Duration: 8 days (travel days included) from the 28th of september to the 5th of october Advance planning visit : beginning of september Location: In a youth workers’ hostel in Le Mans, in the center of the city. Number of participants: We planned to invite 5 groups of 5 people (leader included) from 5 different countries (France included). Language: English and French Background of the project: Concordia is an organisation of non-formal education which promotes intercultural exchanges. Our traditional activity is the international work camps, and one of its main goals is to allow participants to get open-minded and develop non-formal skills as autonomy and self-confidence, by meeting and living during few weeks with people from all over the world with different cultural and social background. In Le Mans, our daily work takes place in a popular urban district; the inhabitants are concerned by various difficulties. Through our activity, we meet a lot of young people who are especially worried about unemployment. They are mostly lost, hopeless and convinced that there are no solutions. Considering this, we wanted to find a partner who deal with this kind of topics everyday with youth; a youth workers’ hostel. The complementarity of our two points of view on the youth inclusion issues made us converge on the same goal: create an intercultural exchange around youth employability, inclusion and empowerment. We wish that this topic, not really enjoyable and full of anxiety at first sight, thanks to this Youth Exchange, allow participants to compare their various experiences in each country and share good practices to have more hope in the future. The main message that we want to share with them is that the power is in their hand, we want to aware them about it and to create the space to express themselves in order to get more confident, highlight them that there are able to do more than they think. Themes and short presentation: Cultural diversity Youth employability Youth inclusion Empowerment Solidarity and tolerance This youth exchange deals mainly about youth employability, inclusion and empowerment. The exchange will be the opportunity to share different experiences related to these items, both at individual and national level. It will allow participants to talk about their realities, but also, with peer-learning process, to exchange point of view and advices to one another. Through artistic workshops, youngsters will have the opportunity to express themselves about these topics and to create an overview of their feelings, debates concerning these issues which will be spread to raise awareness in the 4 countries. Indeed, throughout the project, the youngsters will be accompanied to create a performance based on role play. In order to enhance their reflections about employability and inclusion, some meetings with the local population, visits and workshops with professionals from different fields will be proposed. Objectives of the project: To develop young’s capabilities to have a positive start in the active life. To strengthen the mutual understanding between youngsters from different cultural and social backgrounds; To allow youngsters to get open-minded and develop their self-confidence through artistic workshops; To encourage a reflection about the different means to raise their access to employment; To promote the feeling of belonging at the society (at local and European level). To spread the results of the reflexion and be a part of a more global reflexion in a large scale Profile of participants: People aged from 18 to 30 who are already dealing with unemployment issues, about finished their school and worried about their future, in a process of creation of their own job in a reflection about work in life Training results: A summary of each day will be realized by a team of 2 people in order to have a global look on the project at the end. We will realize a booklet with which each participant will go back and organize a preview of the book. We will also create a facebook page only for the project to allow the participant get to know each other before the exchange and stay in touch after. It will contribute to enlarge their network and maybe to have more possibilities of activities. Methodology: The methodology (non-formal education, meetings with professionals, discussions) and the structure of the exchange will encourage an active involvement of each participant to develop competences and new tools for a personal and social development. Non-formal education tools will be used to create a friendly and attentive atmosphere, considering each participant in his or her diversity, personality and culture, so that each person can feel free to express him(her)self, share his or her experiences, teach and learn from the others. Artistic workshops will permit to discover new ways of expression, encouraging their creativity and ability to create collectively and gain in self confidence.