The objectives we wanted to achieve were as follows: - to build a partnership of experts to start the positive transformation of the stakeholders who have become more involved into civic processes and have taken more interest in public matters thanks to creating the environment for such actions - to develop a detailed analysis of the present situation in a form of diagnosis which will prepare grounds for future cooperation on a larger scale. - to help to overcome stereotypical way of thinking by organising interesting social activities thus showing them how to speak, act and vote from early age and change the thinking from passive mode into an active one. - to prepare resource materials which will be of great help for educators thus making the educational offer of inclusion and diversity more involving - to enhance awareness of Children’s Rights - to strengthen key competences of the participating youth - to strengthen our communities and bring young people together through collaborative activities after lock down period thus to overcome apathy and trained helplessness typical for small rural towns like ours - to equip teachers and education stakeholders with ideas and materials leading to students’ inclusion and participation
Our partnership aimed at diagnosing a serious problem we observe among our students which is lack of personal involvement and responsibility for the world around. We wanted to recognize the problem of apathy and passive approach to life among young people, the reasons of exclusion and lack of interest in democratic processes and their neglection of such key competences as social and civic skills and entrepreneurship. At the stage of applying, all the participating organisations jointly agreed that these are the most burning issues which need to be addressed. We also recognised a scarcity of resources for teachers to organise interesting activities which would encourage young people to get involved and that was another reason we stared the cooperation – to start organising such resources and to design new path for inclusion, diversity and active participation. The fact that all partners come from regions which have always been disfavoured due to their geographical remoteness, rural localisation and disadvantaged social structure and incoming migrant sand the fact that we all need to reorganise our thinking in the post-pandemic era, made us cooperate on a set of ideas which might be helpful and solve some of our problems.