RYCO Publication: A Better Region Starts with YOUth (2020)

A Sense of Community:
“I just felt so at home at that
place and with those people.”
We see a three-step process:
1
While participating in the project, young
people have real contact with each other
and experience a sense of community.
The concept of Sense of Community is defined
as “a feeling that members have of belonging, a
feeling that members matter to one another and
to the group, and a shared faith that members’
needs will be met through their commitment to
be together.” The theoretical framework of the
Sense of Community was first introduced in 1986
by United States community psychologists David
McMillan and David Chavis and was revised by
McMillan in 1996.
The basic foundation for developing a sense of
community is the experience of shared
emotional connections in time and space. To
have this experience, the members of a
community must get in contact with one
another. RYCO’s youth exchange projects
enable these contacts and provide a safe
space in which to develop a sense of
community.
The process starts at the youth exchange
project but it does not end there. It goes on after
the end of the project and ideally leads to the
development of a sense of community among
youth in the region.
Real
Young people
experience a sense
of community at
RYCO projects
2
Young people
feel connected
to their peers
"We have the
same problems."
Feeling connected
3
Both during and after the project, young
people feel connected to their peers.
They express themselves through
phrases such as ‘we have the same
problems’ and ‘we speak the same
language’.
When they return home these young
people take this experience and build
their own real communities with likeminded
peers in their hometowns or, with
the help of social media, they stay connected
to other participants who have
become friends.
A better region starts with trusting each other.
When young people in the Western Balkans see
and feel themselves as part of a community
then they can develop trust. Trust then leads to
the cooperation, support and understanding
needed to create a better region.
RYCO funded youth exchanges have the
potential to initiate the development of a sense
of community among the participants and thus
contribute toward improved cooperation in the
region.
again
Real
Young people
biuld ther own
communities
e.g. via
social media
RYCO youth exchange projects are a starting point for developing a sense of community
among the youth of the Western Balkans.
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