Lack of motivation, focus and energy, high levels of stress and low self-esteem have all become too common among people and it is especially worrying for younger generations which spend way too much time behind computers or on mobile phones. There are a lot of positive effects which regular physical activity can have on our bodies and general well being. We can experience many benefits if we include it in our lifestyle. On the other hand, many of us think we don't have time or we lack knowledge about the correct way of exercising. Transnational Youth Initiative “Shake a leg, together!” is a collaborative work of people who are passionate about active and inspiring life. We are a motivated young group of which most of us met during Erasmus+ projects and realized that we are all aware of the same problems and have a common interest and wish to do something about it. Our main goal is to find interesting and creative ways to help as many people as possible to become aware of the positive effects of physical activity and consequently improve the quality of life by putting it into a regular practice. At the same time, we would like to learn about project writing and improve our competences and self-esteem as youth workers. For this reason, we’ve decided to collaborate on the transnational youth initiative together. Our idea is to connect 25 young people between 18 and 30 years old, who share a similar vision, determination and are motivated to bring positive changes into our local environment. We are planning to reach our objectives with the help of two blended mobilities and follow up activities, supported by promotional events, transnational, virtual and local meetings. These activities will importantly contribute to the achievement of the goals connected to the improvement of our skills, competencies and greater self-awareness. We will upgrade some of the newly acquired skills and theory gained through various workshops by putting it into practice. All the individual or group tasks, ideas development, communication, presentation, leadership, promotion, creative thinking, problem solving, compromising, collaboration, planning, organization and implementation of the activities, knowledge exchange, socializing, learning about cultural differences and active participation at the workshops will have an important impact on our confidence and on our everyday life and work. Within the first blended mobility, we will be preparing a Facebook challenge through which we will try to inform, connect and encourage people to dedicate a certain period of time and really give a try to a regular physical activity so that they will actually be able to experience the benefits and it will be easier to keep it as a regular practice. We are also planning to put a lot of emphasis on the promotion of this challenge. We will create a video which will be shared on the social media of all the partner organizations and there will be promo events organized on all our local communities. Second blended mobility will be focused more on the development of creative ways of being active in different situations and on the organization of the festival which will take place at the end of the mobility and later at the local levels in all of the participating countries. The festival will again serve as a promotion of the positive effects of being physically active and as a tool to connect the communities, showing people that can be more fun or encouraging when you support each other and do activities together. There will be options for different groups of people with games, competitions, dancing, yoga and interesting presentations to get more useful information. Another important part of both blended mobilities will also be activities designed to reach greater self-awareness and empowerment. A better understanding of ourselves, our behaviour, strengths and weaknesses will be reached through some workshops, introspection and number of reflections, which will be a regular practice during or on the completion of the majority of the activities. The positive impact is also expected on all the organizations, firstly because many of them are small NGO’s which don’t yet have many experiences with international projects and secondly, we believe they will acquire many new members and recognition with the help of an active promotion. Through the local events and presentations, the communities will become more aware of the organizations and the opportunities they offer especially to the young people. Also with the articles which we will write after the project’s completion and will be posted on social media the youth will be encouraged to take part on some of the amazing inter-cultural learning options the organizations are offering. In general, we are convinced that this project will have a strong influence on our personal growth and bring some important experiences from which we will benefit in all areas of our life.
During this project, we reached out to our communities and created links between young people, NGOs, and local communities. We invited people to create groups to be active together and to create connections, which will last long after the project will end. During the process of creating, organizing, and implementing all activities participants also improved their own skills. All the individual and group tasks, development of ideas and their implementation, communication, presentation, leadership, promotion, creative thinking, problem-solving, speaking up, collaboration, planning, organization and implementation of the activities, knowledge exchange, socializing, learning about cultural differences and active participation at the workshops had an important impact on our confidence and on our everyday life and work. One of the objectives was also focused on reflection and its benefits to the learning process, so participants were actively gaining self-awareness skills through participating in reflection groups, introspection activities, and receiving feedback from others.
Lack of motivation, focus, and energy, high levels of stress, and low self-esteem have all become too common among people and it is especially worrying for younger generations who spend way too much time behind computers or on mobile phones. TYI “Shake a leg, together” gathered a group of young motivated people who have set the goal to find interesting and creative ways to help as many people as possible to become aware of the positive effects of physical activity and consequently improve the quality of life by putting it into regular practice. The reason behind this is that a lot of people often don’t have time, energy, or ideas for an active lifestyle, so we opted to change that. During the project participants also wanted to learn and share information on how to create a more balanced life and they also wanted to improve their own competencies, such as project management, leadership, teamwork, and similar.