Description
Tackling a two faced problem of the rural youth: the high potential risk related to their discrimination and social exclusion and their low participation as citizens, the project aims at investing in the rural youth personal development as well as in the local development of the rural communities, boosting active youth participation using community organizing, in 3 rural communities from Dolj County: Giubega, Galiciuica, Câmpeni. The project’s objectives are: (1) equipping the rural youth leaders in the 3 communities with basic tools and techniques on community development and personal development, and (2) mobilizing and boosting up the community organizing in the 3 communities, in order to start solving the identified problems in the community, problems that are stopping the community development and are perpetuating the discrimination of the communities’ members. To the two specified objectives, we had been adding the organizational development objective: investing in the members’, volunteers’ and partners’ capacity of developing and implementing community organizing.
Summary of project results
The project "Public participation against discrimination of youth in rural communities" implemented by the Association Centre for Sustainable Community Development aimed at the personal development of young people from rural communities, especially from the human rights point of view. At the same time it aimed for the local development of rural communities through public participation of the young people in community organizing processes, in 3 localities of Dolj County: Giubega, Galiciuica, Câmpeni. Therefore three local action groups were established consisting of 7th and 8th graders who participated in training sessions on human rights, community development and community organizing (in total 31 young people). They also meet monthly with their facilitators to discuss problems identified in each community and ways of addressing them. The young people who started participating in the project in June have learned and began to experience personal involvement in community life and exercise personal influence on them and those around them to determine a positive change in the community. After six months, other young people have joined the project, the total number of direct beneficiaries of the project, reaching 41 young people. In each community there were identified three types of problems that young people considered responsible for discrimination. The typology of the problem is similar for all 3 communities: education problems, lack of voluntary activities and problems in delivering social assistance. All the situations identified by the young people were comprised into a brochure that was handed to the local authorities and schools. Solution proposals were formulated and discussed with adults in the community and young people reached at the decision makers in all three villages. It resulted in a higher involvement of the city halls in transforming the village parks in places suitable for young people to spend their free time and endowment of the schools libraries. A total of 400 people (over 100 in each locality) were informed about project activities.
Summary of bilateral results