15.5.2012

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 139/21

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Call for proposals — EACEA/15/12

Youth in Action Programme

Youth Support Systems — Sub-action 4.3

Support to Youth Workers’ Mobility

2012/C 139/10

1.   Objective

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 professionalize youth work as a cross-cutting policy tool in Europe.

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;

—	To gain a better understanding of the European dimension of youth work;

—	To improve youth workers’ professional, intercultural and language competences;

—	To promote the exchange of experiences and approaches to youth work and non-formal education in Europe;

—	To contribute to develop stronger and better quality partnerships between youth organisations across Europe;

—	To strengthen the quality and the role of youth work in Europe.

Priorities

Preference will be given to those projects which best reflect following priorities:

(i)	Permanent priorities of the Youth in Action Programme — Participation of young people; — Cultural diversity; — European citizenship; — Inclusion of young people with fewer opportunities.

(ii)	Annual priorities of the Youth in Action Programme — Youth unemployment, poverty and marginalisation; — Spirit of initiative, creativity and entrepreneurship, employability; — Grassroots sport and outdoor activities; — Global environmental challenges and climate change.

2.   Eligible applicants

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

—	Non-governmental organisations (NGOs);

—	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;

—	Public bodies based at regional or local level.

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:

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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);

—	those countries of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA): Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland;

—	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.

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.

Please note that no more than one project proposal can be submitted by the same applicant under this call for proposals.

3.   Eligible actions and participants

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 November 2012 and 1 April 2013.

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 of the project 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 2 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 working occasionally in a youth organisation or public body.

4.   Award criteria

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

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Relevance 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.

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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.

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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.

5.   Budget

The total budget allocated to the cofinancing 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

Grant applications must be drawn up in one of the official EU languages, using the electronic form specifically designed for this purpose.

The forms can be obtained on the Internet at the following address:

http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/youth/index_en.htm

The electronic application form duly completed must be submitted by 12:00 (mid-day, Brussels Time) on 3 September 2012.

A paper version of the application must also be sent by 3 September 2012 to the following address:

Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency

Youth in Action Programme — EACEA/15/12

BOUR 4/029

Avenue du Bourget/Bourgetlaan 1

1140 Bruxelles/Brussel

BELGIQUE/BELGIË

—	by post (date of postmark),

—	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).

Applications sent by fax or e-mail will not be accepted.

7.   Additional information

Applications must comply with the provisions contained in the Application Guidelines — Call for proposals EACEA/15/12, be submitted on the application form provided for this purpose and contain the relevant Annexes.

The said documents can be found on the Internet at the following address:

http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/youth/index_en.htm

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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 of 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: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CONSLEG:2001D0822:20011202:EN:PDF

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