Currently, the issue of migration and refugees is omnipresent in media and everyday life in all European countries. While decision makers struggle to find feasible political solutions to manage the influx of refugees, civil society has largely taken over the task of assisting newcomers in legal and administrative procedures and facilitating their inclusion into European societies. Especially for refugee children and youth, an early integration is the key to avoiding their (re)traumatization and social exclusion. In order to prevent marginalization and radicalization, not only immediate measures regarding housing or legal aid are needed, but also cultural inclusion is necessary to enable them to integrate successfully and unfold their full potential. As there is a substantial lack of professional youth workers experienced in working with the target group of refugee children and youth, very active voluntary movements have evolved all over the EU. These volunteers are often young and mostly do not have a background in youth or (inter)cultural work. Therefore, the overall objective of the youth encounter “Volunteers Welcome” is to contribute to high quality voluntary youth work with refugee children and youth in Europe. In order to reach the specific objectives of enabling the volunteers to conduct high quality cultural work with refugee children and youth and of raising the participants’ awareness for the European dimension of migration, 36 volunteers will gather in Brussels in July 2016. These young non-professionals between the ages of 20 and 30 work with refugee children and youth in their home communities in Germany, Belgium, Slovakia, France, Greece, and Poland.Through a comprehensive training program the following results will be achieved: • Participants’ competences for working in intercultural and interreligious contexts is enhanced• Participants’ sensitivity for youth work with potentially traumatized children and youth is improved• Participants’ competences and ideas for cultural projects and activities are broadened• Participants’ knowledge of the European dimension of migration is expanded• Skills and competences of fellow volunteers in the home communities of the participants are improved• Lasting transnational contacts between volunteers from different countries are establishedApart from interactive workshops on youth work, intercultural competences, cultural education, and psychosocial implications of flight, the participants will also participate in a debate and simulation on European asylum politics, all of which will be led by the consortium partners. Furthermore, they will partake in cultural activities and debates on multicultural societies, such as an intercultural walk through Brussels and the visit of the community center in the stigmatized district of Molenbeek. Moreover, a meeting and discussion with Ska Keller, Member of the European Parliament, that will be thematically prepared during the encounter, is planned to reach these results. Finally, all participants will document and summarize the skills and attitudes acquired during these activities and present the result in their home communities, acting as multipliers.This way, the project will qualify the participants for cultural youth work in order to foster the inclusion of refugee children and youth and will affect their peers in the respective countries. Qualifying the volunteers for cultural work with refugee children and youth will not only benefit the inclusion of the latter, but is also going to decrease insecurities of the volunteers. This way, their motivation to participate actively in society will stay high and the partner organizations, who rely on volunteers for their work, will be able to continue their quality work creating open, tolerant, and just societies. Networking European organizations and volunteers working with the same target groups can help to gather and provide the necessary expertise currently needed by local communities and decision makers on national and European level, where cultural work is supposed to be included as an important aspect of the successful inclusion of refugees.The project consortium is led by the Goethe-Institut e.V., Brussels branch office (Germany), and further consists of the following organizations, specialized in different fields regarding the protection of refugee rights and their integration: Human Rights League (Slovakia), Solentra (Belgium), Greek Forum of Refugees (Greece), Association for Legal Intervention (Poland), Exil e.V. (Germany), and Eurocircle (France).