STEP UP is an European Voluntary Service project organised by two Slovak Host organisations YMCA na Slovensku and MZ YMCA Revuca together with ten partners from Programme EU countries (Italy, Austria, Germany, Spain, France,Portugal, Romania, Czech republic, Poland ). Volunteers will be working mainly with children and young people attending activities in community centres in Liptovsky Mikulas and Jelsava, Slovakia. The centres are focused to support mainly the local Roma communities but the activities of volunteers stretch further to wider community (informal language education, cultural, awareness, music, media, arts) . We offer the volunteering to young people with less opportunities, from rural area, facing unemployment or in transition period between study and job.Main objective is development of intercultural awareness. Volunteers learn to step up for their opinion, for their rights or to stand for someone else. They participate actively in the society having an unique opportunity to put into practise their values - freedom, respect towards others, tolerance towards new and unknown. It is essential for their future employment and better life in general, solidarity and interconnecting of different communities in rural and small town areas of Slovakia. Local young people and wider communities also benefit from interaction with international volunteers, the programme is becoming ever popular. We would like to inspire also people from Revuca-Roznava and Liptov region to participate on Erasmus+ programme as it is not very popular in our regions yet. Volunteers serve as natural ambassadors and help the overall promotion.Activities in centres include morning pre-school clubs for youngest children, after-school clubs for school children, interests clubs (arts, sports, games, languages, music,etc), mother clubs, teenage clubs, or open drop-in time for wider community.Other activities include involvement in wider community: non-formal activities with local students and children (language clubs), own project development within organisation scope or in cooperation with other local NGOs according to volunteer initiative and interest and irregular activities like Winter and Summer camps, national YMCA meetings, trainings, etc.Each volunteering programme builds upon the previous, new initiatives and cooperation with wider community begin and quality is raising in the existing ones to meet new objectives: - develop more active involvement of Roma and rural youth in development programmes- non/formal education leading to better employability, personal development and better quality of life- creating, developing relevant programmes for youth (creativity, arts, new media, communication and leadership skills, active citizenship and volunteering as a lifestyle, etc.)SLOVAK:STEP UP je projekt Európskej dobrovoľníckej služby organizovaný 2 slovenskými hosťujúcimi organizáciami YMCA na Slovensku a MZ YMCA Revúca spolu s desiatimi partnerskými organizáciami z programových krajín EÚ (Taliansko, Rakúsko, Nemecko, Španielsko, Francúzsko, Česká republika, Poľsko, Portugalsko, Rumunsko). Dobrovoľníci budú pracovať hlavne s deťmi a mladými ľuďmi navštevujúcimi komunitné centrá v Liptovskom Mikuláši a Jelšave s aktivitami s presahom do širšej komunity (neformálne jazykové a kultúrne aktivity, hudba, film, média, dráma..). Centrá sú zamerané hlavne na podporu lokálnej rómskej komunity.Hlavným cieľom je rozvoj inter-kultúrneho povedomia. Dobrovoľníci sa naučia postaviť za svoj názor, za svoje práva, alebo práva druhých. Tým sa zúčastňujú aktívne na spoločenskom živote a majú možnosť v praxi uplatniť svoje hodnoty - slobodu, rešpekt voči druhým, toleranciu voči nepoznanému. Tieto nadobudnuté zručnosti sú kľúčové v ďalšej práci a živote, pre rozvoj solidarity medzi komunitami vo vidieckych oblastiach Slovenska. Zahraniční dobrovoľníci obohacujú bežné aktivity, tvoria nové podľa svojich záujmov.K hlavným aktivitám patria záujmové a rozvojové kluby (hry, doučovanie, tvorivé dielne, nácvik piesní a kapela, šport, nízkoprah,..) pre rôzne vekové skupiny v centrách (predškoláci, školáci, tínedžeri, mladí ľudia i dospelí, napr. mamy) Okrem toho podporujeme dobrovoľníkov do zapojenia sa do širšej komunity v Jelšave a Mikuláši podľa ich záujmov, a to spoluprácou s inými organizáciami či školami (napr. zapojenie sa do športových klubov, diskusie so študentami, Language café, vlastné aktivity v kultúrnom centre, atď) čo prispieva k ďalšiemu rozvoju nevyhnutných zručností a zároveň je benefitom pre komunitu.Každý ďalší projekt stavia na predošlom, vznikajú nové iniciatívy, a našou snahou je neustále zvyšovanie kvality tohto programu.