TITLE: VOLUNTEERING IS COOL CONTEXT/BACKGROUND Volunteering is a tool of encouraging young people to participate in the life of their local community as they are usually not much interested in social issues and in active citizenship. On the other hand, they usually like to to meet their peers from other countries, communicate and collaborate with them. They also like to use modern technical and ICT equipment, make videos/take photos and publish them on social platforms. So a youth exchange is a perfect means of making them committed to actively contribute to the social needs of their community. OBJECTIVES: • to make young people involved in responsible civic participation concerning social issues; • to encourage tolerance, mutual understanding and intercultural dialogue among them through transnational collaboration; • to enhance their communication, language and social skills; • to establish cooperation between the participating organisations by sharing experiences and good practices. NUMBER AND PROFILE OF PARTICIPANTS - 15 young people from a disadvantaged region of Italy and 15 from the capital city of Hungary, all of them aged 14-16 from both sexes. VENUE – BUDAPEST, HUNGARY - for Youth Exchange, BUDAPEST, HUNGARY and MONTESCAGLIOSO, ITALY for other activities DATES – 1 AUGUST 2015 - 1 JANUARY 2016 - for the whole project, 2-4 AUGUST 2015 - for APV, 18-24 AUGUST 2015- for Youth Exchange DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITIES at the Youth Exchange - preparing, implementing and evaluating 4 different types of volunteering activities: • gardening and collecting garbage; • creating a piece of art; • organising programmes for Roma children; • cooking and distributing dishes to homeless people). after the Youth Exchange: • communication and dissemination of project outcomes; • evaluation of the whole project. METHODS: • team building – games, presentations, informal contacts, transnational group work, brainstorming, discussions, peer learning, learning by doing, energiser; • intercultural learning - guided visit, sightseeing, contact with local community; • practical use of ICT - taking photos, making videos, writing blogs, working on social platforms (facebook, google.drive) and on websites, editing DVD and electronic handbook. DESCRIPTION OF RESULTS AND IMPACT - the project • establishes transnational collaboration and intercultural dialogue amongst the participating organisations, builds a sustainable partnership and strengthens their capacity to other transnational collaborations; • improves social, problem solving, communication, ICT and language skills of young people; enlarges their knowledge about the history and culture of the other participating country and increases their active involvement in voluntary services and other types of active citizenship. POTENTIAL LONGER TERM BENEFITS • young participants transferring their project experiences to peers (schoolmates, friends) and to their families, thus enhancing others' solidarity, tolerance and engagement in active citizenship as well; • voluntary and youth NGO-s recruit more volunteers by using the project electronic handbook and DVD with the photos and videos as promotional materials; • secondary schools using the project DVD with the photos and videos as educational materials for school social service.