Dance As a Medium for Change: Youth Exchange in Zagreb/Croatia

Dance as a Medium of Change is an Erasmus+ project of Asociatia Babilon Travel. The main activity, a youth exchange held in Zagreb between October 14-22, 2022 (travel days included), will integrate 60 young people from Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia (20 per country):

• 16 youngsters age 13-30, with fewer opportunities;
• 2 youth leaders, age 18+;
• 2 accompanying persons, age 18+.

The expected background of the youngsters is youth with fewer opportunities, interested in dance. Project host is Urbana Mladež (Urban Youth) from Croatia while partners are Union on the Deaf from Bulgaria and Asociatia Babilon Travel from Romania.

Costs are covered according to the Erasmus+ program: accommodation, food and travel is covered.

Project description:

With the ongoing pandemic and its effects on mental and general health, especially that of young people, the project developed by this particular group aims to tackle the problem of young people’s declining well-being. Based on restrictions of movement and social gatherings following the COVID-19 pandemic, partners of the project have noted several issues in young people taking part in their workshops, such as feelings of isolation and loneliness, leading to

anxiety and stress. The workshops enabled the affected group to actively participate in locating and solving the issues they saw as challenging.

This project aims to implement dance as an alleviation method for stress and make it a mechanism for healthy coping.

The objectives of the project are to:

• Identify and approach stressors and effects of stress that are troubling for the participants;
• Familiarize participants with manifestations of stress;
• Make dance a platform for learning successful coping mechanisms;
• Present the benefits of physical and social activity on one’s overall health and motivate participants to take part in such activities more often;
• Increase intercultural awareness and a sense of EU identity;
• Promote Erasmus+ and the opportunities provided for EU youth

Participants tasks:

* These tasks are part of active participation in project that means it is mandatory to

participate in them as well.

1. Participants have to arrive on 14.10. and depart on 22.10.2022. In case you want to come before or stay more in Zagreb, please, let us know and we can discuss it.
2. Participants have to prepare a presentation of their countries and present it on a project during leisure activities. Presentations can not be longer than 30 minutes. Participants also need to bring some traditional food and drinks for tastings;

3. Participants have to participate in dissemination (sharing) of project results which will happen online (on their social networks like Facebook) and in their city where they will make 1 public event together with their sending organization;
4. In case participants want to makes some extra workshops please write us suggestions on urbanamladez@gmail.com.

Participants responsibilities:

• Every participant has to actively participate in all activities;
• Participants should take clean shoes (sneakers) for the dance hall and comfortable clothes (we suggest you take several clean shirts to make you feel fresh);
• Participants have to disseminate project results after the project mobility ends.

The European Health Insurance Card: Participants have the right to a European Health Insurance Card – get one before coming to Croatia. The European Health Insurance Card (or EHIC) is issued free of charge and allows anyone who is insured by or covered by a statutory social security scheme of the EEA countries and Switzerland to receive medical treatment in another member state for free or at a reduced cost, if that treatment becomes necessary during their visit (for example, due to illness or an accident), or if they have a chronic pre-existing condition which requires care such as kidney dialysis. The term of validity of the card varies according to the issuing country. We also recommend taking additional health and travel insurance. If you need help with choosing one, please, let us or your sending organization know about it and we will help you with it. The people who don’t have this card should get European insurance.

The Youthpass: At the end of a project you will get Youthpass. More about Youthpass here www.youthpass.eu.

Accommodation: We will stay at Funk Lounge Hostel at address Rendićeva 28 (Zagreb), +385 1 555 27 07 Link for hostel: www.funklounge.hr/. Funk Lounge is a friendly, clean and modern hostel that welcomes all travelers on a mission to explore Zagreb. Enjoy the laid-back atmosphere of our hostel and let your stay in Zagreb begin with beautiful smiles, free welcome drinks and funky music at the hostel’s bar! Hostel is centrally located within a walking distance to the Old Town of Zagreb, Zagreb’s most beautiful park Maksimir, the city Zoo and football stadium. Participants will be divided in rooms by gender with participants from other countries to share cultural diversity.

Travel tickets: Keep your travel tickets, boarding passes, invoices, etc. because without these documents we are not able to reimburse travel expenses. Travel expenses cover public transportation (economy class). Taxi is not an eligible cost.

Host organization Urbana Mladež will transfer travel expenses to your sending organisation and they are the ones who will give you your travel expenses back. Travel expenses will be reimbursed after all participants implement dissemination of project results.

In case you are interested to participate to the youth exchange, please fill out the application form.

The info pack can be downloaded from here.

For furthere information, please do not hesitate to contact us at office@babilontravel.eu.