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Description
According to the 2015 Eurostat study, 15% people aged 16-34 engage in formalised voluntary activities in Poland, and only 7% of this age group takes active part in civic life. We can see numerous examples of programmes engaging youths in such activities across the country, but in our Gorlicki district (Małopolskie province) their number is particularly small. Based on our experience in working with young people and talking to them, we have observed that they feel they are not treated seriously and are not given any opportunities to make a difference. It often leads to passivity and the lack of involvement in public matters. We also hear from them that they often come across hate speech and signs of discrimination.We will change it by organising a cycle of workshops for young people in two largest communes of the district, namely Uście Gorlickie and Sękoka. These meetings will be devoted to diagnosing needs and resources of youths and the local community, to dialogue, building relations, violence-free communication, management of social initiatives and discovering one’s own passions. With our support, participants will invent and implement initiatives in their towns and villages. We will also organise a meeting for active youths in the region, so that they can exchange experience and knowledge or decide how they can support one another in these initiatives.Our first partner is Aleksandra Wisłocka Primary School in Gładyszów, which has been supporting our initiatives for years – it will make its classrooms available to us, help us recruit young people and organise workshops. The second partner is Nansen Centre for Peace and Dialogue of Norway, with vast experience in training schools and NGOs in dialogue-building and cooperation. Our partner will help us develop tools and methods for teaching communication skills to youths and will run classes in the Gładyszów school.
Summary of project results
According to a 2015 Eurostat study, formalized volunteering activities are undertaken in Poland by only 15% of 16-34-year-olds, and only 7% of this age group participates actively in civic life. From our experience working with and talking to young people, we have seen that young people do not feel that they are taken seriously or that they have opportunities to influence the reality around them. This often results in passivity and lack of involvement in public affairs, as well as in adult life.
In implementing our project, we responded to these problems and challenges. We organized a series of workshops to strengthen civic competencies among young people from the Gorlice district, where we operate. Young people took part in these meetings and then - based on a local diagnosis - developed and implemented five projects in their localities. We also organized a meeting for active young people in the region - they exchanged experience and knowledge and talked about how they can support each other in their activities.
An important element of the project was the strengthening of communication competencies and the promotion of dialogue, as well as empathy as a key civic competence. In addition to our direct work with young people, we organized workshops on empathic communication and dialogue for teachers/facilitators in the Gorlice district and developed a publication on strengthening communication and dialogue competencies in working with young people.
Our first partner was the Aleksandra Wisłocka Primary School in Gładyszów, which has supported our youth activities for years and helped us reach out to young people. Our second project partner was the Norwegian organization Nansen Centre for Peace and Dialogue, which has extensive experience in strengthening dialogue competencies in local communities in Norway and internationally. The partner worked with us to develop tools and methods to support dialogue in youth work and led workshops for teachers/facilitators. On top of this, we carried out a study visit, during which participants exchanged experiences.
We aimed the project mainly at young people and their teachers, but indirectly, the community and local authority, as well as the whole school community, could benefit from it. From the evaluation questionnaires, we know that the trained teachers increased their knowledge of good communication. In addition, we were able to increase young people''s sense of agency and teach them to think outside the box. In particular, they emphasized the advantages of cooperation between them and adults, which increased their trust in each other. Moreover, they valued the opportunity to influence the shape of the project and to try new things without stress.
Summary of bilateral results
The main result for us was the possibility of professional exchange (methods, experiences, good practices). International cooperation had a positive impact on learning process and development of our organisation.The most important activities were study visit and consultations with the supervisor trainer. These activities contributed to the publication we created in the frame of the project and supported our trainer’s team.We are very much interested in further cooperation but so far we don’t have any concrete ideas for it.