History

The idea of Eurocircle was born in 1992 in Berlin, with the aim to bring together at European level a number of stakeholders in the field of social policies, education and employment in order to pool their resources to initiate and implement transnational projects jointly. The purpose of what was then an informal network was to facilitate its members’ participation in transnational projects and since Eurocircle provides comprehensive information on EU funding programs, it initiates transnational partnerships and supports the emergence of transnational projects by acting as an intermediary between project promoters throughout Europe and elsewhere. Finally, in January 1996, Eurocircle takes its current legal form founding the association Eurocircle Marseille. Since 2004, Eurocircle has become a major player in the field of mobility of young people, especially young people with fewer opportunities, letting a large number of young people to have a first experience abroad – professionalizing and intercultural – through the European programme “Youth”, now ” Youth in Action ” and others, such as “Leonardo da Vinci” or “Grundtvig”. Through incessant networking work with the holders of innovative projects in these sectors, we were able to quickly establish contacts with cooperation partners in more than 30 countries which soon allowed us to send European volunteers in Cambodia, Brazil or even New York. This brought us finally to be labeled “European NGO” by the European Commission in 2006. In all its activities, Eurocircle seeks to promote the values of international solidarity, sustainable development and equal opportunities by setting a goal to give a concrete meaning to the construction of Europe through encouraging tolerance and intercultural dialogue. Today, with 14 employees, supported by about 10 European and French volunteers, Eurocircle has become over the years one of the most important organizations in the field of youth mobility. In 2013, we were able to help more than 250 young French, aged 16-30 years, to enjoy a fulfilling experience abroad under different mobility programs while hosting more than 150 young Europeans throughout the South of France. But besides, Eurocircle is also a partner in transnational research and development projects, notably within the framework of European programs DAPHNE (violence prevention) or “Human Rights”. Eurocircle is also supporting innovative projects, such as HELIX, which should lead to a festival of street theater with artists from Hamburg and Shanghai, becoming the partner cities. In Marseille, we worked together with the direction of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs of Germany and with 8 European experts on writing the new mobility programme for “JAMO” submitted to the European Commission and administrations managing the ESF of the partner countries.