SUMMARY

The project “YOUTH CARAVAN” aims through encouragement of cross-border collaboration, consolidation and sharing of the experience between youth organisations to contribute for wider inclusion of the young people in the local development process.
These aims will be achieved by: Creation of a resource centre for youth cross-border cooperation; Creation of a data-base of the youth organizations and informal groups in the region; Preparation of a young team for implementation of the culmination activity – “Youth Caravan”; Development of promotional materials for its announcement; Implementation of “Youth Caravan” in cities/towns of Western Bulgaria; Publication of a Collection about the project; Implementation of a Conclusion meeting for evaluation of the project results.
The culmination activity – “Youth Caravan” is an event, which combines two parts: An interactive show (happening, performance) to provoke the interest to the neighboring country and a round table discussion to encourage youth participation and collaboration between the youth sector and public authorities. The show will include various elements, as for example: making of a large puzzle-map of Serbia on the central square of the city with participation of local youth, quiz “Do you know Serbia/Serbian”, contest “Let’s dance a Serbian dance”, etc. The round table will be based on the promotion of the principles of the “European Chart for Participation of Young People in the Life of Municipalities and Regions”.
Implementation of the Project
Twenty young people from Nis, secondary school students, gathered at the beginning of the project and acquired the basic knowledge of Bulgarian language and culture in the resource centre formed for the cross-border cooperation of the youth. They presented their work of the performance art in four Bulgarian towns: Vidin, Montana, Pernik and Kyustendil from 01 till 05 September 2008. In each town, the performance was held on the main square and it involved doing a puzzle that consisted of the pieces of the map of Serbia with its towns and a quiz with the questions related to Serbia. In addition, a round table was organised in each town. The themes of the round tables were youth activities, promotion of cross-border cooperation and the project itself, youth participation in the local community, establishing contacts between the youth and local officials aiming at the solution of the problems of the youth, motivation of the participants for participation and networking, information on the opportunities for cross-border cooperation, promotion of the web tools for communication and identification of new project ideas. The free time was used for sight seeing and getting to know the Bulgarian towns, as well as for socialising and communication with the Bulgarian peers.
The final meeting was held from 31 January till 2 February 2009 in Nis. There were 15 participants from Vidin and 15 participants from Nis. The evaluation of the project results was done at the meeting. The participants discussed the results and gave proposals of the new activities which would be part of a new joint project of the youth from Vidin and Nis. The continuation of the activities of the resource centre developed as part of the project was also planned.