UNITED for Intercultural Action is the biggest pan-European NGO network against nationalism, racism, fascism and in support of migrants and refugees. UNITED aims to strengthen the struggle against racism, social exclusion and related forms of intolerance through the initiation and promotion of cooperation between non-governmental (youth) organisations. The UNITED network currently is supported by more than 550 organisations, in 48 European countries. This project is aims to empower and educate young people in the field of youth- and anti-discrimination work in order to promote young people’s active citizenship in Europe, their involvement in Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO) and hence develop the capacity of NGO’s in the youth field and the struggle against racism, xenophobia, antisemitism and social exclusion of minority groups. In this project, two volunteers will work in the UNITED secretariat in Amsterdam, and work on pan European campaigns and projects, and be in contact with many organisations and activists throughout Europe. Grassroots organisations and its (youth) activists are the main target group of UNITED’s work. UNITED started to work with the European Voluntary Service in 2004 and gained enough experience in conducting good learning projects. Against this background the Youth Mobility programme is a perfect opportunity to give young people from all over Europe the chance to participate in an active NGO network and work in projects designed to ultimately serve (young) activists. The use of EVS created a win-win situation, for the EVS volunteers and for UNITED, since on one hand the young volunteers are able to gain great experiences and skills in NGO work and on the other hand UNITED project profit a lot of the fresh and creative input of the young volunteers and therefore we very much want to continue with EVS and promote activism and voluntary service among Europe’s youth. UNITED has already for many years worked fruitfully with the partners in this project Aktion Sühnezeichen Friedensdienste and Nacionalinis Socialines Integracijos Institutas. Together we have built up a solid partnership. The objectives in this project are two-fold: The main objective of this project is to support organisations in Europe working against racism, xenophobia, hate, bullying and for fundamental rights, minorities and migrants. The central part of the project is supporting the organisation and monitoring of biannual conferences, Europe wide campaigns, and information dissemination. The volunteers will support the annual UNITED campaigns against racism and antisemitism through stimulating and empowering NGO’s all over Europe, creating and distributing campaign- and info-material and by producing an action agenda for active youth groups and organisations in the working field of UNITED. Furthermore they are involved in the preparation and implementation of two international UNITED conferences, with participants from different European countries and with diverse cultural backgrounds. The well-established information- and networking-tools of the pan-European UNITED network enable the volunteers to work in a professional environment. For these volunteers we aim to: - Train them in competences to work with a large diversity of organisations and activists throughout Europe, working on different topics, coming from different cultural backgrounds, speaking many different languages. - Train them on youth activism and how to organize youth events and campaigns on local, national and international level. - Empower them to become active citizens and combat racism, discrimination through youth work activities also after they have worked with UNITED. - Develop their language skills and improve their knowledge of Dutch culture within the larger European setting. - Extend their social networks and increase the possibility for them to move on to paid jobs in the future. Through local examples in the Netherlands the volunteers experience new methods and ways of community building. The project is a platform where volunteers will learn about and promote cultural diversity through UNITED events such as European campaigns and Conferences. The project promotes European Citizenship by working together within an intercultural/international team. At the end of the project, the volunteer will be able to identify common European values and what it means to be an active European citizen. During the project, they will share with many other European NGOs and activists in the ideas of respect for Fundamental Rights and equal opportunities for different communities. The experience of working abroad in an intercultural environment, learning how to organize smaller events and being able to live independently will be valuable life-skills that they can use in finding employment upon their return.