The German Award and Youth Exchanges: Principles

In accord to the German Award’s system there is a distinct division of work concerning youth exchange events related to it. Local Award Units are in charge of “plain” activity-based events, while the National Award Authority (NAA) manages Gold Expedition events and trainings for young leaders. Correspondingly, invitations from abroad are either just forwarded to the Award Units or recorded in the German Award Calendar (www.jugendprogramm.de/kalender).

There are two recurring (and 2011 combined) international events run by the German NAA: International Open Gold (established 1996 in Rannoch, Scotland) and International Award Summer School (established 2006 in Osterburken, Germany). NAAs from all over the world are invited to join and further develop these successful projects as dedicated partners. With the Award House “Alte Bahnmeisterei” in Osterburken (www.jugendprogramm.de/alte-bahnmeisterei) as a free base, even two-week projects tend to be rather inexpensive. In return, international events run by partners will get the highest promotion priority in Germany.

In Germany, all international youth exchange events run by Award Units have to be announced to the Award headquarters at least a year in advance and must not clash with any event run by the NAA. As with international Gold Expedition events and international leaders’ trainings, the dates will also be published a year in advance in the Award calendar.

Due to the fact that the German summer school holidays only last about six weeks and happen at different times in the different states, there are normally just a few overlapping days every year. If a National Award Authority is thinking about inviting Germany to an international youth exchange event, it should check both www.holidays-info.com for the details in the different states and www.jugendprogramm.de/kalender in order not to clash with any scheduled event of the German NAA.

We will preferably promote international events abroad where the hosting NAA is a partner in one of our own projects. Conditions are that the event does not clash with a scheduled event run by the German NAA and that we get its programme by February at least (actually, October is much better and gives interested groups more time for planning and fundraising).