The idea of the project is to involve people into voluntary service to provide social inclusion and equal opportunities for all. We believe that volunteering can play a big role in social inclusion. Volunteering is open to all people, of all backgrounds and capabilities. Volunteering allows people to give back and feel empowered, while also meeting new people and developing new skills. Volunteering can be a life-changing experience opening new horizons and new ways of communication & relationship. In this project we aim: - to develop sensitivity towards the "different" and "others" -to promote active European citizenship and attitudes of tolerance, opennes and to strengthen the cooperation between young people from different countries -to learn about the situation and policies of disadvantaged people in the society such as elderly people,the orphans, the disabled, migrants in different cultures and integrate them into society and create an empathic attitude towards them - to engage in altruistic activities to help the people in need and nature -to unify people from diverse backgrounds to work toward a common goal -to create social changes by volunteering, improve relationships between different communities -to integrate intercultural and peacebuilding dimension in the curriculum and regular activities of the schools -to increase the learning outcomes of the pupils with low basic skills -to increase the students' desire for usage of educational sites like Edmodo -to educate and raise awareness of the local people about cultural, social, environmental, health problems -to prevent early school leaving and organize activities to keep the students at schools and make them love the schools - to provide a language course to participants given by low -skilled pupils to make them more social and increase their school achievements - to explore cultural heritage of our and our partners' regions -to see cultural diversity as a mutually-enriching opportunity rather than an obstacle. We want our students to have volunteering spirit during their lives and to share it with others. The project involves at 114 pupils aged 10-12, and 28 teachers of different subjects. The involved schools are primary schools from: Poland (the coordinator), Spain, Portugal, Cyprus, Finland and Italy. All the planned key actions are based on volunteering and include different activities in environmental, educational, cultural, health, social fields, e.g. peer education, making healthy breakfast, creating a project toy with recycling materials, visiting and helping older people, walking and feeding street animals, creating digital dictionaries and Kahoot quizzes. We want to reach the goals by helping others, giving language courses, seminars, lectures and audio-videos presentations, using group work, workshops, brainstorming, small group discussions, competitions. We will also make use of "Edmodo" which is a new network enabling teachers to share content, distribute quizzes, assignments, and manage communication with students, colleagues, and parents. Parents and wider community members will be involved and will follow the project developments via eTwinning, project's website, project's blog and facebook page. Work in an International team leads to mutual understanding and increasing interest towards the Other, and this confirms the idea of tolerance between nations with different cultures and different social conditions, enables experimenting with new pedagogical practices that will have a lasting and meaningful impact on students who will be more eager to open their hearts and eyes for the needs of the people around them. In the long run, we hope the project will reinforce inter-cultural and inter-religious dialogue, cherished diversity and multilingualism by bringing together young volunteers, the strong and the rich and migrants, refugees, orphans, the poor, the old, the disabled at the co-working, co-learning and communication space provided by our schools.
The idea of the project was to involve people into voluntary service to provide social inclusion and equal opportunities for all. We believe that volunteering can play a big role in social inclusion. Volunteering is open to all people, of all backgrounds and capabilities. Volunteering allows people to give back and feel empowered, while also meeting new people and developing new skills. Volunteering can be a life-changing experience opening new horizons and new ways of communication & relationship. In this project we have achieved the following goals: - development of sensitivity towards the "different" and "others" -promoting active European citizenship and attitudes of tolerance, opennes and to strengthen the cooperation between young people from different countries -learn about the situation and policies of disadvantaged people in the society such as elderly people,the orphans, the disabled, migrants in different cultures and integrate them into society and create an empathic attitude towards them - engaging young people in altruistic activities to help the people in need and nature -unifying people from diverse backgrounds to work toward a common goal -creating social changes by volunteering, improving relationships between different communities - integrating intercultural and peacebuilding dimension in the curriculum and regular activities of the schools -increase in the learning outcomes of the pupils with low basic skills - increase in the students' desire for usage of educational sites like Edmodo -educating and raising awareness of the local people about cultural, social, environmental, health problems -preventing early school leaving and organizing activities to keep the students at schools and make them love the schools - providing a language course to participants given by low -skilled pupils to make them more social and increase their school achievements - exploring cultural heritage of our and our partners' regions -perceiving cultural diversity as a mutually-enriching opportunity rather than an obstacle. We have woken a volunteering spirit in our students to have it during their lives and to share it with others. The project involved 114 pupils aged 10-12, and 28 teachers of different subjects. The involved schools were primary schools from: Poland (the coordinator), Spain, Portugal, Finland and Italy. All the planned key actions were based on volunteering and included different activities in environmental, educational, cultural, health, social fields, e.g. peer education, making healthy breakfast, creating a project toy with recycling materials, visiting and helping older people, walking and feeding street animals, creating digital dictionaries. We reached the goals by helping others, giving language courses, seminars, lectures and audio-videos presentations, using group work, workshops, brainstorming, small group discussions, competitions. We also made use of "Edmodo" which is a new network enabling teachers to share content, distribute quizzes, assignments, and manage communication with students, colleagues, and parents. Parents and wider community members were involved and followed the project developments via eTwinning, project's website and Facebook group and page. Work in an International team led to mutual understanding and increasing interest towards the Other, and this confirmed the idea of tolerance between nations with different cultures and different social conditions, enabled experimenting with new pedagogical practices that had a lasting and meaningful impact on students who are more eager to open their hearts and eyes for the needs of the people around them. In the long run, the project will reinforce inter-cultural and inter-religious dialogue, cherished diversity and multilingualism by bringing together young volunteers, the strong and the rich and migrants, refugees, orphans, the poor, the old, the disabled at the co-working, co-learning and communication space provided by our schools.