Context background This project is aimed at young people with fewer opportunities to succeed in life. This leads to a lack of motivation in these young people as they feel unable to change their situations. Partner organisations are motivated to find innovative methods to provide opportunities to meet the groups needs. Participants from the organisations expressed an interest in taking part in a youth exchange. Objectives The objectives of the project will address these issues and meet young people's needs through: -raising participants awareness and understanding of other cultures and countries to broaden their life perspective and networks, -increasing confidence, and planning skills through young people playing an active role in the planning of project activities , -providing high-quality learning outcomes for participants through the exploration of values such as solidarity, friendship, democracy and honesty through a range of innovative peer learning activities and challenging group projects, -exploring personal goals and progression in personal and social development to plan transitions to formal learning and employment. Project partners will also work together to achieve the objectives of modernising the youth work they do by sharing best practice and utilizing innovative techniques in supporting learners with fewer opportunities and reinforce the transnational scope of partner organisations. Number and profile of participants Participants in the project are aged 16 - 25 and are enrolled in informal learning programmes for unemployed people within the partner organisations. All partner organisations have a focus on working with young people with fewer opportunities so that all participants in the project will come into this target group. The majority of these young people have: limited financial means - many being on unemployment benefits and a low educational attainment - most without level 2 qualification. Some of the learners will also have: social issues - including offending, housing issues and drug and alcohol, and health issues - including disability, mental health and learning disabilities. About 80% of participants from England do not have passports and have never been abroad. We aim for there to be equality in genders participating in the project and for ethnicity to represent the ethnic spread of the cities and towns where they are traveling from. The total number of learners who will participate in the project is 240 with 80 accompanying adults. This will be carried out over 10 activity periods with an average of 16 learners and 4 accompanying adults per group from each country. Description of activities All activities will take place as a five day exchange. Participants will come from Care Co-ops and Asphaleia in England and will live and work with participants from Mission Locale in France. They will both travel to live and work together at Eco Chateau a training hotel in Frenes, France where they stay and carry out the activities. Participants will work together to plan and carry out learning outcomes, project activities and select a topic and 3 values to explore through their exchange. Activities will include: Icebreakers and team building activities which focus on exploring learning outcomes, the selected topic and values, visits to local areas of interest as relevant to the chosen topic, sharing, debates and discussions on the topic and the key values selectedwith an additional focus on European and intercultural perspectives and promoting respect, experiential learning through role plays and simulation activities, group project to be selected, planned and carried out by the participants as focused on the key theme they select, intercultural exchange of food, values and traditions will be built into social activities Methodology used in carrying out the project Participatory learning and involvement of young people to achieve increased learning outcomes. Results and impact envisaged Participants will have increased opportunities to achieve their learning outcomes and to succeed in life leading to formal learning and employment. They will have a broader life perspective and a network of contacts in another country, have experienced increased confidence, motivation, planning and linguistic skills, increased insight into core values and behaviours, and a robust action plan that will support them to progress in their lives. Staff will experience increased confidence, motivation and experience in developing innovative youth work methods leading to modernisation of youth work delivered in partner organisations and beyond. Potential long term benefits The project will help to further develop future project ideas and the transnational development and focus of the partner organisations. Learning from the project will influence other organisations and communities in developing similar projects.