A non-governmental organisation based in Aalborg

About Us

InterStep is a non-governmental organization that promotes intercultural learning, European integration, European citizenship, democracy, human rights and tolerance. The main target group of InterStep are mobile EU-citizens and international people living in Aalborg.

InterStep was founded in February 2012 by a group of Danish and international people in Aalborg, who were concerned by the weak, if not non-existing, involvement of foreigners in the local civil society. The concern was even higher, considering that, only in Aalborg, EU citizens represent 3% of the population with the right to vote in local and European elections, in accordance to art.22 of TFEU and art 39 and 40 from European Charter of Fundamental Rights.

InterStep organises seminars, training courses, debates with local authorities/politicians and other events in order to enhance the active participation of mobile EU-citizens in the social and political life in Aalborg.

Projects

ARTployment

”Artployment” is a Capacity Building project in the field of youth led by CityArts (UK) where InterStep participates as a partner organisation alongside two other youth organisations in Columbia and Honduras. The project addresses the problematic of unemployment amongst young artists and aims to build capacity of the partner organisations to contribute at lessening unemployment rates among young artistic by promoting entrepreneurship. The project will develop a Catalogue of non-formal education methods and success stories that promotes entrepreneurship in an art context. Alongside, local trainings will be implemented locally in the partners countries to enable young artists to explore the benefits of self-employment. The project is ongoing.

EU4You

EU4You was a project co-funded by the European Union through the programme Erasmus+. The project included a 11-day training course for 30 youth workers from Denmark, Bulgaria, Croatia Cyprus, Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Turkey. The aim of the project was to contribute at combating populism and Euroscepticism by deepening youth workers’ understanding on EU values and work and giving them tools and methods to promote amongst young people critical thinking and media literacy, as well as European identity and citizenship. The participants in the activity developed a catalogue of non-formal methods related to the training themes that can be used in the work with young people. Download it here.

Coaching for Active Citizenship

“Coaching for Active Citizenship” was a project co-funded by the European Union through the programme Erasmus+. The project addressed the need of enhancing young people’s sense of active citizenship and initiative. It included an eight-day training course that gathered 25 youth workers from Bulgaria, Armenia, Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova, Greece, Romania. The activity enhanced the participants understanding on active citizenship and coaching as a tool to promote active citizenship amongst young people. Furthermore, the activity gave participants various coaching and motivation tools and enhanced such coaching skills as such as active listening, asking open questions, goal planning. The project activity was implemented in October 2018 in Chisinau, Republic of Moldova. 

Human rights start with breakfast! Empower youth through human rights education

“Human rights start with breakfast! Empower youth through human rights education” a Capacity Building project in the field of youth led by Institutul Intercultural Timisoara (Intercultural Institute Timisoara), Romania, where InterStep participated as a partner organisation alongside stakeholders in Reunion, Italy, Peru, Guyana and Peru. The project aimed to strengthen the capacity of civil society organisations that work with young people to develop an effective, coherent, inclusive and sustainable framework for promoting and using human rights education. The project provided the partner organisations, as well as stakeholders outside the partnership, with competences and tools to better respond to the needs of young people and enhance their participation in all society fields.

European Vagabonds

The European Vagabond exchange brought together 50 young people from Denmark, Spain, Portugal, France, and Turkey. The aim of the project was to make them reflect upon issues of European identity and active European citizenship. In order to make the participants reflect upon these issues, the European Vagabond Exchange provided methods such as presentations, blogging, team building, group work, discussions, and intercultural evenings. During the 20 days youth exchange the participants were divided into groups of five, and sat off to explore the Northern part of Denmark like vagabonds, while working with the tasks of European identity and active European citizenship. The outcome of the project was to hopefully make the participants more aware of their roles as citizens of Europe and become more involved in European elections.

Danish weekends

The aim of this project was to raise awareness about Danish traditions and culture and facilitate the integration into Danish society. In total, this project was organized for three weekends – each with 20 participants (5 participants from Denmark, and 15 foreigners – either students or job seekers). Throughout the weekend, the program was concerned with issues such as; general facts and funny facts about Denmark; Danish culture and lifestyle; job and leisure opportunities; sharing of experiences in Denmark; group work on facilitating deeper integration; traditional Danish dinner; Danish cultural evening; and half a day spend in Skagen. Apart from the Danish weekend, this project also arranged two further one-day events called “Job and leisure” and “Danish culture” in order to bring together foreign students, job seekers, and au-pairs.

Share2Learn

The goal of the Share2Learn project is to support integration and community sense between Danish native people and foreigners coming to live in the Aalborg area, by providing them with opportunities to benefit from each other. During this project, young people in Aalborg (Danes, as well as foreigners) have been invited to share their skills with other young people interested in learning something new and/or expanding their knowledge in certain areas. So far there have been workshops on various topics such as; Human rights; Danish culture; East African culture; Radicalization of North EU politics; Romanian culture; Turkish culture; Zen meditation, digital photography, yoga, Photoshop, entrepreneurship and labor market in Aalborg, interview and CV review. Additionally, language courses have been offered by native speakers in French, German, Italian, Danish, and Spanish.

EuroCitizenShip

The project gathered 16 youth leaders from Denmark, Poland, Russian Federation, and Ukraine in a 9-day training course that aimed to strengthen European citizenship in EU as well as in the neighboring countries. The project gave the participants understandings about EU, citizenship and identity, and offered them specific tools to promote these among young people. As a result, the youth leaders have been strengthened in their capacity to incorporate European Citizenship in future youth projects locally as well as European.

The project took place in Khuzhir, Russian Federation from September 1st to September 9th, 2013. The participants took part in various activities such as presentations, discussions, exercises, and group work related to the themes.

European Youth Week 2013

The aim of this project was to promote democracy and participation among young people in Aalborg, as well as strengthening their European citizenship.
The objective of this project was;
(1) to raise awareness of the rights to participate in local European democracy; (2) to strengthen the dialogue between young people and politicians; and (3) to gather concrete proposals for a local youth policy which takes into consideration the ever growing group of young people with international backgrounds living in Aalborg.

The project consisted of three workshops on; Youth Employment; Education and Learning; and Culture and Leisure.

ARTployment

”Artployment” is a Capacity Building project in the field of youth led by CityArts (UK) where InterStep participates as a partner organisation alongside two other youth organisations in Columbia and Honduras. The project addresses the problematic of unemployment amongst young artists and aims to build capacity of the partner organisations to contribute at lessening unemployment rates among young artistic by promoting entrepreneurship. The project will develop a Catalogue of non-formal education methods and success stories that promotes entrepreneurship in an art context. Alongside, local trainings will be implemented locally in the partners countries to enable young artists to explore the benefits of self-employment. InterStep will target through its local training, in particular, young artists with a background other than Danish. The project is ongoing.

EU4You

EU4You was a project co-funded by the European Union through the programme Erasmus+. The project included a 11-day training course for 30 youth workers from Denmark, Bulgaria, Croatia Cyprus, Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Turkey. The aim of the project was to contribute at combating populism and Euroscepticism by deepening youth workers’ understanding on EU values and work and giving them tools and methods to promote amongst young people critical thinking and media literacy, as well as European identity and citizenship. The participants in the activity developed a catalogue of non-formal methods related to the training themes that can be used in the work with young people. Download it here.

Coaching for Active Citizenship

“Coaching for Active Citizenship” was a project co-funded by the European Union through the programme Erasmus+. The project addressed the need of enhancing young people’s sense of active citizenship and initiative. It included an eight-day training course that gathered 25 youth workers from Bulgaria, Armenia, Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova, Greece, Romania. The activity enhanced the participants understanding on active citizenship and coaching as a tool to promote active citizenship amongst young people. Furthermore, the activity gave participants various coaching and motivation tools and enhanced such coaching skills as such as active listening, asking open questions, goal planning. The project activity was implemented in October 2018 in Chisinau, Republic of Moldova. 

Human rights start with breakfast! Empower youth through human rights education

“Human rights start with breakfast! Empower youth through human rights education” a Capacity Building project in the field of youth led by Institutul Intercultural Timisoara (Intercultural Institute Timisoara), Romania, where InterStep participated as a partner organisation alongside stakeholders in Reunion, Italy, Peru, Guyana and Peru. The project aimed to strengthen the capacity of civil society organisations that work with young people to develop an effective, coherent, inclusive and sustainable framework for promoting and using human rights education. The project provided the partner organisations, as well as stakeholders outside the partnership, with competences and tools to better respond to the needs of young people and enhance their participation in all society fields.

European Vagabonds

The European Vagabond exchange brought together 50 young people from Denmark, Spain, Portugal, France, and Turkey. The aim of the project was to make them reflect upon issues of European identity and active European citizenship. In order to make the participants reflect upon these issues, the European Vagabond Exchange provided methods such as presentations, blogging, team building, group work, discussions, and intercultural evenings. During the 20 days youth exchange the participants were divided into groups of five, and sat off to explore the Northern part of Denmark like vagabonds, while working with the tasks of European identity and active European citizenship. The outcome of the project was to hopefully make the participants more aware of their roles as citizens of Europe and become more involved in European elections.

Danish Weekend

The aim of this project was to raise awareness about Danish traditions and culture and facilitate the integration into Danish society. In total, this project was organized for three weekends – each with 20 participants (5 participants from Denmark, and 15 foreigners – either students or job seekers). Throughout the weekend, the program was concerned with issues such as; general facts and funny facts about Denmark; Danish culture and lifestyle; job and leisure opportunities; sharing of experiences in Denmark; group work on facilitating deeper integration; traditional Danish dinner; Danish cultural evening; and half a day spend in Skagen. Apart from the Danish weekend, this project also arranged two further one-day events called “Job and leisure” and “Danish culture” in order to bring together foreign students, job seekers, and au-pairs.

Share2Learn

The goal of the Share2Learn project is to support integration and community sense between Danish native people and foreigners coming to live in the Aalborg area, by providing them with opportunities to benefit from each other. During this project, young people in Aalborg (Danes, as well as foreigners) have been invited to share their skills with other young people interested in learning something new and/or expanding their knowledge in certain areas. So far there have been workshops on various topics such as; Human rights; Danish culture; East African culture; Radicalization of North EU politics; Romanian culture; Turkish culture; Zen meditation, digital photography, yoga, Photoshop, entrepreneurship and labor market in Aalborg, interview and CV review. Additionally, language courses have been offered by native speakers in French, German, Italian, Danish, and Spanish.

EuroCitizenShip

The project gathered 16 youth leaders from Denmark, Poland, Russian Federation, and Ukraine in a 9-day training course that aimed to strengthen European citizenship in EU as well as in the neighboring countries. The project gave the participants understandings about EU, citizenship and identity, and offered them specific tools to promote these among young people. As a result, the youth leaders have been strengthened in their capacity to incorporate European Citizenship in future youth projects locally as well as European.

The project took place in Khuzhir, Russian Federation from September 1st to September 9th, 2013. The participants took part in various activities such as presentations, discussions, exercises, and group work related to the themes.

European Youth Week 2013

The aim of this project was to promote democracy and participation among young people in Aalborg, as well as strengthening their European citizenship. The objective of this project was; (1) to raise awareness of the rights to participate in local European democracy; (2) to strengthen the dialogue between young people and politicians; and (3) to gather concrete proposals for a local youth policy which takes into consideration the ever growing group of young people with international backgrounds living in Aalborg. The project consisted of three workshops on; Youth Employment; Education and Learning; and Culture and Leisure.

Contact Us