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Description
We will promote volunteering and youth engagement in local community development all across Poland. According to the data from the Central Statistical Office of Poland, our youth is not engaged in volunteering and has a very little sense of influence over its environment. Additionally, they often lack knowledge or ideas on how to engage in civic work. We want to engage a cohort of 30 young people between 16 and 20 years old, who have ideas for their communities. We will train them and support them in preparing and conducting their projects with an additional help from volunteers they will recruit. Our main goal is to find and support youth leaders, who will inspire others in their community.
Summary of project results
As part of the project, we have promoted volunteering and engagement of youth in initiatives for local communities all around Poland. According to the data from the Central Statistical Office of Poland, Polish youth is rarely involved in volunteering and has a very weak sense of influence on their environment. Additionally, the youth often lack knowledge and ideas concerning civic engagement.Thirty young people took part in the project, presenting their ideas for local initiatives. We have trained them and supported preparations and implementation of 22 original initiatives that involved both volunteers and the local community. We have selected and supported local youth leaders, who motivated others to act. Among the completed projects were concerts at the local senior living facilities and hospices, workshops for secondary school students on civic engagement and the civic budget at their schools, building pollinator gardens, or inter-generational cultural events and Oxford debates. We have also organized a summer and winter schools for young people, which offered leadership workshops, discussion clubs and individual consultations on how to run successful projects.Thanks to these projects, the youth got experienced in organizing grassroots events and built a core group of volunteers around them, who are willing to work in their community. Except for the leaders, there were 192 volunteers taking part in the project from all over Poland. At the conclusion of the project, we conducted a survey, in which 92% of the participants declared their involvement in the Academy of Leaders as a positive influence on their level of engagement in their community, and in volunteering broadly. Ninety-six percent said they want to continue their civic engagement.
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