Last week, two members of YouthProAktiv participated in a study visit in Romania, in the city of Ramicu Valcea, in the framework of “Building Bridges”. It was the last stage of this project which started in 2022 with the objective of creating new ties and expanding the network among the different youth organizations and youth centers. We wanted also so expand our common knowledge and the context and the needs of the youth in different countries.

Last week, the host organization was Ajutam, Integram, Dezvoltam si evoluam (AIDE). This organization carries out the main coordination in this Erasmus+ project. AIDE develops this work with local and international youngsters in Ramnicu Valcea, organizing different activities in their Youth Hub, which is a communitarian place and one of the main engines of social life in this city. During these three days, AIDE has organized a set of activities with the objective of showing us their work and actions to improve the functioning of the youth sector.

On our first day, we all introduce ourselves in order to create a good environment for the following days of work, presenting our motivations working in youth field and how different organizations (Youth Network No Excuse Slovenia, AIDE association from Romania, Jaunuoliu DIenos Centras in Lithuania, YouthProAktiv and MDK2 Piekary Slaskie) can contribute to their development. We received a presentation made by local and international volunteers en AIDE about the activities that they carry out, know more about how they work and the impact that this association has for the youth of Ramnicu Valcea. Later in the day we madde two visits to a completely different institutions. The first one was the Europe Direct center of Ramnicu Valcea and the second one to the association Not Different; a organization who works for the inclussion of youngsters with Down Syndrome and autisim.

On the second day we moved our visit to the city of Craiova where we had the opportunity to visit 3 more instituions. Our fisrt visit was to ANCAAR Craiova, the national association for the people with autism. This association works with kids and youngsters with autism offering them therapy and activities to provide them more autonomy in their daily life. Laterr in the morning we did visit to ACT (Asociatia comunitati pentru tineret) The presentation of this organiztion was made by their international volonteers. ACT works to empower young people to participate actively in society to improve their own lives and, above all else, to be active rather than passive actors in their personal development/learning processes. The aim of this empowerment is to establish a wide-based community movement which encourages the positive involvement of young people in solving issues which affect them, treating them as resources and solutions rather than a part of the problem that needs to be addressed.

Our last visit in Craiova was to the youth center “Centrul voluntariat pentru comuniatate”. This organization based in all Craiova region works with Erasmus+ funds and they do different activites to empower Craiovan youngsters giving them the tools to become active members of their community.

Our last day we have finished our visits in Ramnicu Valcea with the visit to Community Foundation Hub. This organization, managed by Teodora Braneci, one of our former participants in our trainings in Brussels, is part of a group of associations which under the umbrella of the American-Romanian fundation is the channel to develop the creative energy of this community, by organizing debates, hosting different event to boost the social and economic life in the city.

At the end of our visit we had a meeting with local administration reprensentatives in order to show them our work and our way of funding. The main objective of this presentation was to do lobby in order to improve the local funds for the the local associations who work to enrich the social life of this Romanian city.

To sum up, YouthProAktiv, as part of this project has had the opportunity to enrich and learn a lot their workers during this visit to the south of Romania. We were able to learn, share and discuss and propode working methodologies to improve the current situation in youth work. Thus we gave our opinions and exchaaged good practices in order to collavorate or generate good ideas.