Youth Exchanges

Youth exchanges are more than just a few days away from home. They’re a moment when young people from different countries come together, spend time with each other, and start seeing the world from perspectives they didn’t have before.

In Rzeszów, we host participants who often meet for the first time. They come from different backgrounds, speak different languages, and bring different experiences with them. But it usually takes only a few days for those differences to fade into the background.

Our exchanges typically last between five and seven days and are designed for people aged 18–25. Each project has its own theme, but the way we work remains similar. It’s all based on non-formal education, meaning workshops, discussions, teamwork, and activities that require participation rather than passive listening.

Each group includes both local participants from the Podkarpackie region and young people coming from abroad with our partner organisations. They live together throughout the project, share meals, and spend most of their time as one group. It’s often in the in-between moments, outside the structured sessions, where real connections start to form.

Intercultural evenings are an important part of every exchange. This is when participants present their countries in the most direct way possible through food, music, and conversation. No formal presentations, just sharing.

Participation in our exchanges is free of charge, as the projects are funded by the European Union. Travel, accommodation, and all programme activities are covered. Each year, we organise several exchanges in Rzeszów, with around 25 participants in each group coming from different countries.

If you live in the Podkarpackie region and would like to join a project, the best way is to follow our social media channels, where we publish current open calls. We most often invite people who are already engaged in our local activities.

If you are from the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Slovakia, or Hungary, participation happens through partner organisations in your country. They are responsible for recruitment and preparing the groups:

Youthfully Yours SK – Košice, Slovakia
Uzhhorod National University – Uzhhorod, Ukraine
Mustárház IITI – Nyíregyháza, Hungary
Brno For You, z.s. – Brno, Czech Republic

Similar exchanges are also organised by our partners abroad. This creates opportunities for participants from Podkarpackie to join projects in other countries and continue the experience in a new setting.

2023-01-31

At the end of January 2023, a group of young people from Hungary, Slovakia, Ukraine and Poland came together in Rzeszów as part of the “Beyond the Borders” project. Very quickly, it became clear that this was about more than just a programme or a series of workshops.

At the beginning, there were differences. Language, experiences, ways of seeing the world. And the natural questions that appear whenever people from different countries meet. Only with time did it become clear how much they actually had in common.

The exchange programme became more of a starting point than a goal in itself. Through shared activities, games and conversations, participants moved toward topics that genuinely mattered to them. One of the central themes was stereotypes. Where do they come from, why are they so easily repeated, and what happens when we begin to question them?

During the workshops, participants confronted what they had heard about other countries with what they were now experiencing directly. Out of this came not only conclusions, but also something more personal, a shift in perspective.

This process led to creative outcomes, including collages that reflected the values shared by young people across different cultures. In many ways, there was less difference than anyone might have expected.

Between sessions, there was also time to explore the city. A visit to the Rzeszów Underground Route offered a glimpse into the history of the place that, for a few days, became a shared space for the whole group.

Intercultural evenings were another important part of the exchange. These were moments when participants presented their countries in the most direct way possible, through food, music and conversation.

At the end of the project, each participant received a Youthpass certificate. But what stayed with them went beyond that, in the conversations, experiences and relationships that formed over those few days.

The project was made possible thanks to funding from the European Union.

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