Background As young people are at the heart of YES Forum’s endeavours, this project stemmed directly from the needs and interests of the young people our members work with on a daily basis. The problem they encountered or noticed in their communities was an increased intolerance towards people who are culturally different. Both immigrants and natives are increasingly fearful of each other, seeing the “Others” through the prejudiced lens of stereotypes, racism, and xenophobia. Objectives Through this project we aimed to break the psychological and social barriers that replaced the real ones in Europe. We wanted to bring young people with fewer opportunities, namely those with immigrant background and natives closer to the European project and closer to each other, help them develop intercultural competencies. Exploring European citizenship through their own identities, as immigrants or as natives, we expected them to discover a European community that fosters diversity without stifling national/individual identities. Through the project’s objectives we actively contributed to the attainment of several of the goals and outcomes envisioned for Key Action 1, and we furthermore supported the EU Strategy for Youth and the Europe 2020 strategy: - Enhance intercultural skills of young people - Raise participants' awareness and understanding of other cultures within their own country and other European countries - Increase their awareness of European citizenship - Increase their self-esteem - Improve their foreign language skills - Increase the participating organisations’ capacities in offering transnational activities and projects that better respond to the needs of their target groups Partners As all the partners work on a direct and daily basis with young people with fewer opportunities a team has naturally come together for this youth exchange. All the partners have expertise in working with young people with fewer opportunities and extensive experience with mobility projects, so we relied on well-established and reliable procedures and experienced staff. The host organisation, Nevo Parudimos, contributed with its knowledge in organising such events as a result of its years of experience in the field. Moreover, the Social Art Association has the expertise and experience in using creative methods, such as film-making in youth work. The association works with improvisation theatre, cinematography, video production, scriptwriting, labyrinth theatre, and socio-educational animation as alternative ways of educating youth. Participants The participants have been between 15 and 30 years old. Out of the 24 young people, 6 have an immigrant background (first or second generation), 1 has a history of drugs and alcohol addiction, while the rest are facing educational (drop-outs) and socio-economic difficulties (NEETs). For half of them, this has been their first transnational project or experience abroad. Activities and Methodology The key concept of the project was linked to non-formal learning and the work was centred on interactive, activity based, and process-oriented pedagogical methods. Team building has been present throughout the activities during the week. Also, the participants were allocated the intercultural evening when they would share with the others food, games, traditions, or dances from their own country. Film-making was the tool to work on active citizenship. The participants got to know relevant theory of film-making, worked on writing the scripts for the films in their own group and did their own filming. They were introduced to the practical aspects of film-making and using professional filming equipment. Results The concrete results of the youth exchange are the 3 videos created by the young people on European citizenship: Alien United, Sweet Dreams, and Future. Impact Giving young people the opportunity to create a video from scratch was very empowering, even more so as their own identities and cultural backgrounds were brought into it. It was a creative way to explore the dynamic and complex concept of European citizenship, translating a rather abstract and distant idea into young peoples’ reality. The participants’ active involvement in the project’s preparation, implementation, and follow-up stages, has been a powerful tool for learning and personal development and led to increased self-esteem, self-confidence, independence, adaptability, as well as social and communicative skills. Also, their motivation for future mobility grew. The experience and knowledge gained by the staff involved in the project generated organisational learning and had an impact on the day-to-day work within the organisations and interest and capacity to get involved in further European projects.