The youth exchange EU Advocators: Words in Action was successfully hosted and implemented by FECE in Varna, Bulgaria, from September 21 to September 25. A total of 26 young people from four countries (Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary) took part in the project that tackled topics such as storytelling in different formats, youth participation and advocacy among youth.
During the first activity day, the participants joined introductory activities, aimed at memorising each other’s names, explored the European Youth Strategy (2019-2027) and its corresponding 11 European Youth Goals, learned more about the symbols, values and structure of the European Union and drafted the constitution of the youth exchange – a set of rules to ensure a respectful atmosphere and positive group dynamics during the project. A Fears and Expectations session was also completed. In the afternoon, the young people were introduced to the YouthPass Certificate and presented their sending organisations: FECE (Bulgaria), HESSA (Romania), Youthfully Yours (Slovakia), and Creative Youth Academy (Hungary). At the end of the activity day, the participants enjoyed shared free time in the area around the hotel.
The second day started with the Digital Detox Walk activity. During it the participants learned interesting facts about their peers and recorded short audio introductions of each other. Afterwards, they created group definitions about youth participation and storytelling and, in groups, explored the basics of the podcast by researching four podcast types (Monologue, Interview, Panel Discussion and Audio Drama podcast) and listening to and analysing an episode from SHINE Podcast on citizenship competence. The day concluded with the Act It Out! activity during which the young people created group performances showing their representation of five participatory tools: signals, petitions, European Citizens’ Initiative, sit-ins, and social media.
During the third day, the participants joined The Community Problem Solvers activity, aimed at identifying solutions for existing community issues. The young people pitched their solutions to issues such as 1) lack of youth spaces, 2) lack of healthcare facilities and 3) lack of education opportunities in rural areas in the form of short videos. During the next activity, called The Story Spine Writing Room, the participants explored the basics of storytelling (core elements such as introduction, conflict, climax, resolution, and characters) and were assigned a group task – to enrich already existing stories with new characters (incl. characters’ qualities and internal struggles) and events, and make the story more emotionally impactful and appealing. The groups included engaging plot twists and showed brilliant creativity. At the and of the day, the young people took part in the Blind Director activity and explored visual storytelling by creating a sequence of photos showing fun stories drafted by the youth themselves. The visual stories were split into two topics: “If I were immortal for a day, I would …” and “If I were a president for a day, I would…”
During the Intercultural Night on day 3, the participants presented their countries, traditional dances, history, food and drinks. On the fourth day, divided into national teams, the young people chose a specific local issue/ or good example to promote and incorporated storytelling (either as video, pictures or podcast) to present their message, core conflict and solutions to the identified topic (personal development, social media addiction, mental health struggles, lack of youth spaces) and visited Varna where they explored the city.
On the fifth day, the participants presented their group projects from the previous day. FECE introduced the European Digital Citizenship Education Week 2026 – awareness-raising campaign with various educational activities aimed at improving the media literacy of youth and implemented the non-formal activity Media Literacy in Action: From Awareness to Context. The next session was focused on the Erasmus+ Programme, its properties, types of projects and impact. The participants drafted group ideas for KA1 projects tackling inclusion, sport and sustainability. In the afternoon, they presented their Erasmus+ projects and joined a series of final activities – a ceremony to reveal their secret friends, a short group reflection about everyone’s personal journey during the youth exchange, and final evaluation of the project. During the project, the participants had their compliment box and shared positive messages with each other daily. FECE also had daily evaluation meetings with the team leaders to improve the project implementation and ensure a safe space where everyone feels comfortable and included.
The youth exchange is funded by the European Commission under the Erasmus+ Programme.
