ESC: Mobility and interculturally promotion with YFU France !

YFU means Youth For Understanding "La Jeunesse pour la Compréhension". It is a non-profit association for intercultural education under the French law of 1901, approved by the French Ministry of Youth and Popular Education. The association is present in more than 50 countries and was created in the United States to promote the reconciliation between the United States and Germany after the Second World War. Every year, young people between the ages of 14 and 25 leave for a year, a semester, or a summer all over the world. They are hosted by volunteer families and attend high school in the same manner as native high school students. The goals of the association are intercultural exchange, integration into a new culture and opening up to the world. The French association was founded in 1966 and its headquarters are located in Tours (37). Since 1966, YFU France has developed a large-scale educational project which is not only based on long-term international exchanges, but also on volunteer actions, a range of shorter-term intercultural projects and national projects such as Coloured Glasses. This project aims to raise awareness of the importance of intercultural learning. It involves workshops conducted by YFU-trained non-formal education facilitators. This program centered around opening up to interculturality and world citizenship is conducted during our orientations and trainings for the students in the program, their parents and host families, but also within various educational institutions: colleges, high schools, universities and other partners. Today, Youth For Understanding is one of the oldest and largest international intercultural exchange organizations. Since its international creation in 1951, YFU has offered more than 220,000 young people the chance to participate in this opening to the world and to themselves, thanks to the support of thousands of volunteers. YFU's philosophy is fundamentally humanistic; our main objective is to better prepare young people for the responsibilities and opportunities of an ever-changing, interdependent world. The principles of the association are as follow: The refusal of any discrimination based on culture, language, social or ethnic origin, religion, gender; the development of skills and processes of understanding between cultures, ways of solving problems between individuals and groups of different cultures; building the capacity to make choices inspired by the common good, the spirit of openness to other nations and cultures; the preference for decision making through consensus building where mutual respect is expressed. YFU defends and promotes a social model of diversity, social harmony and socio-economic inclusion. YFU promotes intercultural understanding, mutual respect and social responsibility through educational exchanges for youth, families and their social environment. Our values are lifelong learning, commitment and dedication through volunteerism and valuing universal and just diversity. In 2017, YFU France obtained its accreditation as a hosting, sending and coordinating organization of European Voluntary Service. Thanks to this accreditation, we have been able to carry out several projects through the sending and hosting of volunteers. These projects have been very enriching for the French association and its partners and have allowed us to strengthen our skills in the field of interculturality. As our label ends in December 2021, we wish to renew it in order to continue this enriching and necessary experience. With the health and social crisis that we are experiencing today, YFU France considers it essential for the world of tomorrow to continue our mission. In order to carry out the accompaniment of the volunteers and our work in the best possible way, we wish to renew our label only for hosting volunteers.