Start & End Date: 01.05.2018 – 30.04.2020
Participating Countries: Germany, Portugal, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, Spain
Project Partners: Kharkiv Association for Active Youth “Stella” (Ukraine), Association Euroaccion (Spain), Cazalla International (Spain), MEDesTU (Portugal), Rota Jovem (Portugal), Office for Initiatives Promotion (Belarus), NGO Fialta (Belarus), Academy of Inovation (Russia), Regional Youth Public Organization Opora (Russia) and Center for Dialogue and Reconciliation Iskra (Ukraine)
Number of Participants: 19 participants
Grant Giver: Erasmus+
Funding Programme: Key Action 1 – Volunteering Project
Grant Amount: 98837.01 EUR
Globalization and its consequences have had a significant impact on all strata of European societies, giving rise to a wide-spread support of (re-)prioritizing national self-interests. Standing in solidarity, learning how to live and work together became the only path of getting out of the current crises facing the continent.
Young Europeans especially need to learn how to identify and emphasize with one another. One of the ways to do this is to experience life in a different community, while doing a voluntary service. For almost a decade, since CGE Erfurt e.V. was accreditated as sending/hosting organisation, we have noticed the impact the volunteers are bringing to enhance tolerance and establishing intercultural dialogue among young people of various backgrounds.
Therefore, in order to steam community cohesion, which will ensure stability and peace in Europe, CGE Erfurt e.V. has developed “Community Goes Europe: Bringing Europe Together”, a volunteering project within the Erasmus+ program, in accordance with the EU Youth Strategy 2010-2018.
The project will give young people across Europe new opportunities to engage in solidarity activities addressing societal challenges and strengthening communities. It will also equip them with the skills and competences needed for their own personal and professional development at the beginning of their careers. The target group of the project is youth facing social/economical/cultural obstacles.
To reach the aims of the project, we created three different phases:
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[ap_tab title=”Kick-off Meeting”]Kick-Off Meeting will be held from the 1st till 4th of August, 2018 in Erfurt, Germany.
A complimentary activity, which brings together project coordinators, working directly with volunteers, from the parther organisations to discuss important issues of project implementation and volunteer management.
Number of participants: 24
Profile of participants: Project coordinators from the different partner organizations.
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[ap_tab title=”Volunteering”]Volunteering period in 5 different countries, from September 2018 to August 2019.
The volunteering activities consist of five sending and hosting flows, which will give young people with fewer opportunities more chances to change their lives in a positive direction, raise self-esteem and develop various skills and competences, which will give them needed advantage in a competition on the labour market. Moreover, the volunteering is foreseen to directly impact local communities, where young people will do their service.
Number of participants: 8
Profile of participants: Motivated youngsters between 17 and 30 years old who speak English and who live in the countries mentioned above.
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[ap_tab title=”Evaluation Meeting”]Evaluation Meeting will be held in October 2019.
A complimentary activity, which gathers project coordinators, who worked directly with volunteers, from the hosting and sending organisations, to aggregate, analyze and evaluate the results of the project.
Number of participants: 11
Profile of participants: Project coordinators from the different partner organizations.
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Impact
The volunteers are expected to acquire skills in a number of different areas, such as project management, preparation and implementation, social media management and media content production, community development and organizing of local projects, as well as other areas that they would like to explore and fit the context of the hosting NGO. At the same time, participants will have the opportunity of learning/improving the language spoken in the host country.
[ap_call_to_action button_text=”Apply for Volunteering” button_url=”evs@cge-erfurt.org” button_align=”center”]Interested in contributing to the life of communities all across Europe?[/ap_call_to_action]
