Implementation

The implementation of the YE VOICE project was a dynamic, creative, and deeply enriching journey that brought together young people from different countries in a shared space of learning, expression, and intercultural dialogue. Throughout the programme, participants engaged in a wide range of non-formal educational activities designed to strengthen self-awareness, promote inclusion, challenge stereotypes, and explore the power of storytelling and visual media as tools for social change.

From the very first day, the project created an atmosphere of trust, cooperation, and active participation through icebreakers, team-building exercises, reflection activities, intercultural evenings, and collaborative group work. As the days progressed, participants explored important themes such as identity, discrimination, stereotypes, emotions, social media, and representation in society, while also developing practical competences in photography, theatre, debate, and short film creation. A key highlight of the project was the collective production of mini-movies addressing meaningful social issues, giving participants the opportunity to transform their ideas into creative messages with real impact.

This page presents the implementation of the project day by day, enriched with photos and videos that capture the energy, creativity, learning moments, and unforgettable memories created during the exchange. Through this material, the journey of YE VOICE becomes visible not only as a programme of activities, but as a meaningful experience of growth, connection, and empowerment for all involved.

Day 1 - Tuesday, April 13, 2026

Written by the facilitators' team 🇪🇺

The first day of the project, and as such, this day included lots of icebreaking activities, teambuilding activities and finished off with an intercultural night!The day began by an introduction by Nikolas, from the associated organization ACPELIA followed by our first name-game. Led by facilitators Boghos Bobbie Avetikian and Gita Vaskelyte, the first activity was the hangman name game. For this, each participant was given a strip of duct tape, which they attached to themselves and used to represent their name with blank spaces for each letter. For instance, someone named Bobbie was _ _ _ _ _ _, and Bobbie would move around to find the letter B three times, and o,i, and e once. Participants could exchange only one letter at a time, both giving and receiving, gradually collecting the needed letters until they completed their name tag.

With that done, we moved on to the next game, the portrait drawing game. For this one, each participant passed around a paper with the shape of their face, and each time music stopped, we filled in a different part of the body, such as one eye, an ear or the mouth! This was then posted on the wall, along with an envelope, where participants can drop gifts and more to other participants.

With a short coffee break we went over the rules, as well as responsibilities for the project. These were as follows -

1 - The journal team - responsible for writing exactly what you are reading now

2 - photos team - where the photos you see in this page come from

3 - energizers - where participants play a short game before main activities.

4 - helpers team - who assist the facilitators if major changes are needed in the activity room

5 - coffee helpers team - helping pack up mugs and returning them to the kitchen for easy cleaning.

This was followed by the contributions, expectations and challenges of the backpack. We thought and wrote down what we brought to our project, what we expect from it, and challenges we may face, so facilitators could better organize for us.

Just before lunch, we took part in an activity called "Youthpass Passport Islands." Working in mixed groups again, we rotated through a series of small challenges, each linked to a specific competency. For instance, one task involved solving an equation to represent mathematical skills, while another required learning basic greetings in different languages to reflect multilingual competence.

In the afternoon we focused on two major factors.

The first, was the NGO Fair, where participants spent roughly 40 minutes, to create a poster of their NGO, with contact information, as well as what projects they focus on. Using basic materials such as paper and markers this later turned into a fair, where participants could move around, go to different stations and ask around.

The last activity was the full introduction of the project, where Bobbie presented why this project was written, and how movies really did change throughout time as to how certain minorities are represented, and how media often represents certain cultures, but how this is always based on interpretation.

This led to the identity flower, where participants drew a flower with 8 pedals with 8 aspects of what they see their identity as. Then the hard part. Removing 1, and then working in a pair to remove yet another 3. This activity showcased how identity is also something other people perceive differently, and certain aspects are less important to others, and this is neither a negative or positive thing.

As for the night, we had the cultural nights of Latvia and Poland, where Latvia showcased fun facts about their country as well as a dance, and Poland went over the entire history of Poland using a video, as well as musical aspects of the country leading to the ever famous poloneze dance. Both countries had delicious snacks to try out!

Day 2 - Wednesday, April 14, 2026

Written by the Latvian team 🇱🇻

After our morning energizer, we did an activity called "My Life Timeline," where we had to present our lives using six (or more!) important events. Everyone created their timeline in their own way some used drawings, some kept it simple, and others added many details. After that, we shared our stories with each other, which was very interesting and sometimes surprising. It helped us understand one another better and feel closer as a group. The activity was based on self-reflection, in understand which core memories made us who we are, and what certain events in our lives may have affected our likes, dislikes and even some parts of our personalities.

From reflecting personally, we then went more national because in the next session, we had to act out a scene about perceived stereotypes of our countries. This was done with either no words, or only speaking in our national languages, because other countries had to guess. We had to be very clear and expressive so people could guess which stereotype we were portraying. It turned out to be a fun and creative task that everyone enjoyed, and these were skills which would be important for our eventual movie-making activity.

In the afternoon, we took part in an activity called World Café. With each station guided by a leader from our youth exchange, the stations focused on different topics that made us think about the topic. Some were focused on the social aspects and some on the more storytelling aspects.

The prompts of each station were as follows –

1 - Which emotions are most powerful in driving social change and how can we use them responsibly in storytelling?

2 - How does the choice of medium (video, photo, art, social media, theatre) influence the impact of a story on society?

3 - How can storytelling actively challenge stereotypes instead of unintentionally reinforcing them?

4 - Which stories are often heard, and which ones are often missing or ignored? Why?

5 - Where does social media play into enforcing stereotypes (or even doing the opposite?)

The last activity of the day was the homework presentation, each country presented their research which was done before coming to the youth exchange. Countries showcased how young people often experience stress and have limited opportunities, especially in rural areas. We also discussed emigration and the fact that many people move abroad. We showed how digital storytelling helps share ideas and challenge stereotypes, and in the end, we concluded that these problems need to be solved together.

The day ended with a wonderful cultural evening hosted by two countries, Lithuania and Portugal, where we learned more about their cultures, tried traditional food, and danced folk dances together.

Day 3 - Thursday, April 16, 2026

Written by Polish team 🇵🇱

The third day of the project, the toughest one yet! The morning started with a mix of storytelling, photography and interpretation. In 5 mixed groups, we had to shoot 4 photos, with the categories of

love
Codependency
Boundaries
Identity

Here's the catch. The competition was that each team starting with 20 points and would lose points if the other teams guessed which photo is which. This is why purposely the words love and codependency were there, because often can be perceived as one and the other.

You can also check out all 5 collages below!

From interpretation moving to conclusive-based proofs, we had a mini debate. Taking place in 2 v 2s, participants not only received their topics, with only 10 minutes to prepare, but also the positions that they were defending well in advance. Some examples of these prompts include

Algorithms help discovery vs Algorithms create bias (e.g Tiktok/Insta)
Stereotypes help storytelling (does better) vs Stereotypes harm society
Social media connects people vs social media isolates people
Living in the moment vs Planning for the future
Technology simplifies life vs Technology complicates life

3 leaders were judges, and they judged based on body language, entertainment and not on the level of English or anything else. It was interesting to defend points that sometimes you disagreed with personally completely.

Heading back to theatre practicing, in the afternoon we took part in an activity called Theatre of the Oppressed. Each group received a note describing a form of discrimination which in turn were

Racism – the most common one
Sexism – discrimination against the opposite gender
Ageism – discrimination against someone considered too old (or too young!) for something
Classism – discrimination based on financial status.

The task was to create a play, notably with a bad English, a play where the type of discrimination does take place in the act. Here's the twist. After presenting our scenes, the audience was invited to step in and change the course of the performance to find possible solutions and overcome the discrimination shown. The way it works is the central victim or oppressor cannot be replaced, but any other character can. This focused not only on showcasing to participants that you should be activity involved in stopping such discriminations, but it also taught us about the bystander effect, a social psychological phenomenon where individuals are less likely to offer help to a victim when other people are present, as the probability of intervention decreases as group size increases, simply because the group expects someone else will take care of it before them. This was visible, because in group 1, participants were shy to get involved, but by group 4, it was smooth sailing.

The last activity of the day was to set the scene for Day 6 in its entirety. Facilitator Bobbie showcased the best tips and tricks for shooting movies, including color choices, angles and more. Bobbie also showcased how exactly to direct stories, including the exposition, the arc of change (where that big something happens) and the conclusion. Participants were then divided into their 5 mixed groups, ready to create their movies. As such, during this activity participants brainstormed, wrote their script, chose their actors, locations and more.

As for the end of the day, the cultural night of Cyprus and Greece. While culturally similar, Greece presented their country in a humorous way, focusing on stereotypes and a quiz game, while Cyprus went all in with a theatre about the stereotypical Cypriot marriage, leading to dances and party right outside the activity room!

Day 4 – Friday April 17, 2026

Written by the Greek team 🇬🇷

Another beautiful morning started in Latvia, young people full of energy and ready to spend a day that they will think about when they get back to their countries. The day focused on one central thing. A cultural trip to Riga.

Each country chose to explore the beautiful capital in a different way.

Some chose to stay in traditional cafeterias, others went to buy souvenirs from the local shops and others got happily lost in the roads of the city. Good food was eaten, views were captured, sights were seen, gifts were made and most importantly memories were created! What's the

Best thing in Riga? The architecture! Everyone was impressed by the colorful designs and unique style of the city. The weather was in our favor, so everyone enjoyed walking by the river and sunbathing in the central park. Batteries were fully charged to go video directing, shooting and acting for the day after.

Day 5 – Monday, April 18, 2026

Written by the Lithuanian team 🇱🇹

A bright, sunny morning started with a fun Cypriot team energizer game outside called mantili, where participants, in two opposing teams, had to chase after the mantili, a small towel. Whoever catches it first and manages to take the mantili back to their team without the opposing team member catches you wins.

After that, we had a super pro Bobbie tips session. We listened to Bobbie's advice about making a short video. He explained filming ideas, where and what logos to put and how to share a clear message.

Then we got to work. Everyone became like the best Hollywood actors and directors, creating videos about important social issues. We worked in teams, shared ideas, and filmed different scenes.

Check out each of the 5 mini-movies created below!

Movie 1 – Don't Judge a Book by its cover

Movie 2 – Social Exclusion

Movie 3 – Woman

Movie 4 – Cyberbullying

Movie 5 – Nothing happened

Day 6 - Tuesday April 19

Written by the Cypriot team 🇨🇾

The final day started off with a watch party, which marked the first time for each team to watch the mini-movies created by each of the other 4 teams. With a reflection method following based on what each participant learned through the process of directing, acting, editing, and ultimately sending a message, we moved on to the next activity.

This was Erasmus+ Opportunities, where Bobbie went over Erasmus+ opportunities, where Bobbie went over every single type of opportunity offers, useful especially for those participants who haven't been to a lot of projects as well as newcomers. This included Youth Exchanges, Training Courses, KA2 projects, the youth card and more. Perhaps the most important of this was DiscoveryEU, the deadline of which is in 3 days as the writing of this implementation report!

Starting the closing of the project, we spent some time writing goodbye messages to each other, as a paper was stuck at the back of each participant. These papers were then hidden in the envelopes created on the first day, to be read on our flights home.

As of afternoon, it began with the follow-up section of the program, where Nikolas went over all the follow-up steps of the project, including a reminder of the Youthpass and its 8 key competencies, as well as action plans that will take place in each of the 6 countries locally upon the end of the Youth Exchange.