The Mind & Body of Action Erasmus+ Youth Exchange
Ireland x Croatia Youth Exchange, 29th Oct – 5th Nov
In a spooky Halloween week, LGBT+ young people from ChillOUT LGBTI+ Youth Group packed their bags and headed off to Croatia to meet with their partners Queer Sport Split and CKM Dubrovnik for an action packed week of discovering a new place, meeting new people, sharing new experiences and making sense of old ones. Beginning in Split in the North of the country we were lucky to meet with Petar from Queer Sport Split, Split Pride and the LGBT Centar in Split which has an incredible location within the palace walls in central Split. There we divided our time between the LGBT centar and outdoor workshops exploring what it means to be active in our communities, how we look after ourselves in struggles and what it means to be a visibly queer person in Ireland and in Croatia.
After reflection and learning in Split we boarded a bus which took us to Dubrovnik, a new city in the South and a new context. Here we met our friends Mia and Božo from CKM Dubrovnik who organised EXPO22. EXPO22 was a collective of higher education institutions and services for young people including Euro Desk and the European Union. The Mind and Body of Action project hosted the INCLUSION corner of the Euro Zone at the EXPO22 and we were visited by approximately 4000 secondary school students and their teachers over two days. We shared information about our project here and built a rainbow wall of support with attendees answering the question “How can we make Croatia a more equal place for the LGBT+ community”.
We are grateful to the Erasmus+ programme for making funding available for these projects to connect young people and their youth workers and definitely this one will have a lasting impact and hopefully lead to greater change with young people leading the way.
LGBT+ Young people and their supporters are welcome to join the youth project and take part in a range of projects and activities throughout the year, join by getting in touch with community youth worker Debbie on 0860218941 or chillout@wstcys.ie
