Exciting that all the roads led you here. It happened for a reason. To ensure Your peace of mind, let’s look at some practicalities.

Gathering

The event will bring together 42 participants from North Macedonia, Sweden, Bulgaria, Spain, Serbia, Greece. We aim to spend 9 days together contributing for each other’s personal growth with the help of non-formal education and group learning.

Aim is to:
The aim of the YE “Wear The Change” is to give space to participants coming from various cultures, to share their ideas of sustainable living and sustainable fashion, to learn from each other, to gain knowledge on the topic, to learn some practical skills and ideas, and to become the next generation of concious and responsible consumers. The aim will be complete with new created projects for future collaborations among partners and 42 participants who will become the ambassadors of the change.

Objectives are to:

● Provide space for 6 organziations to gather participants who will exchange their best practices from their countries
● Provide an opportunity for 42 participants to learn from each other, explore new concepts, gain new ideas and meet new cultures
● Give a chance to participants to increasse their conciousness level and awareness on the topic of clothes, fast fashion, sustainable fashion, respoible buying and the impact they have ton the environment
● Equip participants ith some practical skills like sewing, knitting, embroidening etc., up to their interest
● Encourage participants to be creative and make their own creations: from old to new
● Develop a concept together on how to encurage their peers to think and inhabit the new habit of sustainable living
● Discover new concepts conneted with a sustainable wardrobe and changing shopping habits concepts of second-hand clothing and upcycling
● Provide a chance to promote diversity & multicultural inclusion, creativity, teamwork to learn about Erasmus+ programme and its opportunities
● Create a WordPress site that will make the prpject sustainable on a long term
● Support new partnerships and development of new project ideas on the topic

Culture of mindfulness

In our team, we believe that mindful living is the first step to WELLbeing. To feel comfortable, we encourage you to check in with yourself that you are passionate about the topic and ready to spend 9 days in a peaceful venue, with no intoxicants, emerging into yourself, group connection and non-formal learning. You are so welcomed to contribute to the culture by bringing your favorite workshop, instrument, poems, incense, game, maybe even special clothes…let’s co-create.
NOTE: This is an alcohol-free event.

The exchange

During the event there will be lots of intercultural exchange. We will be able to present our own cultures – any kind of culture you feel you belong to and it’s meaningful to you. We would be very glad to see how you imagine your own culture, not the culture of your country.
This means that all options are possible. A culture may be presented by a poem (created by you?), a dance, a song, performance etc. We appreciate it if some of you even prepare short workshops as part of exchange. Coffee Breaks will be dedicated for international snack exchange so bring your favorite snacks to share during coffee breaks.

● Motivated to take part in a youth exchange and are interested in the topic of the project;
● Motivated to implement the experience gained in the Youth Exchange in their communities;
● Motivated to build and support international partnerships that will be created during the Youth Exchange for future Erasmus+ projects;
● Age limit 18 – 25 years old, preferred;
● People who are willing to learn more about other cultures by sharing rooms with 2-3 other people from different countries;
● People who will be dedicated during the activities, willing to take active participation and be part in creating the final project results;

Profile of group leaders

● Youth workers, leaders with experiences in international youth field, with non- formal education based methodology;
● With previous experiences in the field of youth engagement, project management, Erasmus + Programme, KA 1 – youth exchanges;
● Being able to support the participants during project: to organize and implement preparatory meetings, to communicate with other group leaders in the process of preparation of programme, to assist participants with arranging practicalities for YE, to support participants during YE, especially to support their learning process and active participation, to organize and to implement evaluation meetings with participants, to support development follow-up activities. There will be no age limit set for group leaders.

● Learning by doing method;
● Ice-breakers and team building games to get to know each other;
● Workshops will leave room for moderated but controversial discussions;
● Simulation games will allow us to identify current challenges of non-formal education and show possible measures that strengthen them;
● These sessions will provide the participants with concrete ideas that can be implemented in their local communities, thus ensuring an important multiplier effect;

NGO Networking

One of the side effects of international events is the opportunity to meet inspiring people from different organizations all over Europe, to make partnerships for future initiatives. Thus it is useful to get familiar with your sending NGO and get ready to present it (if you wish).

Dissemination is a crucial part of any Erasmus+ funded project. The European Commission is investing in You, as a community leader, as a change-maker, thus each of us is responsible to give back and share the positive experience among our network with the goal that at least one newcomer discovers the opportunities of Erasmus+.

Each participant is responsible to perform:
1) Visibility on social media: share at least one post/story on your personal/NGOs social media about your experience during the exchange, tag us (not hashtag but actual clickable tag):
https://www.facebook.com/PositiveYOUthNGO https://www.instagram.com/ngopositiveyouth/
2) Article: one participant per country shall write an Article promoting the project and post it on sending NGOs website/social media (tagging Positive Youth);
3) Dissemination workshop: each national group organizes one workshop with 10 local people about the experience. Pictures from workshop shall be sent to selfdevelopmentcenter.se@gmail.com

Programme will be shaped by each of us with the help of facilitators. The aim of the gathering is to actually exchange, thus you are invited to prepare a small workshop to share with a group.

08:30 – 09:30 Breakfast
10:00-11:30 Morning Rituals (W1)
11:30 – 12:00 Intercultural Coffee Break
12:00 – 13:30 Workshop 2
13:30 – 14:00 Lunch
15:30 – 17:00 Workshop 3
17:00 – 17:30 Intercultural Coffee Break
17:30 – 18:30 Workshop 4
18:30 – 19:00 Evening Rituals
19:00 – 20:00 Dinner
20:30 Evening Activities (optional)

The participants will be lodged in the hotel “Solferino” in Struga in rooms for 2 or 3 people with private toilets and showers. The participants will be roommates with people from different countries, with the same gender, in order to straighten the intercultural dimension of the project and good team spirit. There is internet access in the hotel and in all rooms. The Hotel is property of the Red Cross organization, and is a training centre specialised for Training Courses and Youth Exchanges.

Alcohol and drugs are strictly forbidden in the whole area of the campsite. Smoking is only permitted outdoors in a designated place. Violation of this entitles the caretaker to immediately dismiss the guest concerned. NOTE: shoes are not allowed in the buildings, please bring your slippers.

MEALS
3 meals per day and 2 coffee breaks will be prepared each day.
Please, inform us in the application form about your food needs and preferences (vegetarian, vegan, food allergies)!

An invitation to try to travel consciously – with no excess luggage and extra effort to store it. Welcome to use tips from EC: https://bit.ly/3r23I00

Every participant is responsible for arranging their travel to the project’s venue and back. Flying to North Macedonia is the easiest way to reach the country. For any issues you might have with your travel plan, please contact us! Here are some additional tips:

Plane: North Macedonia has two international airports, namely Skopje Airport and Ohrid Airport. Skopje Airport is the larger and busier of the two, located 21km from the capital Skopje.

1.Fly to Skopje or Ohrid Airport
*(You can also look into these Airports: Tirana – Albania, Nish – Serbia, Thessaloniki – Greece, Sofia – Bulgaria)
By plane: You can check the flights to Skopje, with the closest and most comfortable airport to arrive which is 21km to the city of Skopje http://skp.airports.com.mk/
2. If you fly to Skopje Airport – Take a bus to Skopje Central Station
Shuttle bus: You can get a shuttle bus from Skopje Airport to Skopje and back with a shuttle bus operating at the airport: V2V TRANSPORTER: https://www.wtransporter.com/en (price: 180 MKD = 3 EUR)
NOTE: Check out the links above to get information about the timetables and how to purchase a ticket.
3. Take a bus to Struga
There are busses running several times per day from Skopje (the capital city) to Struga.
Bus timetable Skopje – Struga

Departs from Skopje / Arrives in Struga
05:30 / 09:09
07:00 / 09:54
08:00 / 11:00
09:30 / 12:30
11:00 / 14:00
12:30 / 16:19
13:15 / 16:30
14:30 / 18:15
15:45 / 19:00
17:30 / 21:19
19:00 / 21:45
20:00 / 23:30
22:00 / 01:00
You can find the schedule here). https://www.balkanviator.com/en/bus-timetables/skopje-mkd/struga-mkd/

IMPORTANT – plan Your trip well, be on time

Board, lodging and programme costs will be provided and paid 100% by grant from the Erasmus+. Travel costs will be reimbursed after following the requested steps. Taxi is not reimbursable.
It is recommended to have a bank card ready for small expenses.

TRAVEL REIMBURSEMENT
Below is the amount that each participant can use for the travel when traveling from their NGO city.

All physical copies of the tickets (bus tickets, boarding passes, invoices etc.) need to be kept and then sent physically in order for the reimbursement to proceed

Travel Budget for Spain: 235 eur

IMPORTANT FOR REIMBURSEMENT
According to the guidelines of Erasmus+ Programme we can only refund travel costs, if following points are fulfilled:

1) You have timely provided tickets, invoices, boarding passes & filled reimbursement form;
2) Your travel route is from the country of sending NGO to the venue and back;
3) You present copy of ID, passport or residence permit from the country of sending NGO;
4) You have chosen the cheapest means of transportation (no taxi, no excess luggage, etc.);
4) Your travel dates are according to the programme –arrival 10th August, departure 19th August.
You can have max 2 days prior OR after the event at your own expenses;
5) You have received sending NGOs approval before purchasing the tickets;
6) You, right after the event, have submitted Youthpass form, EC survey form and performed dissemination tasks;
7) You have participated in all the event programmes and respected the culture.

The amounts that get over the maximum budget can NOT be reimbursed. So an invitation to book your tickets ASAP. After booking the tickets, you will get instructions on where and how to upload them for the next steps.

All the reimbursements will be done via bank transfers. It might take some months after the event to receive your paper documents

Bring some clothes. For this project we will have activities with clothes. Bring 2-3 pieces of old clothes (a T-Shirt, Jeans, some cloth, or pieces of clothes that are not used anymore and will be thrown away otherwise)

1) Bring a comfy outfits, reusable water bottle;
2) Bring a towel & toiletries;
3) Bring slippers to wear inside;
4) Pack some goodies to share for the coffee breaks;
5) Get health insurance (a MUST);
6) Make sure you save all the documents for reimbursements;
7) Make sure you are ready to perform dissemination tasks;
8) COVID19: bring sufficient masks, sanitizer, personal stationery (pen, notebook);
9) This is an ALCOHOL-FREE gathering.

1) Please, upload your tickets (team leader shall give access) Tickets folder
2) Send your ID/residence permit copies to selfdevelopmentcenter.se@gmail.com