The aim of the activities implemented by RYCO was as follows:
2.2 Capacity building of school actors;
2.2.2 Regional annual school conferences.

After schools have been selected based on an open call, regional conference was gathering representatives of all schools, where networking, mentorship and capacity building of school actors will be done.
The idea is to have 4-5 day event (with one teacher and one students per school) in the CP which is chair of RYCO that year: 2021: Montenegro, 2022: Serbia and 2023: Albania.
In total during the project these conferences gathered approx. 400 school representatives and 60 other stakeholders (mentors who will help them to develop program of youth exchanges, team members, trainers for capacity building session, other VIP guests).

Idea of the programme is to have several parts:

a) Opening and Get to know;
b) Inspirational discussion on the role of schools and youth in peacebuilding and intercultural learning in WB6;
c) Training block (Managing school exchanges, Financial and admin rules, Resources of youth work methodologies);
d) Developing creative program of exchanges (work with their mentors);
e) Communications and Outreach (agreement on internal and external communication) and
f) Next steps (announcement of teachers training, final work with mentors on their program of each school exchange etc.)

2.2.3 Contracting Party (CP) level project closing ceremonies:
After implementing school partnerships and exchanges, closing ceremonies will be held in each WB beneficiary Contracting Party.
These 1-day events will gather participants to present, promote, and discuss achievements, including evaluation, media outreach, and award presentations.

Each event will feature the school principal, a teacher, and two students, and will be opened by Ministers of Education, EC partners, RYCO, and GIZ representatives. Over three years, 18 events were involved approximately 600 school and youth representatives and 300 team members and guests.

2.3 Strengthening of intercultural competencies of teachers and students;
2.3.1 Teacher Training Sessions;

Selected teachers from granted schools will participate in regional and local training sessions to enhance skills necessary for regional cooperation, such as facilitation, intercultural dialogue, peacebuilding, gender mainstreaming, and digital tools in youth work. There were three types of training:
• CP level two-day training in local languages;
• Regional online training;
• Regional physical training in English.

Over three years, 200 participants will be trained. RYCO developed a detailed training plan and contract trainers to create educational resources and an online library. Peer-to-peer support will be encouraged in the second and third years. In collaboration with Ministries of Education, the aim is to provide recognized certificates to teachers who complete the training and gain practical experience as local project coordinators.

2.3.2 Youth Summer Camps:
After each exchange cycle, Youth Summer Camps was held for up to 30 of the most active students from exchange projects. These camps served as both a reward and an opportunity for additional evaluation and the creation of PR and outreach materials.
3.1 Designing and Branding of RYCO Regional School Exchange Scheme;
3.1.3 Branding of SES;
3.1.3.2 Promotion of the brand via innovative channels;
Promotional activities, essential for communicating results and promoting exchanges, was conducted through various channels: RYCO’s official web and social media, a new youth digital platform, digital marketing, video production, and visibility materials for all key events, with significant outreach by young participants and schools;

3.2 Publication and implementation of three SES cycles
Organization of one call has its process with different phases:
a) publication (opening call, info session and promotional campaign);
b) selection (with external assessors);
c) adoption of awards;
d) mentorship work with selected grantees including regional conference;
e) final proposal with program of two school exchanges;
f) teachers training sessions;
g) implementation of exchanges with monitoring;
h) reporting;
i) Contracting Party (CP) level closing ceremony and;
j) evaluation.

During three-year project there will be 100 school exchanges (10% of them as long-term partnerships) with following order: 1st call: 26 projects/exchanges, 2nd: 32 projects/exchanges + 5 long term and 3rd: 32 projects/exchanges + 5 long term). Total expected number of young people who are taking part in school exchanges is at least 3.000 with reach of more than million of their peers through promotion and outreach activities.

3.2.1 Technical publication, organization and evaluation of calls
During promotion of the call and its execution there are following activities and steps:
3.2.1.1 Promotional Campaign ;
Campaign has set of different activities: video, promo material, digital marketing, info sessions at local level with interested schools, different types of meetings with key stakeholders etc.
3.2.1.2 External assessment – two trained assessors for each project proposal, through call for assessors (RYCO already has a pool of regional experts), their selection, training, with produced manual. External assessment is one of the principles of RYCO to have independent tool for the assessment phase.
3.2.2 Implementation of the activities by schools;
3.2.2.1 Mentors for selected project application design.
Key activities of the mentorship are following: call for mentors (and creating pool of regional experts-mentors), their selection, design of methodology, prep meeting, coordination of their work. Mentors were engaged 10 working days for following tasks: involved after selection of projects (to help them with preparations), taking part at Regional Conference and work with grantees, after Regional conference to help with preparation of final project outline (two exchanges).

3.2.2.2 Monitoring (program and financial) Each of 100 projects will be monitored during its implementation by LBOs in cooperation with other dedicated staff to secure prevention of any risks for the implementation of each project. RYCO team will visit each of school exchanges (at least 200 monitoring visits).
3.2.2.3 Outreach and Communications of projects;
Each project will have to disseminate information for all phases of their implementation and to promote their experiences in youth friendly and innovative ways.
3.2.2.4 Reporting ;
Narrative, financial and expenditure verification by RYCO staff.
3.2.2.6 Evaluation;
In the end of the project as part of REL development it is going to be important phase to better understand lessons learnt on both process and result/impact of school projects.