If young people do not see enough success examples nearby (which very often is due to geographical and social barriers in remote rural territories), if they do not have supporting environment around, it is hardly possible that they will become active persons with their own sense of initiative and ready to get involved in any social, civic or economic processes. They can also be discriminated as employees or not use their potential as entrepreneurs. “LIFE’S CARDS” project wanted to prove the opposite. During the project period (18 months), we developed an Inspirational Personal Development Game "LIFE’s CARDS" - as a non-formal educational tool for young people, youth organizations, youth workers, youth supporters – to empower marginalized young people aged 15-30 to increase their self-belief, self-trust, self-determination and self-initiative. The project wanted to promote equal opportunities and access of young people with geographical barriers to employability and satisfying job, entrepreneurship and career development. The project approach was largely based into Tony Robbins’ teachings, incl. that our current situation does not determine our future. Our thoughts determine our actions, and our actions determine our future.
The joint needs of the project partnership included the wish and objective to promote inclusion and equality, by creating a practical tool to help marginalized young people from rural areas to increase their self-belief, trust in themselves, self-determination and self-responsibility in becoming the “leaders of own life”. The partners wanted to find proof and demonstrate that the location and geographical barriers are just one factor influencing our choices and life – if we realize how it can be solved, how it can be compensated by other factors (e.g. factors that are missing in big cities and urban areas), how to look at the situations from “resource prism” instead of “barrier prism”, then there IS a road to grow and succeed. Additionally, the partners wanted to empower themselves: each partner had considerable knowledge, experience and expertise already acquired, but there was still more potential for growth and development, in order to become even more powerful, give more impact, more inspiration to local communities, youth field and all the target groups in the area of this project.