Presentatie van Jeugd in Actie-projecten (en)

Youth Exchanges, Youth Initiatives, Youth Democracy, Youth Volunteering and Youth Support projects, funded under Youth in Action in 2007-11, are presented at a glance in five thematic factsheets published recently.

The factsheets provide only some examples out of ca. 40 000 of Youth in Action projects completed so far which involved more than 150 000 participants (young people and youth workers) and 20 000 project promoters a year: non-governmental organisations, informal group of young people and municipalities.

The projects supported range widely across youth activities - everything from raising the profile of young people in the media and giving them more of say, to organising environmental protection projects at local level, creating documentaries on social issues such as young people with HIV or exclusion of minorities, or helping inmates in young offenders' institutions to boost their own self-esteem and to make efforts themselves to integrate into their community and into wider society.

Youth in Action has had a demonstrable impact on the hundreds of thousands of young people it has involved. The programme has enabled many of them to experience other countries first hand, thus developing a greater sense of openness and understanding of other cultures. And it has provided the young people who have taken part with new skills and confidence. This is all the more important since for many of the projects, the participants are deliberately selected from communities and social groups with fewer opportunities.

Youth in Action makes extensive use of non-formal learning, through attractive methods (such as workshops, interviews or simulations), and based on personal experience outside schools. This promotes individual-based teaching, with the emphasis on talents and strengths.

In the different environment offered by projects, young people discover their own potential and abilities, and exercise new levels of independence and decision-making. The experience boosts their personal development and widens their horizons, helping them make choices about their further personal and professional life. And their acquire competencies that are increasingly valuable in an evolving labour market.