ESC: ICYE Denmark - an international exchange organisation

Dansk ICYE, International Cultural Youth Exchange, is an international non-profit exchange organization for young people between the ages of 18 and 30. We are an independent and non-profit organization founded in 1972. Dansk ICYE is part of the international exchange network ICYE that have national organizations in more than 40 countries in Africa, Europe, Asia, Oceania and North, South and Central America. Every year we serve as a sending and supporting organization for about 80 and hosting about 60 volunteers from and to all continents each year on three different exchange programs, including the European Solidarity Corps. Dansk ICYE has the mission to enchance humanity, remove prejudices and create understanding and tolerance between different cultures. We believe that the direct contact between people across cultures, nationalities, languages and religions is the starting point for this. ICYE is member of UNESCO and by UN designated as “Peace Messengers” The purpose of our work is to promote cultural understanding across borders and traditions. We believe this can be facilitated through our exchange programmes, i.e. living in a foreign country and doing local community based voluntary work. This allows the participants to integrate in the hosting culture and to exchange viewpoints and ideas, explore new habits and lifestyles and reinforce values such as solidarity, inclusion, democracy and friendship. Dansk ICYE's vision is to create an understanding of human values across cultures. This means that we are working to break down cultural barriers between people and thus help to promote solidarity and peace in the world. Dansk ICYE believes that it is important that the exchange goes both ways, guaranteeing that all young people have the opportunity to participate in cultural exchange and volunteer - whether they come from a rich or a poor country, a remote area, regardless educational and occupational background. Our Solidarity Model is a result of this belief. The Solidarity Model works in such a way, that when a you travel on our long term program (the ICYE program) you give a person from the country you are travelling to the possibility to come to Denmark. It is possible because each volunteer at the ICYE program pays the amount it costs to have a volunteer in that person's own country. In this way, the money stays in the original countries, while the volunteers exchange, so that people from poorer countries have the chance to go on exchange to richer countries. Dansk ICYE's main activities are sending and receiving young people aged 18-30 on four different exchange programmes: -Long-term voluntary service (ICYE) -Short-term voluntary service (STePs) -Youth Exchanges and trainings through Erasmus+ -European Solidarity Corps Since 1996 Dansk ICYE has been involved in European Voluntary Service both as sending and coordinating organisation and since 2017 also as hosting organisation. Dansk ICYE is sending between 30 and 50 ESC volunteers every year and coordinates more than 20 different EVS host projects, hosting 40-50 ESC volunteers in Denmark. Furthermore, the organisation consists of a large group of Danish co-workers, young people who are involved in many different volunteering activities varying from arranging events and camps for ESC and ICYE volunteers to being contact persons/mentors for the volunteers (youth to youth), host pre-departure trainings and evaluation meetings for out-going volunteers, as well as arrange local events during the year which facilitate the culture meeting locally .