YouTo Vilafranca 2012: Presentation

YOU TO (Youth Together) is a youth exchange project that aims to break down cultural barriers and a deeper knowledge of the habits and customs of neighbouring countries to work towards the feeling of belonging to the European Union.

YOU TO has 47 young people between 15 and 17 years, from Germany, France, Czech Republic, Austria, Italy, Republic of Moldova, as a guest country, and Spain that meet in Vilafranca del Penedès (Spain) from July 30th to August 6th to share their background staff and their experiences, using English as the vehicular language in order to establish a network of relationships and work upon which promote the values of the European Union, to promote outdoor activities and healthy lifestyle and raise awareness and mobilization of young people on global environmental challenges and climate change.

Each group partner is made up of a minimum of 6 young people and 1 leader. The group is hosted at the municipal youth hostel where is developed the program of activities that are structured around 4 main areas of work with the involvement of young people from different youth associations involved in the development of the activities:

* European citizenship

To set the guidelines for working together in the diversity of cultures and the richness that this represents is the ace to discuss and raise awareness of the understanding between the citizens of the European Union, social cohesion and active participation of young people in their day to day, in their territory but also in the European Union.

The knowledge of practices and customs of different nationalities and the network of relationships created between the participants and entities involved in the project exemplify the motto of the European Union "United in diversity", as well as help to break barriers in their countries of origin, while the young are the first to disseminate the lessons learned.

* Knowledge of involved territories

To know the socio-economic reality of a medium sized town in Catalonia, such as Vilafranca del Penedès, belonging to a territory with its own language and with an economic specificity such important as the wine culture. Working together to build a common goal is one of the realities that young people will learn, through traditional and popular culture that has the Castellers in its top representative. In addition, each group shares with the other socio-economic information from its territory of origin.

* Environment

To share knowledge of local experiences with the implementation of environmental initiatives in their respective municipalities: services and municipal projects, proposals and citizenship or associative practices, and regulatory measures.

* Health and Sport

Within the concept of health, exercise plays a fundamental role, since the practice on a daily basis increases overall vitality and reduces the risk of disease.

For this, the project proposes the following types of activities with the aim of strengthening the involvement of young people in the development of the project:

- The knowledge of the participating territories and their cultural and economic reality.

- Discussion and reflection:

* European citizenship (cultural diversity, tolerance, "cliché" and topics)

* On the European institutions

- The promotion of outdoor activities

- Of obtaining energy resources to climate change and environmental protection

- In Leisure

- Evaluative

Project financing