YOUTHMADE
Start date: May 1, 2015,
End date: Oct 1, 2015
PROJECT
FINISHED
The YouthMade project stems from an idea of Cazalla Intercultural, as an attempt to respond to some challenges and demands of the young people from Lorca. The risk of social exclusion, the lack of real opportunities and the low motivation to look for them, the low valuation of themselves and the pragmatic lack of a venue for learning, growth, and exchange of ideas are at the basis of the reasons why the local NGO decided to fight to open the first Youth Center of the city and write this project.
The main objectives are to develop skills and basic competences (communication, nurturing self-esteem, express their own needs, intercultural learning, ...) of European volunteers and youngsters from Lorca, both groups with fewer opportunities; learn to use ICT (video, computer programs, ..); improve communication in foreign languages (English and Spanish); motivate to be active citizens and take initiative; acquire new knowledge and develop organizational, creative and working with youth groups skills. All this through activities such as Street Art, recycled sculpture, video-making etc., workshops with young people of Lorca and interactive talks on EVS and Erasmus +. The activities are based on principles of Non-Formal Education, through which volunteers learn not only new knowledge but also practical skills and to question their attitudes, and where the main focus will be peer-to-peer learning. The activity takes place in the month of June 2015 in Lorca, and will envolve 21 young people from 7 European countries (Poland, Italy, France, Bulgaria, Romania, Finland and Greece). All participants will be selected by the 7 sending organizations considering primarily young people with fewer opportunities and that, being disadvantaged in their own environment, most need an experience of intercultural, social and artistic learning.
The expected impact of the project is for EVS volunteers and local beneficiaries to acquire basic skills, necessary to become competent young, participatory, active young people in the modern society. The city will have a youth center co-created by volunteers and local youth, a place of extreme importance for the young life of Lorca, where young people are the main protagonists. After completing the project, other youth and youth organizations can learn from our experience and create such projects and centers where needed. The project partners will benefit from the vast experience of conducting a group EVS together, to involve young people with fewer opportunities, so also improve this aspect of our work, collaborate better with this type of participants and empower them in order to leave their precarious situation.