# C_2011165EN.01000701.xml

| 7.6.2011 | EN | Official Journal of the European Union | C 165/7 |
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CALL FOR PROPOSALS — EACEA/17/11

‘Youth in Action’ programme

Youth Support Systems — Sub-action 4.3

Enhancing youth workers’ learning mobility and youth work support to unemployed young people

2011/C 165/09

1.   Objectives and description

The purpose of this call for proposals is to support youth workers’ mobility and exchanges with a view to promoting the acquisition of new skills and competences in order to enrich their profile as professionals in the youth field. By promoting long-term transnational learning experiences for youth workers, this new action will also aim at strengthening the capacities of the structures involved in the project, which will benefit from the experience and new perspective brought by a youth worker from a different background. In doing so, this call will enhance networking among youth structures in Europe and will contribute to the policy priority to support, recognise and professionalise youth work as a cross-cutting policy tool in Europe.

Furthermore, this call shall contribute to encouraging the development of innovative approaches or methods through which youth workers can support unemployed young people in gaining the necessary knowledge, skills and confidence to enter the labour market.

This call provides grants to projects.

The objectives of the call for proposals are as follows:

| — | to give youth workers the opportunity to experience a different working reality in another country, |
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| — | to gain a better understanding of the European dimension of youth work, |
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| — | to improve youth workers’ professional, intercultural and language competences, |
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| — | to promote the exchange of experiences and approaches to youth work and non-formal education in Europe, |
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| — | to contribute to develop stronger and better quality partnerships between youth organisations across Europe, and |
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| — | to strengthen the quality and the role of youth work in Europe. |
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Preference will be given to those projects which best reflect the permanent priorities of the ‘Youth in Action’ programme:

| — | participation of young people, |
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| — | cultural diversity, |
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| — | European citizenship, |
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| — | inclusion of young people with fewer opportunities. |
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Preference will also be given to projects reflecting the following annual priority:

| — | youth unemployment. |
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This priority is intended to encourage projects promoting the access of unemployed young people to the ‘Youth in Action’ programme.

Priority will also be assigned to projects tackling the issues of youth unemployment and/or aimed at stimulating unemployed young people's mobility and active participation in society.

2.   Eligible applicants

Proposals must be submitted by non-profit organisations. These organisations can be:

| — | non-governmental organisations (NGOs), |
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| — | bodies active at European level in the field of youth (ENGO), which have member organisations in at least eight (8) programme countries of the ‘Youth in Action’ programme; |
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| — | public bodies based at regional or local level. |
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This applies to both applicant and partner organisations. Applicants must — at the specified deadline for submitting their proposals — have been legally registered for at least two (2) years in one of the programme countries. The programme countries are as follows:

| — | the Member States of the European Union: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom( 1 ), |
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| — | those countries of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA): Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, |
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| — | candidate countries for which a pre-accession strategy has been established, in accordance with the general principles and general terms and conditions laid down in the framework agreements concluded with these countries with a view to their participation in EU programmes: Croatia and Turkey. |
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Projects should be based on a solid partnership between two (2) partners from two (2) different programme countries of which at least one (1) from an EU Member State, acting respectively as sending and host organisation of the youth worker(s) involved in the project. One of the two partners assumes the role of coordinating organisation and applies to the Executive Agency for the whole project on behalf of both.

3.   Eligible actions, participants and proposals

The project must include activities of a non-profit-making nature that are related to the field of youth and non-formal education.

Projects must start between 1 January 2012 and 1 June 2012.

Projects will have a maximum duration of 12 months. The duration of the mobility will have a minimum duration of 2 months and a maximum duration of 6 months.

Participants in the proposals submitted under this call for proposals must be professional youth workers legally resident in one of the ‘Youth in Action’ programme countries. Both paid employees and experienced volunteers working in non-governmental organisations or local or regional public bodies active in the field of youth are concerned. There is no age limit of the participants.

In order to ensure the maximum benefits from the learning mobility experience both for the individual participant(s) and their sending and host organisations, a minimum of two years of relevant and documented professional experience in the field of youth work is required. Youth workers must have a clear, regular, structured and stable cooperation with their sending organisation. They must be identified in the application form.

Projects will support individual mobility of up to two (2) youth workers. When two youth workers are involved the project must be based on the principle of reciprocity, i.e. there should be a mutual exchange of youth workers between the two partner organisations. This will also allow partners to maintain stability in their human resources.

Youth workers engaged on a voluntary basis should provide proof that they have a solid connection as well as a regular, structured and long-term cooperation with their sending organisation.

This call is not targeted at young volunteers occasionally working in a youth organisation or public body.

Only typed proposals submitted in one of the official EU languages, using the official application form, completed in full, and sent by the specified deadline (1 September 2011) will be considered. The application has to be sent in one unique package and as a single copy (the original document). It must be dated and signed (original signatures required) by the person authorised to enter into legally binding commitments on behalf of the applicant organisation.

The application form must be accompanied by an official letter from the applicant organisation, documents attesting its financial and operational capacity, and all the other documents referred to in the application form.

Applicants must respect the funding rules of this call for proposals as defined in the ‘Specific funding rules’ and comply with the maximum grant amount set at EUR 25 000.

4.   Award criteria

Eligible applications will be assessed on the basis of the following criteria:

| — | Relevance of the project in relation to the objectives and priorities of the ‘Youth in Action’ programme and of the call for proposals (25 %)
In this respect the following aspects will be assessed:
(a)
the project meets the general objectives and priorities of the ‘Youth in Action’ programme; (b)
the project meets the specific objectives and priorities of this call for proposals. | (a) | the project meets the general objectives and priorities of the ‘Youth in Action’ programme; | (b) | the project meets the specific objectives and priorities of this call for proposals. |
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| (a) | the project meets the general objectives and priorities of the ‘Youth in Action’ programme; | | | | |
| (b) | the project meets the specific objectives and priorities of this call for proposals. | | | | |

| — | Quality of the project and of the working methods that it comprises (60 %)
In this respect the following aspects will be assessed:
(a)
the high quality of the work programme in terms of content and methodology (including the quality of the preparation and evaluation phases), its clearness, consistency, innovative aspects and European dimension. The coherence of the programmes of activities when two youth workers are involved; (b)
the quality of the partnership, and in particular the clarity of the tasks, description of the partners’ actual role in the cooperation, as well as the experience and motivation of the partners to set up the project and further develop youth work. The commitment of the partners to provide appropriate support to the participants; (c)
the active involvement of youth workers in the definition of the project; (d)
the impact and relevance of the project on participants’ professional competences, as well as on the capacity-building of the partners involved (e.g. stronger involvement in international activities or further development of youth work activities); (e)
the demonstrated added value of the project on the structures involved; (f)
the visibility of the project as the quality of measures aimed at disseminating and exploiting project's results; (g)
the project's multiplier effect as well as its long-term viability and potential to result in continued, sustained cooperation, in complementary activities or in long-lasting benefits for the partners and participants involved; (h)
the consistency of the budget with the activities planned in the work programme. | (a) | the high quality of the work programme in terms of content and methodology (including the quality of the preparation and evaluation phases), its clearness, consistency, innovative aspects and European dimension. The coherence of the programmes of activities when two youth workers are involved; | (b) | the quality of the partnership, and in particular the clarity of the tasks, description of the partners’ actual role in the cooperation, as well as the experience and motivation of the partners to set up the project and further develop youth work. The commitment of the partners to provide appropriate support to the participants; | (c) | the active involvement of youth workers in the definition of the project; | (d) | the impact and relevance of the project on participants’ professional competences, as well as on the capacity-building of the partners involved (e.g. stronger involvement in international activities or further development of youth work activities); | (e) | the demonstrated added value of the project on the structures involved; | (f) | the visibility of the project as the quality of measures aimed at disseminating and exploiting project's results; | (g) | the project's multiplier effect as well as its long-term viability and potential to result in continued, sustained cooperation, in complementary activities or in long-lasting benefits for the partners and participants involved; | (h) | the consistency of the budget with the activities planned in the work programme. |
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| (a) | the high quality of the work programme in terms of content and methodology (including the quality of the preparation and evaluation phases), its clearness, consistency, innovative aspects and European dimension. The coherence of the programmes of activities when two youth workers are involved; | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| (b) | the quality of the partnership, and in particular the clarity of the tasks, description of the partners’ actual role in the cooperation, as well as the experience and motivation of the partners to set up the project and further develop youth work. The commitment of the partners to provide appropriate support to the participants; | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| (c) | the active involvement of youth workers in the definition of the project; | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| (d) | the impact and relevance of the project on participants’ professional competences, as well as on the capacity-building of the partners involved (e.g. stronger involvement in international activities or further development of youth work activities); | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| (e) | the demonstrated added value of the project on the structures involved; | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| (f) | the visibility of the project as the quality of measures aimed at disseminating and exploiting project's results; | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| (g) | the project's multiplier effect as well as its long-term viability and potential to result in continued, sustained cooperation, in complementary activities or in long-lasting benefits for the partners and participants involved; | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| (h) | the consistency of the budget with the activities planned in the work programme. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

| — | Profile of promoters/participants involved in the project (15 %)
In this respect the following aspects will be assessed:
(a)
involvement of promoters and/or participants working with young people with fewer opportunities or with unemployed young people; (b)
motivation and commitment of the youth worker(s) to participate in the mobility experience, to contribute to the activities of the host structure and to spread the learning outcomes of the experience in their home context upon their return. | (a) | involvement of promoters and/or participants working with young people with fewer opportunities or with unemployed young people; | (b) | motivation and commitment of the youth worker(s) to participate in the mobility experience, to contribute to the activities of the host structure and to spread the learning outcomes of the experience in their home context upon their return. |
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| (a) | involvement of promoters and/or participants working with young people with fewer opportunities or with unemployed young people; | | | | |
| (b) | motivation and commitment of the youth worker(s) to participate in the mobility experience, to contribute to the activities of the host structure and to spread the learning outcomes of the experience in their home context upon their return. | | | | |

5.   Budget

The total budget allocated to the co-financing of projects under this call for proposals is estimated at EUR 1 000 000.

The maximum grant shall not exceed EUR 25 000.

The Agency reserves the right not to distribute all the funds available. In addition, although balanced geographical representation will be sought in the selected projects, the major determining factor as to the number of projects funded per country will be quality.

6.   Deadline for submission of applications

Applications must be sent no later than 1 September 2011 to the following address:

| Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency |
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| ‘Youth in Action’ Programme — EACEA/17/11 |
| BOUR 4/029 |
| Avenue du Bourget/Bourgetlaan 1 |
| 1140 Bruxelles/Brussel |
| BELGIQUE/BELGIË |

| — | by post, date as per postmark, |
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| — | by an express courier company, the date of receipt by the courier company being taken as proof of posting (a copy of the original deposit date receipt must be included in the application form). |
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Applications sent by fax or e-mail will not be accepted.

7.   Additional information

Detailed Applicants’ Guidelines, application form and specific funding rules can be found on the Internet at the following address: http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/youth/funding/2011/call_action_4_3_en.php

Grant applications must use the application form specifically designed for this purpose and contain all the annexes and information required.

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( 1 )  Persons from overseas countries and territories and, if applicable, public or private institutions based there, are eligible under the ‘Youth in Action’ programme, depending upon the rules of the programme and those which apply in the Member State with which they are connected. A list of these overseas countries and territories is given in Annex 1A to Council Decision 2001/822/EC of 27 November 2001 on the association of the overseas countries and territories with the European Community (‘Overseas Association Decision’) (OJ L 314, 30.11.2001, p. 1): http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CONSLEG:2001D0822:20011202:EN:PDF

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