Participants will have the chance – and are expected to - implement their learning into practice by initiating various activities in their community to support youth participation and contributing to peace-building processes.

Support will be offered, in the form of peer groups and mentoring, to assist and contribute to the success of their learning and projects. In some cases, projects and initiatives may qualify for financial support through the programme of pilot projects of the European Youth Foundation.

Both the practice phase and the project phases are opportunities for participants to bring to their local realities what they have learnt during the residential seminars, through e-learning and as a result of mentoring and peer group work.

In the practice phase (in between seminar 1 and seminar 2), participants are expected to implement the newly learnt into activities they are already involved in, bridging the Council of Europe’s values and human rights to their own context. The practice phase is intended as a period in which participants apply concretely the newly learnt and also start analysing their reality through human rights lenses, while also looking into building their capacity to liase with relevant local or national stakeholders.

The objectives of the practice phase include:

• develop a concrete idea, initiative or project to apply in between the two seminars
• apply the newly learnt from seminar 1 in specific activities in which participants are involved in
• further develop participants’ competences in bridging the Council of Europe’s values to their own reality

The practice phase will be planned by participants during the first training seminar and should also follow specific quality criteria.

Learning Element: Project Phase

Is a result of the practice phase and right after seminar 2, participants are expected to develop a youth project to carry out in their communities with the aim to contribute to peace building processes and also to bring in their communities the Council of Europe’s values.

The main objectives of the project phase are:

• offer participants the opportunity of a full practical experience, from the needs analysis to the evaluation and follow-up of a project
• support the peace building process in conflict affected communities through participants’ youth projects
• to consolidate the newly learnt and represent the Council of Europe’s values in a concrete experience
• transfer some of the learning elements to participants’ local community, especially elements as human rights protection and promotion, intercultural dialogue and conflict transformation
• to offer participants support for a complete learning experience, starting from needs analysis, to the actualy realisation of the project and evaluation

The projects developed by participants will need to follow clear quality criteria to be introduced during the second residential seminar.