The primary goal of the VoterS project is to strengthen a spirit of community service by encouraging volunteering among secondary school teachers and students, while also enhancing their digital abilities and communication skills. This main objective is specified in: - Training for Teachers with Corresponding Lesson Plans which aims to innovate through the use of digital tools and resources, equipping teachers with strategies to inspire student involvement in democratic processes, civic engagement, and the promotion of EU values through volunteering. - Student Diaries Platform, that provides students with a way to deepen their active citizenship, ethical understanding, and critical thinking. Through engaging in local volunteer activities, students develop digital skills by creating dynamic content like podcasts, videos, and written reflections. - School Exchanges to strengthen the connection between service and learning, highlighting how student-led initiatives in civic participation enrich both personal growth and community impact.
Based on the experience gathered by the schools and NGOs participating in this project, we perceived the need to prepare educators to help secondary school students acquire a mindset of understanding the social reality in which they live and guide them towards an active exercise of democratic citizenship through volunteering. It was also proposed to address the difficulty of schools to find opportunities for the exercise of volunteer activities for their students as well as the difficulty of local NGOs to integrate educational centres in their activities. With this project we proposed to promote mutual cooperation between schools and NGOs by creating a space for communication and meeting to strengthen local communities. Finally, the development of digital skills was seen as ideal both for the preparation of teachers and students in the practice of learning and service and for the management, dissemination and celebration of the results of these activities, thus serving as inspiration and help to local educational centres and NGOs.