Since the foundation of “Future in Our Hands” our goals were to bring new opportunities, open new doors for the youth, improve the quality of their lives, making them active citizens of society.
In order to achieve these goals, we never miss the chance to improve ourselves too, to learn new methods, European practices, youth strategies, make new partnerships, and all these to foster the youth in Armenia.

One of those opportunities recently has been the training course called “Build”, which took place in Romania, from the 17th of October to the 1st of November. The training course gathered 42 youth workers from  Armenia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Lebanon, Lithuania, Malta, Moldova, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Turkey and The Ukraine.

The aim of the project was to help youth workers and youth organizations acquire new skills, in regard to their approach to the problems of the youth, minorities, specific communities, youngsters with fewer opportunities, as well as to guide them in providing and promoting inclusion, tolerance and youth participation. The biggest outcome of the project would be for the participating youth workers to learn what is “Structured Dialogue” and how to write Erasmus plus KA3 projects, which are designed to create youth policies, development Structured Dialogue projects and prepare the implementation.  Not only did we learn about the conceptual part of it, but also we were given a chance to work on our own projects, while creating international partnerships. That was not the only opportunity we were given to get the utmost of the practical part of the learning process. With the coordination of the hosting team, in Bacau, Romania, we held a public event World Cafe, during which we facilitated discussions with the local youngsters, on how they can be involved in decision making process and give solutions  to the problems concerning them. Later during the project we had a conference with The Romanian National Agency members, where they shared their experience on best practices of KA3 and youth strategies.

Thanks to the professionalism, dedication, and the hard work of the amazing team “Asociata Pentru Dezvoltare Activa”, the hosting organization in Romania, all the objectives set were achieved. During those unforgettable 2 weeks, not only did we grow as youth workers, get motivated to further practice the skills and the overwhelming amount of knowledge we gained from such professionals of the sphere, but also we had the so much fun, made new friendships, made memories of a lifetime, enlarged our network, had mind-blowing experience thanks to trips we had to Bacau city, to Bran/Dracula castle, and beautiful city of Brasov. We also got to see and learn about the culture of the country, during the cultural night, which the hosting organization held going above and beyond their way. It had a Halloween theme, since it was spooky season, and the evening overall was an experience we will never be able to forget.

The extreme productiveness of those two weeks did not prevent us from having the time of our lives. Even being a worker of the sphere, the wonderful world of Erasmus plus never becomes any less magical for us, less life-changing or less exciting. Coming back from this training course we had a clearer vision, new level of motivation to provide such experiences for the youngsters of our country and we are in rush to share and practice every single knowledge acquired during the project. This training course filled us with so many new ideas, fresh perspective and outlook, and for that we want to thank Victor Toma alongside with the wonderful team of “ADA”  for empowering all of us to take an action, and help the youth build a better life!