Start & End Date: 31.12.2018 – 30.12.2020
Participating Countries: Germany, Portugal, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, Spain
Project Partners: Kharkiv Association for Active Youth “Stella” (Ukraine), Association Euroaccion (Spain), Cazalla International (Spain), MEDesTU (Portugal), Rota Jovem (Portugal), Office for Initiatives Promotion (Belarus), NGO Fialta (Belarus), Academy of Inovation (Russia), Regional Youth Public Organization Opora (Russia) and Centre for Dialogue and Reconciliation Iskra (Ukraine)
Number of Participants: 14 participants
Grant Giver: Erasmus+
Funding Programme: Key Action 1 – Learning Mobility of Individuals
Grant Amount: 150834.00 EUR
Young Europeans especially need to learn how to identify and emphasise with one another. One of the ways to do it is to experience life in a different community, while doing a voluntary service. Therefore, in order to steam community cohesion, which will ensure stability and peace in Europe, CGE Erfurt e.V. has developed “Community Goes Europe 2: Building Solidarity Across the Nations”, a volunteering project within the Erasmus+ program. The project will give young people across Europe new opportunities to engage in solidarity activities addressing societal challenges and strengthening communities. It will also equip them with the skills and competences needed for their own personal and professional development at the beginning of their careers. The target group of the project is youth facing social/economical/cultural obstacles.
The overall project objectives are in line with the European Commission’s Communication on Strengthening European Identity through Education and Culture [COM(2017) 673] and consist of:
[ap_list list_type=”ap-list3″]
[ap_li]Building solidarity and mutual understanding among young people in Europe through collective activities, which contribute to socio-cultural developments at local level;[/ap_li]
[ap_li]Promoting participation of under-represented groups of young people in democratic life at EU level and at local level in communities, close to young people, by providing them with volunteering opportunities abroad;[/ap_li]
[ap_li]Fostering resilience among young people with fewer opportunities and equipping them with the skills and competences needed for the labor market;[/ap_li]
[ap_li]Encouraging young people to volunteer in developing countries and after return home to work on development issues in their own communities;[/ap_li]
[ap_li]Providing access to places where young people can develop their creativity and interests, such as community centres;[/ap_li]
[ap_li]Improving volunteer management on European level and preparing participating organisations for European Solidarity Corps.[/ap_li]
[/ap_list]
In order to reach the outlined objectives, the following activities will be implemented:
[ap_tab_group type=”horizontal”]
[ap_tab title=”Kick-off Meeting”]
The Kick-Off Meeting “Solidarity Architects in Action” will be held during the month of September 2019 in EJBW, Weimar, Germany.
CGE will organize a Kick-off Meeting, which will bring together the selected volunteers from the database and from partner organisations, the project coordinators from the hosting organisation and participating organisations. For CGE team it is fundamental to meet candidates, who will stay for one year in the organisation. This complimentary activity will also be important to discuss important issues of project implementation and volunteer management.
Number of participants: 26
Profile of participants: Project coordinators from the different partner organisations. Pre-selected volunteers.
[/ap_tab]
[ap_tab title=”Volunteering”]
Volunteering Activities under “Solidarity Goes Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Spain, Portugal, Germany”, from October 2019 to September 2020.
The volunteering activities consist of six sending and hosting flows, which will allow young Europeans to experience life abroad and will enhance European mobility, develop solidarity and promote tolerance among young people. Volunteers will get an insight in the daily life of an organisation and have the opportunity to learn by doing, learn by sharing. During the volunteering period by living in another country, the volunteers will get to know another way of life, culture, language. The volunteers will in return bring new ideas and traditions from their home country to the local youth, the staff of the organisation and to the other volunteers. Volunteers will also make use of that experience to define or redefine their choices for their personal and professional future. During the project the volunteers will be encouraged to recognise the richness of learning and creativity which lies in diversity.
This activity impacts their lives in a positive direction, raises self-esteem and develops various skills and competences, which will give them needed advantage in a competition on the labour market.
Number of participants: 14
Profile of participants: Motivated youngsters between 17 and 30 years old who speak English and who live in the countries mentioned above.
[/ap_tab]
[ap_tab title=”European Youth Week Workshops”]
“Solidarity Across the Nations”: Workshops during European Youth Week 2020 (May 2020)
In order to enhance the experience of volunteers at local level in hosting communities and reach the overall project objective, we designed an one-week program to be implemented during European Youth Week 2020. The program comprises of various events, that will promote solidarity among young people, European identity and European values and active participation in democratic life in Europe. This complimentary activity has the main purpose of bringing people of a particular deprived community, where the events will take place, together and through non-formal education tools the volunteers will engage with and educate this local people.
Number of participants: 14
Profile of participants: Volunteers taking part in the project.
[/ap_tab]
[ap_tab title=”Evaluation Meeting”]
“Solidarity & Co”: Final Conference for Disseminating “Community Goes Europe 2”, to be held in Murcia, Spain, during the month of November 2020.
A complimentary activity, which gathers project coordinators, who worked directly with volunteers, from the hosting and sending organisations, to aggregate, analyse and evaluate the results of the project.
Number of participants: 20
Profile of participants: Project coordinators from the different partner organisations.
[/ap_tab]
[/ap_tab_group]
Vision
The short-term vision for “Community Goes Europe 2” includes benefiting young people facing various obstacles, by providing them with the volunteering opportunities abroad, where they will gain their experience and knowledge, enhance their language skills and in return enrich the hosting community by contributing with their planned activities. After the service, we will encourage the volunteers to join the Europeers initiative and become the “Solidarity Architects” in their home communities.
In the long-run, the “Community Goes Europe 2” will increase the visibility and popularity of solidarity activities, thus contributing to overall level of solidarity among youth in Europe. Moreover, through the dissemination activities the project will promote volunteering and introduced European Solidarity Corps, raise the number of registration in PASS tool and contribute to the spread of the idea of “The EU is much more than a single market”.
Impact
The volunteers are expected to acquire skills in a number of different areas, such as project management, preparation and implementation, social media management and media content production, community development and organising of local projects, as well as other areas that they would like to explore and fit the context of the hosting NGO. At the same time, participants will have the opportunity of learning/improving the language spoken in the host country.
[ap_call_to_action button_text=”Apply for Volunteering” button_url=”evs@cge-erfurt.org” button_align=”center”]Interested in contributing to the life of communities all across Europe?[/ap_call_to_action]
[jr_instagram id=”7″]
