Key Project Details
The "Social Butterfly" Youth Exchange took place from 11 to 19 November 2023 in Sâmbăta de Sus, Brașov County, Romania.
It gathered 40 young participants, aged between 18 and 25, accompanied by 2 group leaders per country. A total of 24 women and 16 men participated, with 25 of the young people coming from fewer opportunities backgrounds.
The project was coordinated by Cloud Five (Romania) in partnership with:
Fiatalok Egységben Egyesület (Hungary)
VsI "uMunthu" (Lithuania)
Active Youth for Europe (Italy)
Sonríe a Europa (Spain)
All organisations actively contributed to the selection, preparation, and support of participants, as well as to the implementation and dissemination of the project's results.
Objectives and Activities
"Social Butterfly" was built around three core objectives:
To develop the skills and knowledge necessary for 40 young participants to manage anxiety in social situations, through active participation in specific practices and techniques.
To raise awareness among participants regarding the importance of inclusion, diversity, and the challenges posed by social anxiety, particularly among youth with fewer opportunities.
To strengthen the capacity of partner organisations to engage in mental health-related projects at a European level.
Over nine days, participants from Romania, Lithuania, Italy, Spain, and Hungary took part in a carefully structured program using non-formal education methods. The first two days focused on icebreakers, team building, and familiarization with Erasmus+, YouthPass, and mobility rules.
The core part of the exchange (days three to five) was dedicated to exploring social anxiety: understanding its causes, recognizing its signs, developing self-awareness, and practicing anxiety management techniques. Activities included workshops, discussions, brainstorming sessions, "world café" exercises, personality testing, and teamwork challenges.
On the sixth day, participants visited the city of Brașov, where they undertook entrepreneurial and multilingual tasks designed to strengthen teamwork, creativity, and confidence.
The final days were used for building a project webpage, preparing dissemination plans, final evaluations, and reflections on the knowledge gained.
Why the Project Was Implemented
The "Social Butterfly" project was launched to respond to a growing need for supporting young people in managing social anxiety, promoting inclusion and diversity, and improving mental health. Recent challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine emphasized the impact of social isolation and discrimination, making it more important than ever to create spaces for young people to reconnect and develop socially and emotionally.
The project aimed to offer a safe intercultural environment where participants could understand, address, and find solutions for managing social anxiety. In doing so, it sought to empower young people with fewer opportunities by promoting European values such as tolerance, empathy, inclusion, diversity, personal development, and active participation in society.
