The international 5-day-lasting contact making and training event „à la longue …“ aims at providing an opportunity to organisations active in youth work to foster future co-operation and joint projects, with a focus on strategic planning, boosting impact and visibility. The event will take place during 9-15 September, 2016 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands and it will involve 24 youth workers from 17 European Youth Organizations from 13 countries.COUNTRIES INVOLVED The partnership with Netherlands embraces the following European countries: Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Romania, Slovenia and TurkeyMAIN ELEMENTS/OBJECTIVES• getting to know each other and creating a safe and creative learning and working environment• sharing of realities of youth and youth work in the regions of Europe that we represent• sharing of good practices in youth work• in-depth presentation of all participating organisations, including their values, mission, target groups and desired impact on society• reflection and training on how to achieve and measure strategic planning, impact, visibility and long-term effects in our work• presentation of Erasmus+ and other funding opportunities and support structures• fostering of partnerships and projects with a focus on long-term co-operation and strategic impact• ensuring a strong dimension of transfer of competences and learning points after the international meeting, as well as a widespread dissemination and multiplication of the results.METHODSThe meeting will be based on the specific needs of the participants and partner organisations, and will be highly participatory. Diversity, e.g. in the group of participants, will be considered as a resource for the exchange and transfer of competences, as well as special attention is paid to the intercultural dimension of the project. There will only be few frontal lectures, the main part of the meeting will be delivered in the form of practical sessions implemented by the participants in a learning-by-doing fashion, using the full toolbox of non-formal education and experiential learning. The trainers will take care of creating a supportive and safe learning environment, where participants are encouraged and coached while mastering challenges that contribute to their personal, professional and organisational development. The learning takes place both on individual level as well as in synergetic group processes, while always based on the participants’ needs. Transversal emphasis is put on creativity and innovation, learning-to-learn, feedback, (self-)reflection and self-directed-learning as key supporting processes. Furthermore, special attention is paid to making the learning points of the meeting relevant, sustainable and transferable, eg by producing exhaustive documentation and by providing templates for tailor-made development and action plans at all levels.IMPACT, RESULTS, LONG-TERM BENEFITWe expect the participants and the partner organisations to have more competent hands, hearts and heads in the area of how to ensure a stronger dimension of strategic planning and long-term impact in their youth work projects. Furthermore, concrete future actions, projects and international co-operations among and within the partner organizations will be fostered, with a focus on long-term co-operation and impact. The project also aims at ensuring a strong dimension of transfer of competences and learning points after the international meeting, as well as a widespread dissemination and multiplication of the results. In the big picture, we want to contribute to the quality and impact of youth work and youth projects at all levels (local, regional, national and European/international), by putting emphasis on strategic planning and impact measurement.KEYWORDS/TAGSnon-formal education, quality of support systems, quality, management, impact, visibility, learning to learn, key competencies, partnership.