"Who do YOU dare to be and which IMPACT do you want to stand for?" CONTEXT, BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES The Arc Training has been developed against the background of the recommendations by the Triple Presidency of Ireland, Lithuania and Greece within the Structured Dialogue. These were: (1) The provision of quality youth work incl. social impact measurement (Ireland) (2) The inclusion of NEETs (Lithuania) (3) Stimulating youth initiative and (social) entrepreneurship (Greece) The overall aim of our project is to support youth initiatives in professionalising their work, in improving their impact, and thus in participating more effectively in the civic and democratic life of their communities. We focus on youth organisations working with marginalised youth, NEETs or young people threatened by unemployment and social exclusion. During our events we connect them to capacity building organisations that provide training and networking opportunities. Our needs analysis with partner organisations showed that in order to put the abovementioned recommendations into practice, we should develop a training programme tackling the following fields of action: • Boost the self-confidence of youth workers and young people to dare more to put their ideas into practice (attitude), • Improve the operative knowledge on the structures, policies and mechanisms - especially as regards European youth participation (knowledge) - and making results tangible through social impact measurement (skills), • Coach participants to follow through upon their ideas over time (action). In short we ask one question only: "Who do YOU dare to be and which IMPACT do you want to stand for?" PARTICIPANTS, ACTIVITIES, METHODOLOGY AND RESULTS The Arc Training assembles 32 youth workers, volunteers and young (aspiring) social entrepreneurs from 12 countries and 19 different organisations. It is designed as an 8-day course taking place 23rd and 30th November 2014 in Lancastershire, UK. It also comprises a voluntary peer-to-peer post-coaching process lasting over a period of 6 months. Our methodology is rooted in the principles of non-formal education: Participants will be trained on the structures and mechanisms of European youth work. They will also be guided through a comprehensive coaching process where they will be given the opportunity to challenge their projects and develop an inspiring target which they are enthusiastic about reaching in the future. Towards the end of the training course a session on social impact measurement will empower them to add a quantitative dimension to the goal they wish to pursue. During the post-coaching process after the training, participants will not only be coached on realising their target, but to also on how to track their impact as a means for further internal improvement. With The Arc Training we strive for the following impact as regards our participants: (a) increase in leadership skills, (b) increase in knowledge on EU structured and social impact measurement, (c) shift in attitude towards an outcome-oriented project management style, (d) an empowering experience of reaching an inspiring new goal for their project together with their coach. In the long run the key competences developed during this process are also expected to increase their own employability and to significantly improve the work in their organisations at home.