Youth Exchange: Bright Horizons

Location:  Ravnogor, Bulgaria

Dates: 4-12 October 2019

Number of participants: 36 participants

Participating countries: Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Spain

Organizer: Synergy Bulgaria

Apply here: Application form

Deadline to apply: 31 August 2019

Date of selection: 1 September 2019

Inquiries about this project: Silviu Petrariu at brighthorizons.bulgaria@gmail.com

Costs: Youth Exchange is co-funded by Erasmus+:

  • 100% accommodation, food and program materials are free, covered by the grant from Erasmus+
  • traveling costs are covered, up to the maximum expenses:
    • €160 / participant from Bulgaria;
    • €250 / participant from Greece, Italy, Latvia and Lithuania;
    • €340 / participant from Spain.
  • €50 participation fee to be paid by each participant. This fee goes as a contribution to the administrative costs of the youth exchange.

Youth Exchange – Bright Horizons

Find infopack here: Youth Exchange – Bright Horizons – Bulgaria – Abroadship.org

About the Project

“It’s a personal development program that brings together 36 young people from 6 countries for a dynamic individual learning experience in a group context.

The program is based on experiential learning and is made by processes and activities that embrace various areas of life and focus on the relation with others and with oneself.

Those are opportunities to explore inside, to identify concepts and patterns that come from culture, family, social environment, from the experiences and understand how they are supporting and how they are limiting us in specific situations and with different people; that allow the participants to broaden their horizons, to get out of their automatic thoughts and actions expanding their limits and gaining control over their life.

The approach is based on the concept that everybody is the creator of their own experience and set the limits regarding how far to go during the project.

The project focuses also on cross cultural communication, on the topic of culture and employability in a multicultural environment.”

Project Goals and Objectives

The program embraces a variety of topics and different areas of life, therefore an individual while going through the program can identify different areas of improvement and choose to work on them according to their needs. Nevertheless, the possible outcomes connected with the topics of intercultural sensitivity and cross-cultural communication are:

  • To foster intercultural sensitivity meant as the development of the skill of recognizing and living in contact with difference.
  • To look at people and at situations as opportunities instead than obstacles.
  • To raise the competencies needed to choose consciously different cultural lenses according to the situations and to the people, to allow access to Bright Horizons of understanding and connection.
  • To provide concrete opportunities to meet and interact with diversity in order to overcome stereotypes and prejudices, to create empathy, openness, positive vision, cooperation and support in everyday life.
  • To increase competences relevant for the employability in a multicultural environment, to empower cross-cultural communication skills, facilitate the access to job opportunities abroad and to youth international mobilities.
  • To provide safe space for the participants to share ways to combat discrimination, to promote and disseminate a culture of inclusion and cooperation beyond borders with a sustainable win-win strategy.

Participant’s Profile

This project is for you if:

  • Your age is between 20 and 28 years;
  • You are committed and focus on working on your personal development: you want to work on yourself to make the difference that will bring you forward;
  • You are not expecting that somebody will change your life and solve your issues but you want to create the change that you need (it requires efforts and determination);
  • You are interested in developing your attitudes, skills and knowledge in the areas of personal development, cultural awareness, cross-cultural communication and employability;
  • You are willing to take part in the whole program and in all the activities;
  • You are ready to be challenged;
  • You are ready to get involved in non-formal activities for a duration of 12-13 hours per day;
  • You are able to freely communicate in simple English;
  • You are officially resident in one of the following countries: Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Latvia Lithuania or Spain.