Youth Exchange CI PIACE

“CI PIACE” is a 9 days mobility of young people - Youth exchange, organized by ASAP Europe in Fasano, Italy from 19th to 27th of October 2018 that involves 42 young people and youth leaders from Italy, Poland, Macedonia, Greece, Portugal, Romania and Bulgaria. The youth exchange will explore the concepts of citizenship in general and European citizenship in particular and active participation of young people in social, economic and political life. The project tackles the issues of declined trends of social, economic and political engagement of citizens on national and European level, low trust in democratic institutions and representatives, little or no interest and knowledge of citizen’s rights and obligations, partial understanding of work and role of EU institutions and decision-making process in the Union. That’s why the youth exchange will address and raise awareness about all of these issues and will educate, motivate and equip young people with competences to take active part in democratic life and decision-making processes on local, national and European level. The project will also provide and introduce tools on how to be more active citizen, will encourage and equip participants with knowledge and skills to run their own activities on these topics, will foster mutual understanding, solidarity, intercultural learning and dialogue and will promote international cooperation in the youth field.

The project aims to give participants the opportunity to better understand the concepts of citizenship education, European citizenship and active participation and to show them their role as young generation in building better Europe. 

OBJECTIVES OF YOUTH EXCHANGE: 
 To provide knowledge and raise awareness about citizenship in general and European citizenship in particular by exploring the concepts, their dimensions and contemporary understandings; 
 To encourage active youth participation in socio-political democratic life on local, national and European level; 
 To introduce theoretically and practically the work and role of European Union institutions and decision-making processes within the EU; 
 To empower participants to design and run campaigns on various topics and in different contexts;  To promote intercultural learning, solidarity, mutual understanding and intercultural dialogue between young people from 8 European countries. 
 To encourage international cooperation and partnership building in the youth field working with citizenship education and active participation of young  people; 
 To promote Erasmus+ Programme as tool to work with young people as well as for reaching and enabling active participation of youth with fewer opportunities.

METHODOLOGY: The working methods used throughout the youth exchange will be various nonformal, experiential, peer and intercultural learning methods that will include: brainstorming, discussions, groups work, getting-to-know each other, ice-breakers and team building games, energizers, learning-by-doing activities, peer-to-peer work, lectures, debates, simulations, analysis and comparison, forum theatre and role playing, personal and group reflections, open-space activities, outdoor activities and presentations. The methods will be used in agreement with all participants and adapted if needed according to the needs and daily feedback of the group. Using non formal education methodology, providing knowledge, skills, and attitudes the youth exchange is specially designed to encourage participants to act as multiplier agents for the improvement of youth participation in society, to highlight the importance of intercultural learning in order to develop democratic societies.

PARTICIPANTS PROFILE: 
Each partner organization will send 6 participants: 5 young people and 1 youth leader. - All the leaders, should be experienced in youth work and have leaded other exchange activities in the past. Leaders will help with the facilitation of the activities, so the role of the team leaders will be crucial for the success of the exchange; - The participants should be experienced or inexperienced young people, activists, volunteers or members of partner organisations that are motivated to exchange experience with other youngsters from Europe, get new or improve their knowledge, improve skills and attitudes on the topics of citizenship, youth participation and intercultural learning. - Young people should be in the age group of 18 to 30 (preferably 18 to 25 years old) while youth leaders must be over 18 years old’; All participants need to be ready, motivated and able to attend the full duration of the exchange as well as need to have good command of the English language. 

TRAVELLING TO FASANO: All participants are expected to arrive in BARI or BRINDISI Airports, and will be picked-up by the organisers from the train station of FASANO. 

 How to arrive from BARI airport to Fasano train station: s) + train from BARI train station to Fasano train station (4,20 euros) 
 How to arrive from BRINDISI airport to Fasano train station: BRINDISI train station to Fasano train station (4,20 euros) 
Once you will know about the timing of your flights please contact us in order to arrange together the best and cheapest way for you to come.

EXPECTED WEATHER: October marks the beginning of autumn in Puglia, summer is officially over and the weather slowly makes its way toward the cooler and wetter winter season. The weather in the region is nothing less than gorgeous this time of year, the coastline still can surprise us with very warm days. So be prepared when preparing your luggage(s)!

REIMBURSEMENT RULES: The Erasmus+ rules stipulate participants to travel using the cheapest means of transport, economy class, direct route without long stopovers. Although participants can plan their travel individually and arrive earlier/depart later, the organisers can only commit to reimburse and organise board and lodging during the mentioned project days. If you plan to travel outside the official project dates (19 – 27 October) you should contact us providing the reasons and buy ticket only if permission granted, otherwise you would not get reimbursed. PLEASE DO NOT BUY ANY TICKETS before consulting the price/route with the organisers (you can only buy tickets once your application has been accepted by ASAP);

VERY IMPORTANT: The reimbursement of travel costs will not be done during the youth exchange, but only when the second part of the project grant will be given to ASAP (this can take up to 5/6 months after the end of the project and depends on Italian National Agency).  
Please note that we receive only a percentage of the project grant, so that part will be fully used to pay your accommodation, food and working materials. You are taking part in a Youth Exchange and the contribution we receive is very little, so we kindly ask you for your understanding and to be prepared to wait for your travel costs.

Reimbursement wil be done only upon presentation of ALL original tickets, receipt/invoices and boarding passes (including return tickets). Documents provided must clearly state date of purchase, route and means of travel, name of the passenger, method of payment and price paid. Participants will be asked to send the originals of all return documents and boarding passes. The organisers will only reimburse travel costs from the partner country to Fasano, Italy up to the limits indicated in the Erasmus+ Programme Guide, based on actual expenditure - original tickets and receipts; please note that amounts below are MAXIMUM amounts, ASAP will reimburse the ACTUAL expenses up to the limits listed below:

If your tickets cost 100 euro, you will get 100 euro as reimbursement. If they exceed the travel grant per country, then participant should pay the difference. Participants are only allowed to travel to/from their partner countries (e.g. Romanian from Romania, Polish from Poland etc.); - Reimbursement will be done in EUR, regardless of the currency indicated on the ticket and receipt/invoice. Any tickets purchased in a local currency other than EUR, will then be converted and calculated according to the exchange rate of the month when the grant agreement for this project will be signed by the Italian NA, as stated in the official European Commission web-site at http://ec.europa.eu/budget/inforeuro/index.cfm?Language=en.

Reimbursement will only be paid to participants who fully attend the duration of the Youth Exchange CI PIACE.

PARTICIPATION FEE: There is a participation fee of 20 euros to be paid in cash by each participant during the youth exchange. This is due to the very high prices of the accommodation and the very low economical support we receive for this kind of activity. Participation fee will be used for the extra products to the Italian traditional evening and for the extra bank costs for the travel reimbursement. 

INSURANCE: Health insurance is not provided and will not be reimbursed by the organisers. All participants are strongly advised to purchase private travel insurance. All EU residents should obtain the free European Health Insurance Cards (EHIC) before the youth exchange. Please note that private health care in Italy is extremely costly. 

VENUE: The hotel in which we will be accommodated during the full duration of the exchange is the Park Hotel Sant’Elia - http://www.parkhotelsantelia.it You will be accommodated in triple or quadruple single-sex rooms with en suite bathroom. The Hotel has free Wifi. Towels/bed linen will be provided Food: Three nice Italian meals will be served at the hotel restaurant plus two coffee breaks per day.