Nowadays there are many profound challenges the EU and its member states have to face. On the one hand there are still the noticeable effects of the world economic crisis and the associated discussion about a "Multispeed Europe" and potential exits from the monetary union. On the other hand terroristic assassinations threaten safety and democratic values of EU´s citizens. Nevertheless there are no uniform ideas and aims to consider or solve the continuing forced migration. Uniform public appearance and joint action is asked to remain social cohesion and not forgetting the values which had combined the EU in former days.From July 29th until August 9th, 2016 sixty youth form 5 different nations will meet for a youth exchange at Straußberg, Germany. The exchange runs under the motto "ValEUs - connecting Europe?". There are expected participants from Poland, Romania, Hungary, Lithuania and Germany in the age from 14 to 17 years. Some of them are youth with a difficult social or familiar background or a slight mental impairment.During the eleven day programme the youth will get to know each participant and his/her culture. They will overcome language barriers and develop or improve their intercultural competence. Within the workshops over several days the participants will deal with the topic of European values they consider as important for a unified Europe. They will think about where to find this value in everyday life and why it has which influence on EU´s cohesion. These thoughts and ideas the youth will express to the other participants in a very creative way. In small-group work maybe they will create an own song,a funny sketch, a video film or a joint art work. The participants will do this on their own and will get support of professionals oder the group leaders if they want. Furthermore the youth will undertake a canoeing trip for teambuiling and also one trip to Berlin as cultural and intercultural metropolis of Germany. Of course there will be enough leisure time to do some joint actions, get to know each other better oder to calm down.We expect that the youth exchange will have sustainable effects on the participants´ intercultural and foreign language competences. The youth should had to be encouraged to be curios and open-minded for new impressions. They also should had developed an appreciating approach for new cultures an people. Furthermore an improvement of their European awareness and the understanding why equality, humanity and solidarity are better thoughts than radicalism and exclusion are also considered effects.We want to support the participants to understand lifelong learning as something useful and necessary. This concept offers them the chance to develop themselves and take fully part in social an working life. So they can contribute to an innovative and competitive Europe. The youth will get a kind of European ambassadors who carry out their experiences in their personal social surroundings and there spread the idea of a peaceful and unified Europe.