The goal of the project was to contribute to the participation of young people in democratic life by strengthening the capacity of partner organizations to implement quality volunteer programs and more efficiently encourage young people to become active citizens. With the project, we wanted to enable people who work with young people, as well as young people themselves, to acquire new knowledge and develop skills, to connect with young people from other local communities, to recognize and become aware of the problems that communities face, and to come up with constructive and effective solutions together.
The project was designed in partnership with the Portuguese org. Agoraveiro, with whom we previously had partnerships on Erasmus+ projects and informal cooperation in various activities. We detected the problems we face, our own weaknesses and strengths, and areas in which we can learn from each other and achieve positive changes in our communities - this primarily refers to work with youngsters, similarities and differences in the ways of involving volunteers, improving our own way of work guided by the experience and good practices of the partner org. The field of work overlaps with working with young people on active participation, and the problems in local communities are similar (discrimination, exclusivity, similar youth unemployment rates, difficulties related to the pandemic - inability to perform regular activities, mental health problems, stress, increased anxiety). Mentor's most expressed needs were structuring and improvement of work with volunteers, and Agoraveiro's improvement of communication skills and coping with stress of volunteers and employees. We responded to these through a series of live and online activities - exercises, role-playing games, discussions, actions in the local community, sharing materials.