Youth House Sliven, Bulgaria

The Youth House-Sliven One of our main priorities is collaborating with young people encouraging the youth initiatives and their participation in the local self-government. In connection with realizing partnership with the fraternized towns and in connection with the European program for integration we support youth exchanges. The accomplishment of this activity and the realization of the public policy concerning young people out by the Youth House and independent lime working together with young people.

The Youth House-Sliven contributes to the realization o the policy, concerning young people. There are no membership dues. We work for everybody between the age of 15 and 30, without taking into consideration ethnic, political, cultural religious differences. We fulfil cultural, educational and social projects. We conduct programs in the following trends:

- informational- consultative center;
- discussion forums;
- artistic- creative activities(choose a club according to your interests);
- organizing concerts and festivals;
- collaborative programs with other national, religious and local organizations;

We are a partner of the Ministry of Youth and Sports. We also cooperate successfully with the Youth Program of the EU, National Debate Association, the Public Counsel for Child Protection, National Counsel for Drug Substances.

Tapa Gümnaasium, Estonia

Tapa Gümnaasium will celebrate its 90th anniversary during the upcoming 2008-2009 school year! The school was founded in 1919 as Tapa Unified Gümnaasium, and today it has over 700 students in grades 1 through 12. These students come from Tapa, a town in north central Estonia with about 7,500 inhabitants, as well as from the smaller, surrounding communities of Jäneda, Lehtse, Moe, Saksi, and Vahakulma. The motto of the school is: I learn, I contemplate, I understand!

Tapa Gümnaasium (TG) has the oldest, continuously on-air school radio station in Estonia. During the 15-minute breaks between classes every day, the station´s student DJs play music, report local news, conduct live interviews, and remind students of upcoming events and activities. Published four times during the school year, the TG Express is one of only four or five school newspapers in the county. TG is the site of a CISCO Networking Academy. It also has art and nature clubs, and the students who like to sing and/or to dance are members of local choirs and folk dance groups, which often rehearse in the school. Last but not least, members of the 12th grade class get the keys to the school´s own cellar café, where they hang out before, after, and in between classes.

At TG, each school year begins on September 1 when the 12th graders formally welcome the 1st graders to the school. A sports day and a hiking day are usually held in the early fall. A little bit later, the 12th graders welcome the 10th graders to high school by making them wear crazy clothes, by covering them with fish and flour, and by making them do odd jobs around the school, like cleaning the restrooms with toothbrushes. Class competitions, often dance, parody, and Eurovision-like shows, are held throughout the year, followed by a disco. Students also participate in county-wide math, biology, georgraphy, Estonian, English, and German olympics. The school year ends when the 1st graders say good-bye to the 12th graders and ring the last school bell they may ever hear.

For many, many youth in the area, Tapa Gümnaasium is a school as well as an after-school program, a recreation park, a drop-in center, a sports club and the door to the rest of the country and the rest of the world.

Youth Service - Servizio Politiche Giovanili, Italy

As a municipal Youth Service, we're structurally interested in promoting and implementing any kind of activities involving young people of our hometown (about 100.000 inhabitants), especially when they can develop a European dimension and encourage an international approach to the events. That's why since 1996 our office has helped young people from all around Europe to come and visit our lovely town on the sea, the same that we do with youngsters from here to meet new international friends through the EU projects. We've supported during these years several groups organizing exchanges about racism and tolerance, youth animation, sports, nature and many others items, and it has always come out as a great experience!

The main resources we can count on for that are: a person specifically in charge of Youth Exchange projects, who is also Eurodesk network Local Relay; and a daily open *Youth Information Center* (10 years old) working in the heart of the city, where a lot of young people daily come and find news, information and counseling about job and careers, education, social life, free-time activities and of course European Programs.

Weltenlos e.V., Germany

The Weltenlos association was founded due to various personal motives, foreground for all founding members was the interest in different cultures. We want to share our own interest and curiosity in other cultures. We understand cultural diversity as an enrichment and not as a restriction. The projects which are initiated or supported by the association should convey this message. Furthermore we want to animate and curious others with different means!