Offers support to members of Trans Europe Halles that work with the European Voluntary Service (EVS) on an international level. The aim is to increase the exchange of young people within the network.

Exchanges between the member centres are evaluated together and volunteers who are abroad at the same time are put in contact and encouraged to realise projects together. On a local and regional level the aim of The Lift is to encourage more young people to go abroad as EVS-volunteers and for more organisations in the Swedish province of Scania to engage in international youth work. This is done by spreading information about EVS to young people and sharing the experiences of Mejeriet with other organisations.

The Lift is a collaboration project between Mejeriet in Lund, the regional youth project Storasöder and Trans Europe Halles. The project is running for three years from 2006-2008 and is supported by the Swedish National Board for Youth Affairs.

The Lift is collaborating with the local educational project SYGE and Lund for European Capital for Culture, Lund 2014.

In November 2005, the TEH Coordination Office moved from the cultural centre Kaapelitehdas in Helsinki to the cultural centre Mejeriet. In 2005 Mejeriet also started the regional youth project Storasöder. These factors, together with the fact that TEH decided to focus on youth exchanges within the network through EVS, all motivated Mejeriet and TEH to initiate The Lift. The target group of the project is young cultural operators aged 18-30 who are active at the different member centres of TEH. The Lift responds to these young people’s needs to get work experience from the independent cultural sector abroad, something that is becoming increasingly important in today’s labour market. Hosting a young person from abroad often has a big impact on the local community, as this young person can contribute alternative ways of looking at an organisation and can help to develop new activities. Thanks to the collaboration with the regional youth project Storasöder, The Lift has been able to maximise the outreach in the region of Scania. The Lift aims to inform young people in the local community about EVS as well as to inspire more organisations to engage in international youth work through EVS.

The Project Manager of The Lift offers support to members of TEH that work with EVS. This includes assisting members of TEH to become accredited as EVS-organisations by their national agencies. The Project Manager also gives lectures and information about EVS at different meetings and seminars in Scania in collaboration with other local and regional projects. Finally, the Project Manager informs young people about EVS and helps them to find a suitable host organisation in TEH. A blog has been created for the volunteers to write about their experiences abroad (www.teh.net/evs). The partners of The Lift meet twice a year at the biannual meetings of TEH to evaluate the exchanges that are realised within the network. In 2008, the main focus of The Lift is evaluation and follow up. Two separate evaluation meetings have been planned: one for those who are in charge of EVS at the TEH centres, and one for those who have been volunteers at TEH centres.

The cultural centre Mejeriet is the owner of the project. Mejeriet is hosting the TEH Coordination Office, where the project is managed from. The regional youth project Storasöder is also based at Mejeriet, and up till the end of December 2007 this project contributed with local and regional contacts as well as dissemination of information to young people.

The members of TEH that work with EVS all help to inform young people at their centres about The Lift. They also contribute to improving the quality of EVS-exchanges in TEH by participating in the continuous evaluations of The Lift.

Mejeriet is accredited both as a sending and hosting organisation of EVS and since the TEH Coordination Office is based at Mejeriet, this collaboration came naturally and was also a reason why the project was initiated. The collaboration with Storasöder has been of great value since this project has a lot of contacts and networks with organisations and young people throughout the region of Scania. The reason for the collaboration between the members of TEH is simply that it makes sense to work with EVS with established partner organisations. Working with EVS in a network gives you a good basis for continuous evaluation and follow up. Another important factor for improving the quality of EVS-projects in TEH is also the trust between the members that has been built up through many years of cooperation.

Organisers have found it difficult to reach young people at the different TEH centres and inspire them to go abroad through EVS. They hope that the new website of the project (the headline EVS on www.teh.net that was launched in December 2007) can help to give young people accurate and up-to-date information about EVS and project availability and serve as a source of inspiration. Another challenge has been to inspire local and regional organisations to engage in international youth work through EVS. Many small to medium-size organisations feel worried about the workload and the capacity of their organisations to handle the administration of EVS, which they find both heavy and bureaucratic. Trying to inspire organisations in TEH to work with EVS is different since they can then also join The Lift and get the support of the Project Manager. So far, the number of organisations working with EVS in TEH has increased from five to nineteen (since the start of the project in August 2006).

When the project encounters difficulties, the members of TEH and the Project Manager discuss how to overcome the difficulties together. It is helpful to be able to meet during the biannual meetings of TEH, with a series of face-to-face conversations and brainstorming sessions.

A guidebook for networking with EVS will be produced by the end of 2008. The guidebook will be available to download from www.teh.net. The guidebook will contain practical advice and will share the experiences of working with EVS.

In 2008, the focus of the project is evaluation and follow up. The plan is for EVS to become a permanent part of the activities of all partner organisations. Two evaluation meetings have been planned: one for those who are responsible for EVS at TEH centres and one for those who have been volunteers at TEH centres during The Lift.

The cooperation is important because it is hands-on and concrete and because it gives young people a unique possibility to get work experience from the independent cultural sector abroad. This way the young people broaden their competencies and deepen their European awareness in a way that will be important for their future careers. As a bonus, the project also strengthens the relations between the members of TEH.

The project is funded by the Swedish National Board for Youth Affairs. Mejeriet supports the project with the rent of the office and free use of Mejeriet’s concert hall (for seminars etc.) in kind. Mejeriet also supports the project with staff management and accounting. For 2008, the total budget of the project is 538,000 SEK (about 56,829 Euros).