Description
The Think Blue Association, along with the Mayor's Office of the1st District in Bucharest propose the ”EcoAct - Take Action for Your Community”, which aims a change of attitude in 280 high school students in Bucharest on eco-civic and urban development themes, as there is a lack in public participation in Romania, but also an opportunity to reinvigorate it, due to the European public policies. The project aims to increase young people's awareness and involvement in their community, through information and education activities, completed by practical activities for the involvement of youth, by creating eco-civic projects, which will be implemented in their community, with the local public administration's and business sector's support. The results of the project will mainly refer to the practical eco-civic and urban development projects which answer youth needs and propose solutions in order to develop the educational and common spaces frequented by young people.
Summary of project results
The project “EcoAct - Take Action for Your Community” tracked the change of attitude of the students from 8 high-schools in Bucharest regarding eco-civic and urban development themes. One of the project’s most important results was the increase of knowledge level, in terms of eco-civic and urban development themes, of the high-school students involved in the project. This result was achieved by selecting and training 21 volunteers on methods of training used in the information and education sessions, establishing cooperation agreements with 8 high-schools and organising workshops in the schools subscribed. 8 representative structures were created and developed, in order to promote the interests of the young people on eco-civic and urban development themes. During the activities, such as workshops, trainings, contests, the students got involved in the problems of the communities they live in, and they were actively involved in solving those, by creating eco-civic projects that could be implemented in the community. These projects were made to respond to the desires and needs of the young people from the high-schools involved, proposing solutions meant to develop the educational and recreational common spaces frequented by them. The involvement of high-school students in the life of the community they belong to was achieved by helping them create eco-civic projects and improve the common spaces of the community and especially the educational ones. The representative structures defined their ideas of projects by making a simple analysis on the community needs and desires, that being their base structure on building the projects. The main goal of the project was achieved and the level of awareness and engagement in the community was increased, with 78 volunteers actively involved in developing ideas, based on the community needs. They were supported by their teachers, friends and colleagues and, together with the project team, they also made a long term plan for the school on how to sustain this type of initiatives in the next years and how to pass this to the younger generations.
Summary of bilateral results