Collaboration and Empowerment for the Future - was a Group EVS is a short-term group project hosted by Eolas Soileir. Eolas Soileir ran this two week short term Group Erasmus+ EVS for 10 young people from five international partners. During this project we further enhanced our developing learning centre in rural Ireland and during it provided a quality short term EVS experience for 10 young people with fewer opportunities from Europe. The objectives of the project were to: Provide an intercultural non-formal learning experience on a European level for young people with fewer opportunities. The activities were designed to help the volunteer learn social and practical skills Run activities that responded to needs identified within our organisation and the wider community. Support the volunteer’s daily activities which were in the field of the environment and cultural heritage. To provide activities that had a strong learning dimension, and which were agreed by all partners in the project. The benefits to the young people were their increased mobility within EU, enhanced language development, intercultural learning, increased employability, appreciation of the outdoors and its positive impact on mental and physical health. The volunteers experienced huge learning through the opportunity to experience life in a different country, to learn about other cultures and they developed workplace skills as well as other personal and social skills. This project built upon the success of a group EVS project carried out in 2014 in the host organisation Eolas Soileir. Eolas Soileir is a volunteer ngo/charity that is developing a non-formal learning centre in rural Ireland. To date there has been three volunteer projects that have a strong learning dimension for the volunteers who are helping in the development of the centre. The volunteers created a water harvesting system for water recycling and land drainage. They creating new pathways in the garden started by the volunteers in 2014, they landscaping the front of the venue coming up with their own ideas to develop the area with pebbles and shrubs (to naturally keep the weeds down). We explored the concepts of sustainability and found that clearing an old building to sort materials for recycling helped promote sustainability and save money! We completely replanted our polytunnel and the volunteers made raised beds for easier planting and harvesting. As our organisation promotes sustainability and permaculture we promoted the use of permaculture principals within this project. As this area has many heritage features we had the opportunity to visit them to gain knowledge and inspiration from them. There was a strong heritage aspect of this project where the group visited heritage sites locally to connect with local community groups who are involved through their community with the development of these sites, for example Tintern community gardens and Hook lighthouse. We added a new dimension to this years project in that we spent a day at the Irish National Heritage park - In this Park, which stretches over 35 acres of woodland, wetland, estuary and high ground, the volunteers visited the houses, farms, places of worship and burial of Irish long-vanished ancestors. The results of this project was an opportunity for young people with fewer opportunities to have: * an intercultural non-formal learning experience on a European level. * With activities that were designed to help the volunteer learn social and practical skills * With activities that respond to needs identified within our organisation and the wider community. * The volunteer’s daily activities which were in the field of the environment and cultural heritage were supported. with activities that had a strong learning dimension, and were agreed by all partners in the project. The results for the HO and SO were a strong partnership for this and future projects. The results for the HO was a development of our learning centre and a strong link with local partners. The results for the SO were young people who gained competences and now serve as an example for other young people The impact of this project for the participants was a project where the volunteers: *learnt about other cultures *met new people *gained self-esteem and confidence *became more independent *improved practical and social skills *took on responsibility *did something they took pride in *helped others *contributed to the local community *felt needed *traveled *learnt a new language *moved outside their comfort zone *increased their mobility within the EU ,*enhanced (own) language development, *increased employability * appreciation of the outdoors and its positive impact on mental and physical health. The impact for the HO and SO is stronger partnership development.