Description
Poor families and families with many children cannot provide additional informal education for their children, the children therefore don’t have opportunities to improve, to acquire new skills, discover a talent or just spend quality leisure time. The project aims to reduce social exclusion of children from the remote parts of Valka by providing innovative educational activities during school holidays in the school year of 2013/2014. Our main project activities are “Creative days” in Valka 's villages, which will take place during the school holidays in the autumn of 2013, in the spring of 2014 and other holidays. There will be conducted 2 trips to Riga in winter, three 7 day long outdoor camps in June and August 2014. By being involved in the project activities children will develop new skills and improve their knowledge, as well as enjoy the cultural events. The projects target group is about 200 children aged 7-16 from Valka district who are the subject to social exclusion.
Summary of project results
TThe aim of the project was to reduce the social exclusion of children and young people living the remote territory of the Valka region, offering innovative educational and involving activities during the study year 2014/2013 as well as on school holidays and weekends. This type of project was necessary because the vast majority of these children and young people use to spend their free time at home, mostly detached houses, where there is no opportunity to communicate with their peers. Moreover, the parents of a child do not have enough resources to offer informal educational opportunities, where a child would be able to acquire new knowledge, skills and abilities, discover a talent, or simply to spend his/her free time usefully. The children and young people living in remote areas received meaningful experience of spending their leisure time. All the children attended a summer camp with overnight stay outside the house for the first time and had a positive experience in the development of mutual relations and communication with peers and adults. Excursions gave the opportunity to visit such places as cinema and puppet theatre, which the family is unable to provide. Many children changed the way of thinking, their life perception; they learned a lot of new things and became more self-assured. The Valka region social service staff members assessed the contribution of this project in reducing social exclusion and welcomed the importance of implementing the project activities for the growth of children and young people living in remote areas. In the project activities: 151 children and young people took part in the creative days. Excursion was organised for 64 children and young people aged from 7 to 12. 60 children and young people aged 7 to 12 years took part in the camps. During this project the children and young people being under the pressure of social exclusion were motivated to realise his/her individuality, to learn how to establish communications, acquire new skills, knowledge as well as the skills which ensure successful integration into the society.
Summary of bilateral results