Open Minds Studio
Start date: Sep 1, 2016,
End date: Mar 31, 2018
PROJECT
FINISHED
The “Open Minds Studio” project was created as a result of work of a group of Polish youth in the national youth initiative "Kids with passion" ("Youth in Action" Programme ). The current project is an extension of the completed initiative which was for the Polish group a gateway to the Programme and international cooperation. Finishing a local initiative young people decided to take steps to join the international events and lead their first international project. Polish participants invited the youth from a Portuguese partner organization ETIC to cooperate. Both participants joined forces in a desire to conduct non-formal citizenship education activities for children. In addition, the participants are concerned about their future career and want to gain experience that will help them find future employment or set up their own businesses. Young people want to develop their enterprise in direct action, they want to shape their citizenship through workshops and work for the local community. There are 20 people involved in the project (10 PL and 10 PT) aged 18-30 years, being trained in various occupations and at different levels (from vocational schools to the universities), the unemployed working in ProHarmonia, and people who do their work below their qualifications and they want to change their situation.With time the youth polished up specific actions to be taken under the project. The youth will create a platform with the materials of civic education, which today are scattered on the network, and after the project will be available in one place. The platform will be contain materials (or links to them) in Polish, Portuguese and English. In the future the platform will available to educators conducting civic education classes, looking for inspiration and materials for teaching. The platform will place information about available materials, ongoing projects, it will be a place where educators will be able to post their own materials and exchange expertise. In addition the youth will prepare, in cooperation with teachers and coaches, an original set of five classes of civic education for 8-10 years old. They will cover topics such as citizenship, active citizenship, attitudes and actions of a responsible citizen, responsibility, freedom. The youth will prepare together lesson plans, under which they a variety of methods and tools will be used, e.g. blocks, cameras, computers with software for animation. Young people will test and then lead the classes for children, first in national languages, and then a series of classes in English. Working with children the participants will also use the project work method. The children will prepare videos in stop-motion animation technique on active citizenship. They will create mini film studios, where they will learn teamwork, communication and gain new skills in the creation of movies (among others). The best productions will be shown at the festival, which will be prepare and guided by the youth (on-line transmission). Lesson plans will be placed on the platform and in the future will be available to other educators.The youth will work with children from primary schools which cooperate with the ETIC and ProHarmonia and children from centers supporting people in difficult situations. The youth will conduct 50 classes. The classes will be attended by at least 120 children (from PL and PT).The youth also planned workshops developing their citizenship in national groups lead by the coaches of the organizations and via international on-line seminars. They also planned short-term intensive training that they need in order to best prepare for working with children. The youth will participate in a course of stop motion animation and a coaching course. Joining in the activities of the Project young people take up work for the local community. In the immediate action they enrich their knowledge of citizens' rights and develop competences needed by every active citizen. It is necessary if they want to achieve success in their personal and professional life in PL and PT. Young people will learn to work in an intercultural environment.