Partners - Participants

Participants Organizations

The organisations that involved in SEOSOS are the following:

Cultural Association NOSTOS Pisssouriou, Cyprus
KINONIKI SINETAIRISTIKI EPICHERISIELLINIKI SYMMETOCHI NEON – Hellenic Youth Participation, Greece
Salezjanski Wolontariat Misyjny Mlodzi Swiatu Oddzial we Wroclawiu, Poland
DRUSTVO ZA RAZVIJANJE PROSTOVOLJNEGA DELA NOVO MESTO, Slovenia
Asociacija "Neribota ateitis", Lithuania
THE ASSOCIATION OF ROMANIAN PROFESSIONAL PSYCHOLOGISTS, Romania
VEREIN GENERATIONEN UND GESELLSCHAFT, Austria
Associação Nó Górdio, Portugal

Cyprus - CULTURAL ASSOCIATION NOSTOS PISSOURIOU

The Cultural Organisation 'NOSTOS' Pissouriou was founded in 2000 in the village of Pissouri in Limassol district, Cyprus, by people with great passion and love for their land. The main objective of 'NOSTOS' is to preserve and disseminate our cultural heritage. It lists more than 100 members including over 60 dancers. The Organization's cultural activities include dancing teams of all levels (young children to adults) and theater workshops. The Group has portions dance (infant sections, section for adults, Complex) and theater workshops. Also in the group there is a theater team, environmental department for programs that have to do with environment and also European Department who has to do with all European Programs. The Group is proud to hold a collection of traditional costumes of the islands of Cyprus, Rhodes and the regions of Epirus and Black Sea. The traditional dresses of Cyprus used by the dancers of the group in various performances in Cyprus and abroad and are exact replicas, made in the loom, and are based in the collection of Mr. Nikos Simeou, Pissouri, collector of old objects and traditional costumes. This collection has been certified for authenticity by Ms. Eleni Papadimitriou, researcher with expertise in traditional Cypriot costumes and textiles. The highlight event of 'NOSTOS' is the Festival of Traditional and Folk Dance, held annually since 2000. It takes place every year in early August, in the amphitheater of the Pissouri Community Council . A cultural event that has become a reference point in the cultural life of the traditional village of Pissouri and not only. Three years ago 'NOSTOS' established an European Programs Department (especially in Environmental Programs). It runs under the guidance of an experienced manager in environmental issues and it is actively participating in regional and European programs that are dealing with the environment. The aims of this department are to inspire young people to be aware of environmental issues, strengthen their relationship with the physical environment of Cyprus and try to involve them actively in actions of local and European level. First Environmental Program that NOSTOS organised was the European Erasmus + program Non Formal Enviromental Education which took place from February till September 2015.

Greece - HELLENIC YOUTH PARTICIPATION

Hellenic Youth Participation (based in Athens, Greece) stands for intercultural dialogue, non-formal education, mutual understanding and solidarity. One of the aims of the group is to promote the responsibility that young people have towards nature. We train different age groups (teenagers, young adults, parents and teachers) in order to inspire and stimulate their environmental awareness in their local and European community. We wish to motivate them to become involved and to raise awareness about local issues like sustainable living, sustainable mobility, recycling and consuming. Through our projects we aim at the promotion of the respect towards every single thing through mindfulness and permaculture. HYP is active in a local, national and European level. We were recently awarded the silver prize in the volunteer competition for Greece for our contribution in education. The main activities of the organization are to organize trainings and sessions with young people through non-formal education techniques. HYP is an organization active in the field of environmental issues and every year we organize a three-day project about sustainability which is both held in the Greek islands. We have participated many times as partner organization in many Erasmus+ projects with environmental topics across Europe and then we multiply the effects of the projects using the knowledge that has been acquired from each project to the local community. We also organize self-financed local seminars with various topics such as the climate change, recycling, and sustainable development. A vast majority of our members are under 30 years of age and all our events are planned and run by and for young people. We mainly use non-formal education as an approach in order to motivate young people. The past two years we participated in international campaigns such as the “Let’s do it!” about cleaning beaches from thrash and “Climate Change-your problem” about climate change with the cooperation of the organization Youth and Environment Europe (YEE). At the moment we are working on a European Initiative in order to promote the issues of sustainable mobility and climate change in schools. We realize seminars and workshops in Athens about responsible attitude to transportation and the promotion of cycling Our connection with environment (and of course with the program SOESOS) is coming through multiple activities that we are taking part. As you can see from the activities that we mentioned a lot of programs that we took part are associated with environment. Also people that they are going to work in the project worked a lot in programs with Non Formal Environmental methods The staff that is involved in this project is fully trained in non-formal education and has a lot of experience in the field. Our organisation makes sure to fully equip the people and constantly trained. Some of our key competences in organizational support are: * select participants that correspond to the requirements of the project * provide teambuilding activities for the participants before project, and evaluation meeting after the completion of the project; * ensure that all administrative issues related to the project are dealt with promptly and appropriately; *provide assistance to participants in regard to any other necessary or helpful preparations for travel and the project; * organize a follow-up seminar in the local community with the participants; * evaluate the project; * assist with the design, compilation, transmission, and maintenance of any media related to the project; and, * disseminate the results on the media relevant to the project In terms of environment, we collaborate with environmentalists and urbanists. We also involve local groups of activism for animal rights and sustainable consumption of food and goods, in order to make sure that our organisation is always up to date and provide responsible information to our teams.

Poland - SWM Wroclaw

Salesian Voluntary Missionary Service Youth for the World Branch in Wroclaw brings together volunteers - mostly students from Wroclaw and the surrounding area. They engage in activities for sustainable development. SWM's mission is to promote social development, especially by the wider education and upbringing of the poor, so that in the future could form the basis of democratic civil societies. This allows us to achieve our statutory objectives, including assistance to countries in the Global South. The education system, on which it is based, assumes the prevention of pathologies and helping local communities to assume responsibility for their future. We are implementing projects in the field of prevention and medical care, construction of basic infrastructure, education craftsmen and local professionals. In Poland, our statutory objectives are Global Education and development of children and youth, shaping active social attitudes, promote the idea of volunteering, creating favorable conditions for turning in social activities and public cooperation with local, regional and international partners. SWM attracts of public attention on the environment and raise awareness of young people about environmental life. From the beginning (2008), volunteers SWM Wroclaw realized 27 aid projects in countries of the Global South. Our activity are also educational projects - publication of a book of fairy tales from Zambia "Story from the Zambezi River" and "Global Education Week in Wroclaw", which aimed to raise awareness among young people of Wroclaw and the region on global issues and cultures of developing countries and also to mobilize them to take social initiatives. In 2009 we took part in the project "You can! Actively Act. Stimulation of activity and capacity building of local leaders for self-development. " In 2010 SWM Youth for the World Wroclaw Branch carried out a project "I see, I learn – changing! The creation of a group of trainers global education. " The project was co-financed by the Operational Programme Civic Initiatives Fund and aimed at by organized 10-day training, preparing group of trainers to teach the youth on the issues of global development. Prepared in this way the group has conducted educational workshops in ten schools in Lower Silesia. The project was released a publication containing prepared by trainers lesson plans for teachers. Since 2013 SWM Wroclaw, along with other branches of SWM Youth for the World in Krakow and Poznan, implements the project "Together for Development - active global education in schools" funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Two editions of this project aimed at preparing teachers to raise awareness about global education at school level. In addition, SWM Wroclaw volunteers conducted a series of meetings on topics of global education in schools, raising awareness of young people about environmental life. These activities are continuous, financed from its own funds and their implementation results from the memorandum of association. These meetings are conducted for students learning at different levels of education, have the form of, among others, workshop, meetings with the volunteer working in the countries of the South, game simulation, projection of the film. The Association pays special attention to each project was based on a thorough evaluation of previously implemented projects. This allows you to develop more and better system management, monitoring and evaluation, and thus create projects most effective. As you can see from all activities that our organisation took part or organise you will see that our youth workers are working a lot with environmental thats why we want to take part in program SEOSOS. We will try through our involment to give our experticite through the leader of our group that she does a lot in this area as you can see from the followings Magdalena Szewczyk, PhD, biology teacher with experience in leading European ecological project. She prepared and coordinated projects: Biodiversity of European cities- 2004 - 2007 National parks of Europe – 2011 – 2013 Biodiversity of rivers – 2013- 2015 Volcanoes and earthquakes of Europe - 2015-2018 Youth exchange project: Climate change as fast as a fashion She works with young people. She was a trainer in Youth Project: Non formal education. She prepared many new activities with the young. She was trained on workshops in England, Greece and Malta. She is the author of articles: „Art workshops – opportunity for creative expressions of students”, The Learning Teacher Magazine, 4/2011 „Simulation games in teaching ecology”, The Learning Teacher Magazine, 2/2012 „Nature conservation and schools”, The Learning Teacher Magazine, 3/2013 „ Youth exchange for global warming”, The Learning Teacher Magazine, 3-4/2014

Slovenia - DRUSTVO ZA RAZVIJANJE PROSTOVOLJNEGA DELA NOVO MESTO

Društvo za razvijanje prostovoljnega dela Novo mesto (Association for Developing Voluntary Work Novo mesto) is Slovenian non-governmental and humanitarian organisation, working in the public interest in the area of social care, youth and culture. Our mission is to contribute to more inclusive and open society for all. Our two leading programs therefore deal with inclusion of socially excluded groups and with the stimulation of the NGO development and civil dialogue. Our activities within the programs are performed by expert and voluntary work. We promote the values of solidarity, tolerance, voluntarism, active living, clean environment, citizenship awareness and inter-cultural dialogue… DRPDNM has 23 years of experience in education, youth, citizens, migrants, woman, workers empowerment, international cooperation, entrepreneurship, professions in history, culture and art, unemployment, disadvantaged groups empowerment, training and other activities that serve the goals of your projects DRPDNM Strategic objectives: 1. To provide a team of professionally trained workers employed for a number of years to ensure the continuity of the programmes and to expand voluntary work. 2. To increase the visibility of our Organization for key stakeholders (NGOs, public administration, economy, socially excluded groups) and to establish cooperation with them. 3. Empowerment of the narrower key stakeholders (young people, socially excluded and NGOs). Programs to achieve our mission A. The integration of socially excluded groups a) Day centre for children b) Day centre for Roma children (Day Centre Brezje, Day Centre Šmihel) c) Promotion of intercultural dialogue B. Promote the development of non-governmental organizations and civil dialogue 2) working with young people using culture/arts as a factor in integration into the employment market Latest projects on youth empowerment, youth unemployment, promotion of participation and inclusion of young people with fewer opportunities We are interesting in the program SEOSOS due to the fact that we are caring about clean environmental but also we have experience a lot of experience in entrepreneurship and we can have good ideas so to make the whole implementation of the program more interesting and more entrepreneurs to be there. All our members that will involved in the program have theoretical and practical experience in the fields of social work, minority cooperation, R&D, NGO, CSO, SME CONSULTING, intercultural dialogue, business planning, local government, migration, intercultural management, entrepreneurship, international relations and cooperation, foreign policy, citizenship, project development, local/regional authorities, decision forecasting models, control system design, marketing, international marketing, international economics, international market research, logistic systems analysis, business communication,

Lithuania - Asociacija "Neribota ateitis"

Neribota ateitis (Unlimited Future ) is a non-governmental, non - profit organization, dealing with nonformal education activities among youth and adults. Purpose of the organization is to carry out exchange programs in Lithuania, participate in trainings and to solve problems that are relevant to today's society, based on non-formal education methods in which people from different cultures have the opportunity to share personal experiences, learn to work in teams, to create, to express their views, to reveal their expression ways, learn to believe in themselves, not to be afraid to make mistakes and fully develop on their own. Organizational values is constant improvement, teamwork, common purpose, to result – informative society, fostering immediate communication, tolerance, selfexpression and leadership. The organization's mission, based on values, is to develop well-rounded personalities, through various forms of expression and methods. Our vision – is to see sustainable world, to teach people to respect and understand each other, to be able to express themselves, find their place in this society and to realize their potential and creativity. This vision came because most of the people in our organization works in public relations and pays a lot of attention on personal development and the cultural and spiritual education. Also, most of our members and volunteers are the members of the non-formal education circles, where they are studying and gaining non-formal education methods which they are trying to analyse and adapt on organisation activities. Our main members has gained some experience of youth exchange / trainings management in Lithuania last year, when they had helped to manage youth exchange and also had the opportunity to manage icebreaking and team-building activities. We would really love to gain more experience and share it during our own future projects. To get this experience we would be glad to participate in this event. Organisation has created and implemented two youth exchange projects “Don’t stress out – workout!” and “Music and arts as a way to intercultural dialogue”. First project covered active lifestyle and stress management topics. During project participants had opportunity to try out various sports activities and stress management techniques as a way to manage stress and put all life bothers in order. During second project organisation was using music and art as a tool and core method while creating intercultural communication and network. Our main ideas and suggestions for youth projects are ice-breaking, team-building, cooperative search for answers and other team work activities. The most important thing is to mix people from different countries in each activity. It will improve their English language, communication with others and quick thinking skills. Potential themes for us are expressing and revealing yourself, self-education and self-improvement during non-formal education, equality, anti-discrimination events, being healthy mentally and physically. Our organization is a new organization so we have a lot of members and youth leaders that took some responsibilities as follows. Our main members: Vladislavas Krivoščenko – chairman of the association. Experienced youth leader and organiser. Indre Kupčinskaitė – project coordinator of the Association, marketing management student. Responsible for the coordination and cooperation with other countries. She has experience in advertising, marketing and public relations. Indrė is also interested in the arts and arts-related therapies which helps to relax and reveal talents. Marius Prieskenis - association's board member, marketing professional. Marius specializes in sphere of communication and human resources. Ignas Milinis - Association member, law student. He assists with documents and coordination and presents Association to new members. Ignas is interested in self-development and Erasmus+ opportunities. Tadas Vilkaitis - Association member, pharmacy student. He helps to organise events in Lithuania, is responsible for transportation and also presents Association to new members. Tadas is also interested in trainings based on self-development, and methods, which could be used during our events.

Romania - THE ASSOCIATION OF ROMANIAN PROFESSIONAL PSYCHOLOGISTS

We are a professional NGO which aims to support the development of psychology in different domains, to get involved in organizing professional programmes, training courses, cultural, scientific, educational and humanitarian activities and programmes. We are also interested in facilitating and having partnership with national and international institutions, associations and organizations; supporting intercultural exchanges and relationships and ensuring mobility for young persons and professionals We have experience in training courses based on non-formal learning. APPR organized in 2013 and 2014 a series of training courses about the social integration of children with special educational needs. The target group consisted of teachers, psychologists, care attendants and parents, interested in the integration of these children in the public schools system. The participants received useful professional information in an organized, interactive and non-formal setting, they gained experience and they had the opportunity to develop a constructive point of view about the topic. Because the project have a topic related with psychology, we think that our knowledge could be usefull. APPR is accredited in the Youth in Action Programme – European Voluntary Service (EVS) as the Coordinating, Sending, and Hosting organization. Code 2013-RO-26 We have become partners, through the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Turkey in the project "Young People and Volunteering" (TR-21-154-2012-R3), held under the Youth in Action Programme, Action 2 - European Voluntary Service, from June 20 to September 20, 2013. The project was coordinated by "T. C. Genclik ve Spor Bakanligi ". In the context of this project the APPR received 5 Turkish volunteers for a period of 1-3 months, volunteers who worked mainly in the non-formal education center from Bucharest. The skills and expertise of key staff/persons involved in this application will be: - Relevant professional background (the members of the association and mostly psychologists, teachers, psychology students) - Experience in non-formal learning and creative techniques - Commitment, interest in the topic - Knowledge about leadership, organizational psychology, team building, team spirit, interpersonal and intercultural aspects, social and personal development - Experience in writing project Leaders for this program will be our president and also contacting person of the program. Lucian Andries – founder member of the NGO, trainer and psychologist. He has relevant professional background (the members of the association and mostly psychologists, teachers, psychology students). He has a strong knowledge about leadership, organizational psychology, team building, team spirit, interpersonal and intercultural aspects, social and personal development. Carmen – Lidia Nistor – board member of the NGO, translator, youth worker and trainer. She has experience in working with young people. She has also created and implemented several icebreakers and energisers published on Salto Youth and she is constantly publishing articles about methods or working with groups of young people. She has an experience of over 5 year in international projects as coordinator and active member.

Austria - VEREIN GENERATIONEN UND GESELLSCHAFT

InfoEck is a youth information centre in Austria founded in 1993 and based in Innsbruck, Tyrol. It provides free, confidential information service to young people and those multipliers who work with this target group. InfoEck gives first and foremost information to young people between 13 and 30 to all relevant youth related subjects (work, education, social issues, health, law/administration, recreation, non-formal learning, mobility, internet safety etc.). InfoEck also offers different services, like a job board for summer jobs or a tutoring board. The team of InfoEck has competences in preparing, documenting and conveying information to young people. There are 4 locations of InfoEck in different parts of Tyrol (Innsbruck, Imst, Wörgl and Landeck) as an important integrated part of provincial youth work. InfoEck acts as a link between young people and specialist organisations (close co-operation with various organisations). InfoEck is part of regional/national/ European networks and is the regional office of “Erasmus+:Youth in Action” programme, promoting non-formal, intercultural learning, European mobility and coordinating EVS. InfoEck is a partner organization and is assuming the responsibility to be actively involved at every stage of the project that is required. As a sending organization we will send participants, involve them in our project, act as a link between participants and HO, organize the travel, disseminate the results of the Training in our country and keep the contact to the project partners. InfoEck has a lot of experience in Erasmus+ (and youth in action) projects. It regularly acts as sending organization and can send Tyrolean participants to Trainings, Seminars, Youth Exchanges and also the European Voluntary Service. Due to this experience InfoEck is a reliable and qualified partner for Erasmus+ projects. The responsible contact person for this project, Benjamin Stern, was already partner in a youth exchange about climate change and took part himself as a group leader. He also implemented the successful training course “Connecting the Alps with YOURopean habitats” in Austria and got approved the second edition of that TC for 2016. So the key staff involved in this application, has great experience in both - Erasmus+ project management processes and in the topic of the youth exchange. The participants are youngsters between 16 and 22 years of age. They are living in the region of Tyrol. Some of them live in remote places, which means that they are facing geographical obstacles. Others are facing social challenges due to financial difficulties or migration history.

Portugal - Associação Nó Górdio

We work as a NGO. Why this name? The Gordian Knot is a legend of Phrygian Gordium associated with Alexander the Great. It is often used as a metaphor for an intractable problem (disentangling an “impossible” knot) solved easily by “thinking outside the box” (“cutting the Gordian knot”). The Gordian Knot has become the channel for puzzle solvers and mathematicians to demonstrate their brain power and problem solving skill. The Association's main objectives are the promotion and dissemination of activities in the areas of education and learning, training, art and culture, recreation, health and sport, as well as environmental protection, social inclusion and human capital investment. to contribute to local and regional development by promoting the qualification of the population, adjusted as far as possible to the needs of the labor market, by increasing school and vocational success and reducing their abandonment, by promoting equality, social cohesion and development personnel and citizenship, and also developing, with an effective continuity, national activities. Actions aimed at supporting vulnerable groups, in particular children, young people and people with special needs, will also be favored. Preserving the environment is fundamental to maintaining the health of the planet and all living things that live in it. To celebrate the effort to protect natural resources, we celebrate World Environment and Ecology Day today. Humans can only survive thanks to nature. After all, we use animals and plants to feed us, water to drink and bathe, and many other features we do not even notice. The Association's main objectives include the environmental protection. The world is facing unique and frightening environmental challenges, among which we can highlight: climate change; the emerging crisis in the availability of water, and its pollution; the threat to biodiversity and long-term damage to ecosystems; pollution of the atmosphere; the production and disposal of waste; the impacts of chemicals and toxic substances used in waste disposal; the destruction of aquatic ecosystems; deforestation and degradation of the Earth. Only through training, education and involvement we can ensure that there is a greater awareness of the importance of environmental preservation. Think globally, act locally - it is one of the mottos of our association and it is a message to be spread by our associates as well as by the beneficiaries of our actions. We want to join this project because we believe that it may be a great opportunity to share practices related to the main subject of the project and to open horizons to our participants. It is also a very good way to improve the knowledge of languages. This project aims to encourage youth participation in inter-European dialogue through a common European language. One of the key challenges for the Erasmus+ initiative is the promotion of youth participation in civil society including political engagement All the staff is very experienced in european projects with lots of participation in several ones, since 2009. We worked already in projects related to environmental protection. We can do: - Promotion of initiatives conducive to the objectives of the project; - Sharing our practices associated with environmental preservation