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ORA: Sustainable Communities with Youth Power Swit..
ORA: Sustainable Communities with Youth Power Switched ON
Start date: Jan 1, 2015,
End date: Oct 31, 2015
PROJECT
FINISHED
The project entitled "Sustainable Communities with Youth Power Switched" will last for 10 months. Project consists of 3 main activities: a training course and 2 youth exchanges. Each activity will last 8 working days. Training will be hosted by Italian partner, 1st youth exchange will be hosted by German partner and 2nd youth exchange will be hosted by Serbian partner. Each youth exchange will be followed by local initiatives organized by young people.
The project idea originates from Partner building activity held in Banja Luka (Bosnia) in July 2014. In project design workshop we spoke a lot about position of young people with fewer opportunities in the community life in order to increase their active role in the society. We followed to work on this project idea during a Seminar that took place in Oybin (Germany) in September 2014 where this
application form was finalised together with most of the partners.
We are partners from 9 European countries and we are members of ORA network. ORA network has been registered in Germany.
By this project we wanted to stimulate youth workers to develop knowledge, competences and skills for outreaching young people with fewer opportunities, to establish common standards in youth work among the partners and to inspire participants to take
active role in organizing the initiatives.
In order to better realize activities and to respond to needs of young people we conducted a need analysis at the beginning of the project implementation. On line questionnaire was prepared by the team of youth workers and promoted by all the partners aimed to reach as much as possible young people from their local communities. This helped us to prepare upcoming activities during the training course in Italy and to explore new field/s of intervention during exchanges.
Workshops chosen were Gardening/Nutrition Education, Renewable Energy Sources, Environmental Educational Path, Sustainable Construction and Preparation of a mobile carrier for the Berlin Carnival. All the workshops were introduced and realised during the training course in Italy in order to prepare both organisers and operators to better develop the identified tools for the youth exchanges. In Oybin youth exchange (Germany) Gardening/Nutrition Education, Sustainable Construction and
Preparation of a mobile carrier for the Berlin Carnival took place and in Krupanj (Serbia) Gardening /Nutrition Education, Renewable Energy Sources and Environmental Educational Path. The choice of where to realise the workshops was given by the peculiarity and characteristic of each local environment and context.
Thanks to this project ORA Network included 92 persons among youth workers, youth leaders, young people aged between 18 and 30, trainers, experts and support staff. Most of the young people involved in the project came from conditions of exclusion because unemployed or with low level of
education or from difficult family contexts, etc. All the 15 partner organisations of ORA Network from 9 different European countries contributed in the project implementation.
Partners continuously worked on building a stronger relationship in the field of youth work, on social inclusion and participation of young people. Sustainable development and environmental protection were innovative tools close to interests of young people to express their creativity and to be environmentally friendly at the same time. We consider these tools effective because they are easily understandable and working sessions were not only focusing on knowledge and skills but on fostering mutual understanding and changing the attitudes. The methodology used in the project was built entirely on non-formal methods: learning by doing, sharing, peer education, Observe Rethink Act. We consider these tools effective because they are easily understandable and working sessions (in TC so called Training Path and in YEs so called Workshops) will not only be focusing on knowledge and skills but on fostering mutual understanding and changing the attitudes. All the methods and tools were prepared and tested during the project implementation and partners prepared publication avaialble on internet and in hard copy for further use.
The project had a very positive impact in each local community in terms of practical outcomes but also in the increasing number of young people engaged in activities which promote sustainable development and environmental protection as tools and integration of society’s most fragile members to contribute to the creation of sustainable communities. This impact was quite evident also in the communities and in the partner organisations that didn’t host activities. We are sure that in the long term perspective projects like this one will contribute to national and international policy
reforms and will have a systematic impact on education, training and youth.
Partner countries: Italy, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Romania, Bulgaria, UK, Belgium, Albania and Germany.