Change Your Mind, Change the World!

The RISKO Youth Centre hosted a youth exchange with the title "Change your mind, Change the world" between 04.06.2023 and 13.06.2023, co-funded by the Erasmus+ Youth Programme and the Slovenian National Agency MOVIT. The youth exchange was attended by young people from Slovenia, Slovakia, Hungary, Lithuania and Spain. The young participants concluded the youth exchange by talking about discrimination, solidarity and vulnerable target groups. Through the youth exchange, young people broke stereotypes. During the activity, young people got to know better the different minorities living in our countries and the vulnerable target groups (the elderly, the LGBTQ+ community, the homeless...), which are too often forgotten because we focus too much on national minorities. They are granted special rights and additional funding in all participating countries. But other vulnerabletarget groups are too often neglected. Through the project, the young participants aimed to raise awareness among other young people about the word and the importance of minorities, as they are often misinterpreted. They sought to break down stereotypes that are created towards certain minorities and to raise awareness towards greater tolerance towards each other. The project was intended to continue the Culture Crash network and to raise international awareness of the issue, while at the same time hoping that more organisations will decide to set up a similar project under the same name "Change your mind, Change the World!"

The objectives of the project were: to get to know the minorities living in the area of the partner countries, to get to know the culture, customs and traditions of the partner countries, to get to know the diverse culture through practical examples, to develop the personal competences of the young participants, to get to know the minorities living in Pomurje and Slovenia through practical examples, to get to know the border life and cultures living in the same area, to get to know the Roma and LGBTQ+ community in Slovenia better, to raise young people's awareness of the importance of diversity through social networks, to encourage young Europeans to actively participate in similar projects, to spread tolerance among young people towards different minorities, to involve young people with fewer opportunities, to learn about human rights, to train in teamwork, to network organisations and to strengthen partnerships.