that we are seeking to address. The unemployment rate amongst young people in Europe is very high. Almost everyone that we host needs a sort of breathing break to gain strength to return to the labour market. Unemployment affects many of the socially disadvantaged individuals, especially those from ethnic minority such as immigrants, socially excluded and young graduates seeking for their first job also associated to low academic and professional backgrounds. Unfortunately, in this way, we only reach a form of social exclusion as long as employment is the main mechanism of social integration in societies. We plan that two volunteers will be working with groups coming for a work experience from other european countries and the other two volunteers will be working with refugees/young lonely coming boys. The tutors will be Jerry Renberg and Michael Åhman, leaders of international projects with years of experience in the field of EVS and other european projects. The general objectives of the EVS project will be: to promote empowerment and autonomy of the target groups; to gain professional and personal skills; to develop a sense of beeing welcome to the new country; to sensitize the local population to the permanence of the youngsters; to improve the interaction between groups and local population; to create bonds of solidarity and improve intercultural dialogue. The initial activities consist in studying the context, get to know the habits of the target groups and develop informal interaction. During the EVS period the volunteers will develop activities that promote individual valorization, cooperation and interpersonal relationship, leisure time and socializing, participation and interculturality. The avarage age for participants is around 20-25. Having many more applicants for our project than vacancies, we are able to be very selective when in the process of choosing which applicants best suit our project. It also allows to have a high level of screening which enables us to better learn the personalities and tendencies of the applicants, meaning we already feel comfortable that gender equality is no issue. We also select two female and two male applicants to help inforce a strong sense of gender balance and to help solidify their understanding of how important it is to treat all as equal and to learn from each other. The purpose of the project is to involve and prepare the volunteers in getting to know information, advising, project preparation and evaluation of youth projects (Youth in Action, European social fund, Leonardo da Vinci, etc.) Along with this project we want to achieve our aim by giving the volunteers training on European programmes and the running of non-profit organisations through practical experience. A positive work environment is crucial for us, so we make sure quality and management issues are always taken very seriously by both us and our partners. We also work very closely to our participants to tackle any issues or worries they may have before they are turning into more serious problems. Learning agreements are a vital part of this process between us and our volunteers. It allows us to sit down with them and discuss what we both would like to achieve and work on for the duration of the project, it is also easier for volunteers to voice any concerns they have, even before the start of their project. During this period, the partners will be involved in monitoring the development of the project, both through contacts with the hosting organisation, and directly with the volunteers, to whom it must be ready to give necessary support at all times. Overall, the project is expected to achieve a result where the individual and structural needs in the region are brought together and become each other's solution.

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