SAME stands for Solidarity Action Day Movement in Europe. It is a youth partnership initiated in 2011 which brings together several European youth organisations that carry out an annual Action Day. During these national Action Days, about 300.000 pupils all over Europe get the chance to exercise a job of their choice instead of going to school. Their salaries are used to support youth projects all over the world. In accordance with the goals the European Union set for 2020, SAME envisions to: - Provide young people with the practical entrepreneurial experiences and skills necessary to find a place in the insecure job market of the 21st century through their participation in the (organisation of the) national Action Day and in SAME - Encourage young people to stand up for a fair and democratic world by taking up social commitment, showing solidarity via intercultural cooperation and becoming active citizens in European as well as global society. Until now, cooperation among SAME organisations has been mostly limited to a few Summer Camps during which young volunteers from the different Action Day organisations around Europe shared experiences. Our partnership has been purely informal, without staff members or official status. However, over the past few years the different partner organisations have realised the potential of this partnership not only because cooperation can strengthen the single organisations but also because it can bring extra value on the European level. Therefore starting up a real network for long-term, structural cooperation is the logical next step which we want to achieve via this project. In order to create a real network and achieve our vision, we established four concrete strategic aims to be addressed by this project during the coming years: 1. Best practice exchange: the SAME member organisations are strengthened through the exchange of best practices. Intercultural cooperation, the exchange of experiences and mutual learning, both on a personal and on an organisational level, are stimulated. This improves the quality of the Action Days. 2. Making youth's voice heard: SAME believes in the power of young people and wants to make their voices heard. It positively influences public opinion and policy makers. Thus, SAME lobbies for Action Day affairs on a European level. 3. Action Day initiatives: SAME spreads the Action Day and supports new Action Day initiatives (which are young people who want to start up their own Action Day organisation). During the Action Day, young people get a unique opportunity to show solidarity and to stand up for peers in an effective manner. 4. Common actions: European young people organise common actions to raise awareness, promote solidarity and youth participation and strive for a fair and democratic world. This project is created to facilitate the intensified cooperation between the different SAME organisations by which we can achieve these strategic aims. Having the necessary financial resources at our disposal will enable a number of young volunteers from all partner organisations to cooperate within SAME during the year instead of only during Summer Camps. Those youngsters will work together in smaller groups in order to reach short-term results reaching up to the above mentioned strategic aims and vision. Taking SAME to the next level will require among other things strengthening SAME's internal structure, developing an external network of (European) policy makers, active youth, financial and material donors as well as experts willing to support us with advice in their fields of expertise, making a thorough internal communication system and gaining visibility as well as establishing well-functioning evaluation and inclusion mechanisms. The groups will also focus on best practice exchange to strengthen the partner organisations and on spreading the Action Day concept. These groups will work towards these short-term results via ICT and Transnational Project Meetings, with guidance of administrative staff. With this project the partner organisations hope to make SAME a strong and well-working network, wish to empower all participants and believe that this will lead to achieving the above mentioned vision and strategic aims.