The project builds on the need to foster an international dimension in order to, on one hand, motivate young people to engage and, on the other hand, enable youth workers to develop key competences, sense of initiative and civic participation through one of successful strategies wide spread in the world, service-learning. Service-learning strategy has been developed abroad within nonformal and also formal education since long and the project partners have gained experience in its development. The potential of the strategy in Central and Eastern European countries has still not been used enough, because of the missing structures, lack of competence and experience in development of the strategy. General objective of the project is to enhance the competencies and opportunities of youth to fully participate in its society (local, regional, country and EU level), both economically and socially. The specific objective of the project are to improve the quality and relevance of the education offer in the field of implementation of the service-learning strategy in youth work through development of a training curriculum and related documents and manuals adapted to the context of Central and Eastern European countries; to enhance capacities of organizations and youth workers in implementing service-learning concept in practice and possibilities of its implementation in cooperation with local as well as international youth volunteers; to increase the quality of youth work primary in area of youth volunteering; to increase awareness about volunteering as an educational experience and to create better connection between solidarity service and learning in volunteering experiences of young people. The project is based upon experience and expertise of partners from 5 EU and 1 non -EU country (associated partner) in the field of service-learning implementation, putting forward new international, innovative and so far unrealized outcomes. The project coordinator is Platform of Volunteer Centers and Organizations, which will cooperate closely with the Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica (Slovakia). Project partners come from Romania, Croatia, Poland and Hungary There is more than 400 participants presumably involved in the project. The number include young people, youth workers, educator, target groups in the communities, conference participants. There will be at least 115 individuals lacking opportunities. The project activities consist of creating, testing and spreading innovative outcomes used during the realization of the project and upon its completion in order to develop and spread the service-learning strategy in the field of youth work and outside it, fostering quality of youth work and volunteering. Among main innovative outcomes of the project there are: 1) training for youth workers in service learning and a guide for trainers, 2) manual for implementation of the service learning strategy in the youth work, 3) manual for youth – how to implement service-learning projects and 4) Webinar - graphically facilitated introduction in Service Learning. The outcomes of this kind have not been produced so far but they are of key importance for service-learning development and implementation. The outputs will be published in English as well as in 5 national languages. All outcomes will be available online on the project website. There are 5 transnational working sessions planned within the project and training of trainers in service-learning, centered on the conception of intellectual outcomes and steering of the project. Steering activities include project management, monitoring, evaluation, dissemination, communication and follow-up. The key dissemination activity will be a 2-day international conference. All project outcomes are planned so as to be usable upon the project completion. Apart from partner institutions, youth workers and involved young people, the project will have impact on local communities. It will show in broadening cooperation between actors and decision-makers of various kind – a civic society, citizens and public bodies.
The project's general goal was to increase youth's competencies and opportunities to participate in society fully. The project was based on the need to support the international dimension, motivate young people to engage, and, on the other hand, support youth workers in the development of key competencies, a sense of initiative, and civic participation of young people through one of the successful and globally widespread strategies - service learning. The specific goal of the project was: • improve the quality and relevance of the education offered in the field of service learning strategy implementation in youth work through the development of curricula and related documents and manuals adapted to the context of Central and Eastern European countries; • to increase the capacities of organizations and youth workers in introducing service learning into practice and its implementation possibilities in cooperation with local and international youth volunteers; • increase the quality of work with youth, primarily in youth volunteering.
In the project, we mainly responded to the need to connect education with practice, the need to develop key competencies and competencies for life in a democratic society, and the lower level of civic engagement in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe compared to countries with a developed culture of engagement. We have found that many young people could be a valuable source of active citizenship but either has not learned to be active and active proactively or are lost in the information boom they face today. Many organizations and youth workers see volunteering as an educational opportunity but do not take full advantage of its academic potential. Achieving a balance in volunteering between education and personal growth and development of the volunteer on the one hand and fulfilling the community's real needs is not always easy for local and international volunteers. Often there is a strong focus on solidarity service and meeting the needs of beneficiaries without articulated learning. However, the potential of service-learning, which allows responding to the mentioned needs and challenges, is still not sufficiently used in the CEE countries.