PIF

Scout Society grants great importance in collaborating with partners for project development. We are willing to fully get involved in all stages of the process, from project development, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation to dissemination and then finally, project continuation including sharing best practices in our own networks.

We participated in and organized more than 90 projects in youth mobilities and mobility of youth workers, European Solidarity Corps projects, KA2 projects and Erasmus+Sport projects on topics such as Sport and Active lifestyle, Crafting, Active Citizenship, Diversity and Social Inclusion, Democracy, Entrepreneurship and employability, Environment and Ecology, Multiculturalism. In 2021, we worked with more than 2000 people in our projects.

Within the projects, we also approached subjects like Non-Formal Methods, Quality Aspects of Mobility of Youth Workers, Improving Quality in Erasmus+ Projects and others.

Scout Society has a dedicated person responsible for the projects addressing issues like: refugees, migrants and migration, racism, xenophobia and other similar topics. With an experience in non-formal setting of more than 15 years and 5 years’ experience working for United Nations Organization (i.e. UNHCR, UNICEF). Being involved directly in the refugee crisis from Syria, this person can supervise and provide advice on related projects.

Our organization has a small task force of 6 people (members, advisers, volunteers) who have been actively involved in organizing activities and projects involving the above-mentioned topics and more. Implementing projects on refugees/migrants and anti-discrimination issues has become a priority for Scout Society in the last 5 years. This was due to the increase in the number of migrants/refugees, but also in the number of people migrating from one country to another for a better life (ex. People from conflict areas in Middle East, people from poorer regions of Africa, people from underdeveloped regions of South East Asia) - Romania is mainly a transit hub from migrants & refugees from Asia and Middle East to Western Europe.

The projects that were implemented on this issue contributed to the increase of the organization's capacity to extend the organized activities over a longer period of time.

Active Citizenship in a New Homeland - This project aims to improve the active and effective citizenship consciousness of the refugees and asylum seekers by guidance and e-learning module.

The objective of the project is to determine the knowledge, attitude and skills in active and effective citizenship of the adult educators who work with refugees and asylum seekers in partner countries.

The Coordinator of this project is MARMARA UNIVERSITY and the other partners are: KHE (İstanbul) PUBLIC EDUCATION CENTER, CUIABLUE (Estonia), Tandem Plus (France), Scout Society (Romania), Four Elements (Greece), Casa Seis (Portugal).

reCREATE healthy narratives to tackle fake news - This is a 24months KA227 - Partnerships for Creativity Project that aims to fight misinformation on migration in Europe by a cross-sectoral cooperation between 7 partner countries.

Thanks to the innovative approach of participatory-video the project raises awareness and engages young people, allowing them to create original and different narratives about migration and to counter misinformation.

The overall objective of the project is to counter misinformation about migration through the engagement of young people as the specific objectives are:
• To increase creative skills.
• To encourage critical thinking and young people’s spirit of initiative in regards to misinformation and migration.
• To foster media literacy among young people.
• To enhance awareness on migration.
• To provide young people video-making basic competencies.
• To create new migration narratives by using the participatory-video method.

The coordinator of the project is CHAMPIONS FACTORY IRELAND LIMITED (IRELAND) and the other partners are: PROGEU-PROGRESS IN EUROPEAN UNION - ISTITUTO PER LO SVILUPPO (ITALY), Roes Cooperativa KOIN.S.EP. (GREECE), ASOCIATIA SCOUT SOCIETY (ROMANIA), Association Hexagonale de l'Innovation Sociale et de l'Education (FRANCE), EBB Europass Berlin Beratungsbüro GmbH (GERMANY), Asociación SEI - Servicio Socioeducativo Intercultural (SPAIN).

Say no to racism - Through this project, participants explored the phenomena of racism and xenophobia, have acquired skills to recognize racist situations, stereotypes and prejudice. Young people have acquired the skills, knowledge and confidence to challenge such phenomena within their own communities.

The project activities promoted respect, understanding and appreciation of diversity and allowed participants to embrace the necessary value to embrace a culture of human rights, such as non-discrimination, human dignity, equality and respect.

Racism does not belong to XXI - the aim of the project is to promote multiculturalism among European youth, as a sustainable method for the development of society.

The main objectives of the project are:
• encouraging multiculturalism among 40 young people from the two countries (Romania and Czech Republic);
• building and edifying knowledge, understanding of racism and combating racism in the European society;
• promoting universal and European rights.

This project arose due to the current crisis situation, in which racism and xenophobia are phenomena generally encountered, due to the massive number of emigrants, asylum-seekers and refugees who desire to reach safe European countries and countries with a good standard of living. Recent events, including the Syrian refugee crisis, showed that racism and discrimination are widespread problems in the EU.

No name - was a project organized from two activities, one in Croatia and another in Romania. The activities were oriented towards the current situation of refugees and minorities. The purpose itself of the project was to raise awareness among young people about this critical situation of the refugees and minorities. The activities focused especially on raising the awareness of young people about accepting the opinions of other people through the event ‘A Tolerant Attitude’. Through various interactive activities, young people became familiar with specific notions the problem in the project, such as xenophobia, migration, racism, discrimination and human rights. It was also organized for young people to observe what it really meant to be a refugee, irrespective of stereotypes and to regardless of the rights and opinions of the participants.

A society without racism - the aim of the project was to increase the level of acceptance and integration in the society of migrants / refugees through multicultural harmonization based on sustainable methods of building a society without racism and in which the rights of all people are respected.

The main objectives were:
• to identify the benefits of a multicultural society in the 7 partner countries: Lithuania, Hungary, Croatia, Greece, Italy, France, Romania;
• informing and promoting the fundamental and universal European rights of 56 young people in the communities that they belong to;
• combating the radicalization of young people by young people.

The activities within the youth exchange were interactive, being designed in such a way as to promote tolerance, respect, appreciation and development of a cultural society where each person knows his rights. The participants understood the concept of racism and applied the acquired information, subsequently building a multicultural community in their local communities.

Scout Society grants great importance in collaborating with partners for project development. We are willing to fully get involved in all stages of the process, from project development, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation to dissemination and then finally, project continuation including sharing best practices in our own networks.

We participated in and organized more than 90 projects in youth mobilities and mobility of youth workers, European Solidarity Corps projects, KA2 projects and Erasmus+Sport projects on topics such as Sport and Active lifestyle, Crafting, Active Citizenship, Diversity and Social Inclusion, Democracy, Entrepreneurship and employability, Environment and Ecology, Multiculturalism. In 2021, we worked with more than 2000 people in our projects.

Within the projects, we also approached subjects like Non-Formal Methods, Quality Aspects of Mobility of Youth Workers, Improving Quality in Erasmus+ Projects and others.

Active citizenship has become a strategic direction for our organization in the last 2 years and we have included this topic under one of our core pillars of strategic action – durable development of the society in order to ensure a general and meaningful growth for all members of the community, especially the most disadvantaged and vulnerable (i.e., people with fewer opportunities, people with disabilities).

An important aspect of the Scout Society's goals is to keep young people active and involved in community issues. While the aforementioned aspect constitutes our primary long-term goal, we also focus our attention on including seniors in the community issues (i.e., we have for activities that bridge the generation gap between young people and seniors).

Democracy and multiculturalism are promoted and integrated in all activities unfolded by our organization and strategically packed in order to build long term momentum for all members of the community and adopt this view for themselves and become active promoters.

Also, being part of these activities, the members of the local community understand what European citizenship entails, the values of democracy and they become advocates for change in their communities. Multiculturalism is another aspect addressed in all activities, being an important value in reducing discrimination around us in all local communities in EU. In the above-mentioned fields we organized a series of projects, such as:

Mobile Program for Youth Learners (MOPYL) - The main objective of the project is to develop young people's leadership, responsibility and self-motivation skills, to take responsibility in order to teach / lead the next youth leaders, as well as to strengthen a sense of belonging in young people in social communities. The project team will ensure this through a one-year mobile training program developing lifelong key competences (Literacy, Language, Personal, Social and Learning, Cultural Awareness and Expression) based on nine Christian core values: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

The coordinator of this project is KRIMULDAS EVANGELISKI LUTERISKA DRAUDZE from Latvia and the other partners are Colegio San Gabriel from Spain and ASOCIATIA SCOUT SOCIETY from Romania.

Escape games as a tool to raise awareness on the SDGs - Strategic Partnership Project - Escape4SDGs aims to provide youth practitioners the needed knowledge, skills and tools to create their own thematic educational escape games, in order to be able to raise youth awareness of the Sustainable Development Goals. Objectives:
• Create 2 educational tools to promote SDGs to youth people in an entertaining way;
• Train 25 youth workers on how to create an educational escape game;
• Foster active citizenship of 250 youth people and society engagement, by raising awareness on the importance of SDGs;
• Develop the capacity and know-how of 5 european organisations to create educational (Virtual) Escape Games;

The Coordinator of this project is Synergia Braga from Portugal and the other partners are Istanbul Universitesi Cerrahpasa in Turkey, Scout Society in Romania, Arrabal Aid in Spain and E-SCHOOL Educational Group in Greece.

Young people are non-formal citizens - The main goal of the project was to encourage multiculturalism in a Europe where the vision of many is different, but where everyone is equal.

The main objectives were:
• Promoting active citizenship, volunteering among young people in Târgu-Jiu;
• Encourage the active participation of young people in three European countries in the elections for the European Parliament;
• Encouraging multiculturalism among the 24 young people from the three countries participating in the Exchange (Romania, Spain and Turkey).

The project also included a street festival in which various activities, created by the young participants, were organized and where young people from the local community joined.

Warm Hearts - The aim of the project was to teach young people about love, empathy, tolerance, the benefits of volunteering and the importance of friendship.

Through this project, the participants became promoters of an active, civil life. Participants also acquired transferable skills, such as: didactic, tactical and dialogue; creative and technical skills for creating the logo project, presentation / promotion / dissemination videos, leaflets, photo albums, power point presentations.

This youth exchange encouraged young people to play a proactive role in the community, become active members of social life and become promoters of ideas / active trends in society and encourage positive change and increased desire to become involved - to support initiatives that would lead the community to development.

Multicultural village - The aim of the project was to promote the knowledge of various cultures among young people in rural areas as an effect of migration - through equal methods of sustainable development of society.

And the main objectives were:
• encouraging the knowledge of several cultures - of the countries participating in the project;
• knowledge and promotion of fundamental / universal and European rights;
• identification, awareness / prevention and combating the phenomenon of racism in society;
• stimulating the development of Erasmus projects by project participants.

Young people act - the mobility was developed in the context of the European Parliament election that took place in the European Union in 2019.

The problems addressed in the projects were: the lack of civic participation/involvement by young people in the political life of the community, the low rate of young people who voted in the European election in 2014, gaps in the electoral knowledge of young people who vote for the first time, confusion about the awareness of Europe’s democratic values, mistaken perception of European institutions, lack of confidence in building a better future on the principles of democracy.

The purpose of this project was to promote democracy and active participation and involvement of young people in the civic activities organized in their local and European communities. The main objectives were: 60 young people from the 4 partner countries to become acquainted with the democratic values of Europe; young people taking part in the youth exchange to develop participatory skills and civic involvement in the activities of the local and European communities; to develop participative behavior of young people from the project in the context of European elections in 2019; to improve access to electoral information for the 60 young people from the 4 European countries.

Scout Society grants great importance in collaborating with partners for project development. We are willing to fully get involved in all stages of the process, from project development, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation to dissemination and then finally, project continuation including sharing best practices in our own networks.

We participated in and organized more than 90 projects in youth mobilities and mobility of youth workers, European Solidarity Corps projects, KA2 projects and Erasmus+Sport projects on topics such as Sport and Active lifestyle, Crafting, Active Citizenship, Diversity and Social Inclusion, Democracy, Entrepreneurship and employability, Environment and Ecology, Multiculturalism. In 2021, we worked with more than 2000 people in our projects.

Within the projects, we also approached subjects like Non-Formal Methods, Quality Aspects of Mobility of Youth Workers, Improving Quality in Erasmus+ Projects and others.

Environmental protection is an essential pillar in the areas of interest of Scout Society Association and we encourage our beneficiaries to take action, actively participate in all the initiatives that have the goal to save the Planet.

Thus, our organization, through the projects / activities carried out, places great emphasis on environmental protection. Some of the ecological activities to mention are: workshops to raise awareness of the need to protect the environment, greening activities, information campaigns at the local level about the existence of environmental problems. At the international level we developed several projects that had a positive impact among the participants and the local communities that were involved.

The most recent projects in the field of environment are:

Track - Map – Clean - digital & educational tools to raise environmental awareness and develop green skills - Strategic Partnership - Track-Map-Clean project aims at raising awareness regarding the environmental issues produced by inadequate waste disposal. During this project we will develop educational and digital tools for youth workers, NGOs and youth, in order to foster eco-friendly practices and encourage innovative solutions to overcome environmental problems. Objectives:
• Create educational tools to support youth workers in their trainings targeting the development of green skills of young people;
• Raise awareness of the environmental issues caused by waste, among young people;
• Create digital solutions to environmental problems in the youth work field;
• Foster youth civic participation in the development of innovative solutions to overcome environmental problems.

The coordinator of this project is Synergia Braga from Portugal and the other partners are SK – ADEL from Slovakia, Scout Society from Romania, G12 from Spain and DLEARN from Italy.

Reconnect with nature - European Solidarity Corps Project The project aims to foster an eco-protective behaviour among 100 young people from rural areas from the local community of Baia de Fier, Romania.

On the medium and long-term, the project has the following objectives to reach:
• Promote recreational activities in nature and their benefits;
• Raise awareness about the need to protect the environment;
• Promote solidarity between the members of the local community;
• Develop similar initiatives with the help of other entities in the areas;
• Motivate local authorities to develop programmes regarding the selective collection of waste in the local community.

Ongoing: Also, we have lately applied with a strategic partnership in which we approached the environmental problem. The aim of the project is to increase the level of environmental knowledge and awareness of the need to protect the environment through alternative methods according to the environmental realities in the local communities.

Project objectives:
• promoting the reduction of environmental pollution and understanding the importance of a healthy living environment among the members of the communities for a minimum duration of 2 years.
• developing a conscientious spirit regarding the selection of sustainable foods;
• encouraging the adoption of a responsible attitude regarding the reduction of energy consumption and waste among the 7 local communities;
• raise awareness of the need for social participation in order to reduce climate change among European citizens.

Recycle for your life - was one of the projects that aimed to increase the involvement of young people in the recycling process, by informing them about the importance of this process and the various ways they can recycle. During the youth exchange, we developed various recycling activities, ranging from presenting the importance of recycling to practical activities (recycling old clothes the participants did no longer need and cleaning up an area in nature).

Youth4traditions, Youth4Europe - Within the project, for one day, the participants organized a recycling activity in the local community, giving an example of good practices for the young people there.

Nature sport - the objectives of the project were related to sports and environment: practicing sports every day to lead a healthy life, finding a sport to each participant liking; nutrition - the diet we follow have major effects on both physical and mental development; inspiring participants to eat healthier; promoting environmental protection by reducing food waste.

Clean eye - the aim of the project was to educate young people in order to protect the planet and the environment. Our aim was achieved through non-formal education methods, but also through relying on the receptivity and desire of young participants to get involved in protecting the environment. The main objectives of the project were: to illustrate the need for greening, environmental and nature conservation; raise the awareness of young people in 7 local communities about the greening of the environment; helping the island community to recycle waste. These objectives were emphasized in the intense media coverage of the short film and the song, made by the participants during the project.

More than that, we are paying attention to all our activities within the organization that can affect the environment and we are trying to use as much as possible recycled materials to reduce the quantity of printed documents, to repurpose different objects.

In the near future we want to expand our expertise in environmental protection by developing new tools that can be used in both formal and non-formal education. One of these tools will be a board game that will help us to increase the level of environmental knowledge and awareness of the need to protect the environment through alternative methods.

The second tool will be an online platform that will facilitate the connection between all the entities that are working in the food industry and the NGOs that are working with people in need. This way, we want to reduce the food waste, to help those who are in need and raise awareness about important problems that affect our society.

Scout Society grants great importance in collaborating with partners for project development. We are willing to fully get involved in all stages of the process, from project development, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation to dissemination and then finally, project continuation including sharing best practices in our own networks.

We participated in and organized more than 90 projects in youth mobilities and mobility of youth workers, European Solidarity Corps projects, KA2 projects and Erasmus+Sport projects on topics such as Sport and Active lifestyle, Crafting, Active Citizenship, Diversity and Social Inclusion, Democracy, Entrepreneurship and employability, Environment and Ecology, Multiculturalism. In 2021, we worked with more than 2000 people in our projects.

Within the projects, we also approached subjects like Non-Formal Methods, Quality Aspects of Mobility of Youth Workers, Improving Quality in Erasmus+ Projects and others.

Sport represents a core pillar in the educational system that we provide to people from our community. Our system includes participation in competitions, outdoor sports and outdoor education. In our sporting events, we include all types of members from the local community: young people, adults, seniors, people with fewer opportunities and people with disabilities – as sport is for ALL.  

For example, in the last 5 years, we have participated in and organized multiple projects that promote sport as a way of life and encourage a healthy lifestyle. In the last 2 years, we were the coordinator of 3 Erasmus+ Sport projects, member of 4 Erasmus+ Sport projects, and we contributed to and developed with our partners more than 20 proposals for Sport.

Some examples of sport project that we have organized so far, or we will organize are:

Sport2Outdoor

The aim of this project is promoting social inclusion and a healthy lifestyle through sport, in local communities from Romania, Italy, Sweden, Slovenia, Portugal, for 12 months, by organising sport-related activities.

The objectives are:
• Encouraging social inclusion, equality and active communication between people who come from different backgrounds, for 12 months, in local communities from Romania, Italy, Sweden, Slovenia, Portugal, by organising sport-related activities.
• Encouraging a healthy lifestyle through sport activities for 12 months, in local communities from Romania, Italy, Sweden, Slovenia, Portugal.
• Promoting European cultures and diversity through traditional sports for 12 months, in local communities from Romania, Italy, Sweden, Slovenia, Portugal.

Digital outdoor sports (Big Collaborative Project)

The project is aimed at fostering motivation and active engagement of young people in the outdoor sport in nature through the NFE activities. The key of the project is the design of specific tools connecting young people - nature - sport - digital tools.

We aim to minimise the negative impacts of digitalization/screen-time on young people aged between 13-19 by using digital tools in nature to attract them to engage in outdoor activities. Therefore we aim to re-establish the connection between young people and nature by promoting and motivating them to engage into physical activities in nature by the use of digital tools. We aim to enhance positive impacts of digitalization by means of promoting and attracting young people and reconnect them to nature by developing digital tools for and in nature.

Specific Objectives:
• To engage 1000 young people in outdoor activities in nature;
• 50 sport practitioners in 5 local communities to adopt the use of digital tools designed according to the trends, interest and lifestyle of young people to connect them with nature;
• To enhance cooperation and networking among different stakeholders in 5 local communities in EU;
• To redesign 25 outdoor sport activities for young people with digital tools in nature.

Sport sense - Through the SportSense project, we want to improve the collaboration of people in the community by creating sports events for visually impaired people who suffer from blindness. This project is thus able to build a bridge between individuals who lost their eye vision, often marginalized, and the rest of the community.

The vision of the project is to build the bridge and provide these individuals with the chance to better integrate into community by employing SPORT as our main tool. The aim of the SportSense project is to build a connection between society and the communities of people with visual disabilities through sport.

One the intellectual outputs of the project would be to create a Guidebook containing sports activities for the visually impaired that can be multiplied by any other organization or initiative group. The innovation of the SportSense project comes with the desire to provide the best we can to our target group. The actions that bring innovation to the project are divided into two. More info on our official page: http://sportsense.scoutsociety.ro/

Restart sport engine in EU – The scope of the project “Restart SPORT Engine in EU” is to form individuals in Europe to become active citizens by promoting education through sport. The objectives of the project are: to develop skills of 800 people using sporting activities in 5 communities from the European Union over a period of 12 months; increase the skills of 25 people (coaches, trainers, NGOs staff, and sports volunteers) to develop innovative ways of using sports in order to develop their local communities in the long run; Restart the sport movement in Europe after Covid19, level and increase the practice of sports as it was before the pandemic; Develop a movie about skills development using SPORT.

Through our project “Restart Sport Engine in EU” we want to prove that it is still safe to do sports if you change your mindset, if you do certain sports and you do some small and innovative adaptations. We want to boost the sporting activities at least in the 5 communities participating in the project, to be an example for other communities and for other sporting organizations and sports clubs. More info on our official page: http://restart.scoutsociety.ro/

In 2019 we implemented a Small Collaborative Project on Sports with 4 other partners – “Sport4all”. We made 2 conferences, 1 training course, 5 competitions with traditional or specific sports (in each country Romania, Spain, Bulgaria, Croatia and Slovenia). This project was designed to promote Sport for everybody.

The project aimed at encouraging social inclusion in the local communities in Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Spain and Slovenia, for 12 months, by organizing sport activities.

The objectives were:
• Encouraging equality in sports between people who come from different backgrounds, gender equality and equal opportunities for all, for 12 months, in Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Spain and Slovenia, for 1000 people.
• Encouraging active communication between people who come from different background, which contributes to the prevention of social exclusion and radicalization, for 12 months, in Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Spain and Slovenia, for 1000 people.
• Promoting European traditional sports in Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Spain and Slovenia. More info on our official page: http://sport4all.scoutsociety.ro/

Partner projects:

Football for All - aims to spread the good practice that has been developed within the last three years, to an international level. Six partner organizations will work together sharing their expertise, based on the original project concept from USB, as a method on how to use sports for education and social inclusion in daily work with marginalized young people while tackling racism and discrimination.

Our general objectives of this project are:
• To encourage social inclusion and equal opportunities in sport through football, as a sport that can reinforce the participation of young people from different multicultural backgrounds;
• Promoting sport, active lifestyle, and physical activity as essential elements of everyday work with youngsters with fewer opportunities at a grassroots level;
• Improve equality of access to physical activity among participants;
• To facilitate the integration of last-arrival migrants and refugees in Mediterranean countries and across Europe;
• Reducing stereotypes and prejudices promoting mutual understanding and respect;
• Promotion of a collective understanding of a group seeing everybody in their own potential aims will reduce rivalry thinking between participants;
• To promote participation and empowerment of individuals to become more active citizens in their society, especially through involving local volunteers to take part in the activity but at the same time help with organisation;
• To provide an open and safe space where everyone can freely participate and develop their social, civic, soft skills in the field of sport, by supporting the education in and through sport, including also young refugees and migrants;
• Promote and strengthen international cooperation and the sharing of good practices;
• To build a network of young people, youth organisations, and volunteers willing to connect locals, refugees, and migrants together by engaging them in team-sport activity;

The coordinator of the project is UNITED SOCIETIES OF BALKANS in Greece, and the other partners are: AMATEUR MINI FOOTBALL LEAGUE in Bulgaria, SLOVAK SPORT ORGANISATION in Slovakia, Amaita Intercultura in Italy, MOVE TO BE YOU - BEWEGUNG FUR WOHLBEFINDEN in Austria and of course, Scout Society.

Sports in a Union of Equality (SPEAK) - The main objective of the ''Sport in a Union of Equality (SPEAK)'' project is the promotion of the values of freedom promoted by the EU through its Erasmus+ programme and working to eradicate the stigmatisation of the LGTBIQ community in the field of sport.

The special objectives of this project are:
• Raise awareness about discrimination in sport based on sexual orientation and/or gender identity through information and awareness-raising campaigns. In order to tackle ignorance, which is the first step of discrimination, we will create a Handbook that will be distributed to at least 100 sport clubs and 500 individuals.
• Promote sport itself as a tool for the prevention of discrimination, bullying and hate crime based on sexual orientation and/or gender identity. At least 35 LGBTIQ friendly sport events will be organised in the participating countries targeting at least 1000 people.
• Promote personal freedom and the values of the European Union of coexistence, awareness and acceptance of diversity, fraternity, regardless of sexual identity or preferences.
• Create a European Network of Sport clubs and organisations which are LGBTIQ friendly. Our aim is to include at least 50 sport organisations and sport clubs from South-Eastern Europe (including the participating countries) where LGBTIQ athletes and people in general face the most difficulties.

The coordinator of this project is HELLAS FOR US from Greece and the other partners are KARASU GENCLIK SANAT VE SPOR KULUBUDERNEGI in Turkey, Darko Athletics Team in Bulgaria, ASOCIATIA SCOUT SOCIETY in Romania, MindSpin in Cyprus, KOSARKASKI SAVEZ GRADA NISA in Serbia, F.C. ETHNIKOS KOZANI in Greece

RaceAbility - The project is based on this sport practice and aims to transmit values of surpassing oneself, mutual aid, inclusion and cooperation. Our project integrates the following objectives:
• Encourage the sport participation of young people and adults for group sports practice in order to promote cooperation and inclusion.
• Create innovative, adapted and secure obstacle races that promote both sports participation, inclusion and sustainable construction techniques.
• Develop the capacities of a group of sport educators and organizations active in the fields of physical and/ or socio-educational education in terms of design and organization of obstacle courses for young people and adults and enable them to develop a European “Pégasus Race” network promoting inclusive and sustainable obstacle races.
• Create and develop innovative and evolving tools allowing the practice of obstacle races to emerge in Europe and elsewhere, to share our experiences with various organizations in the field of sport and inclusion and to multiply the interest for obstacle races in Europe and elsewhere.

The coordinator of this project is MONOPATIA ALLILEGIIS from Greece and the other partners are: Asociacija "Aktyvus jaunimas" Lithuania ASOCIATIA SCOUT SOCIETY Romania ENVERCEVKO - Enerji Verimliligi ve Cevre Koruma Dernegi Turkey.

Green Sport and Outdoor Activities for Environmental Awareness and Lifestyle - Small Scale Partnership in Youth The main objectives:
• To share and exchange good practices on the impact of green sports and outdoor activities to the links between encouraging a healthy and inclusive lifestyle and working for a healthy environment; as well as spread it in the youth work field and other sectors;
• To increase the sense of belonging and the sense of community for the youngsters in their local community through their direct and active participation obtained through the practice of green sports and outdoor activities.

The coordinator of this project is Active Zone Outdoor - Cyprus and the other partners are TDM 2000 International - Italy, Conexão Jovem Associação - Portugal, ASOCIATIA SCOUT SOCIETY - Romania.

“CYCLE! 2 Wheels Enough for Our Planet'' aims to promote the use of bicycles in the activities we do every day. The aim of the project is to develop a positive attitude towards the environment and climate change, as well as the development of healthy living alternatives.

The main objectives of the project:
• encouraging the use of bicycles in the project partner countries;
• developing the habits of members of local communities to exercise for a healthy life;
• combating environmental pollution and climate change;
• promoting the improvement of air quality, especially in city centers;
• encouraging cycling to school and work; -reduction of personal carbon footprint;
• promoting organized and unorganized cycling activities.

The coordinator of the project is Karasu District Governorship in Turkey, and the other partners are: Innovative Education Center in Austria, Hellas for Us in Greece and Kargenc Kulubu in Turkey.

"HOSPITALITY - Holistic Sport Disciplines for People With Intellectual Disability" - aims to offer people with intellectual disabilities the opportunity to participate in physical activities focused on light gymnastics and relaxation, supported by moments of guided meditation.

Each partner organization will organize relaxing gymnastics activities in the local community, will study its benefits and will write a manual of good practices. Thus, people with intellectual disabilities and personality disorders will be encouraged to participate in unified physical activities - a method that can help both physical and psychological well-being.

The textbook that will be developed will describe in detail the current situation among the target groups in terms of sports and physical activity; issues related to the promotion of sport and physical activity that are perceived as obstacles or incentives for the practice of sport among target groups will be investigated and specific actions will be proposed to improve the deficiencies that have been identified.

The coordinator of the project is Associazione Sportiva Dilettantistica MEET LAB from Italy, and other partners involved are: UISP TERRITORIALE CIRIE-SETTIMO-CHIVASSO from Italy, RIJEKA Sports Association for persons with disabilities from Croatia and Courage Foundation from Bulgaria.

“Outdoor Sports in Nature for Skills Development” aims to encourage the practice of sports activities, especially those carried out in nature, thus using sport as a beneficial educational tool in the development of skills.

The objectives of the project are:
• creating a sustainable network of organizations specializing in the use of outdoor sports in nature;
• creating, developing and distributing a collection of good practices related to outdoor sports;
• promoting the exchange of ideas and good practices in different partner countries related to the benefits of outdoor sports in nature;
• encouraging the practice of outdoor sports, in nature as an educational tool for the development of participants' skills at local, national and international level;
• creating a textbook with the benefits and skills that can be obtained as a result of practicing outdoor sports, in nature, in five main categories: physical health, mental health and well-being, education and lifelong learning, active citizenship and antisocial behavior .

The project is coordinated by USIT in Spain. Other partner organizations are L’ORMA International in Italy, Innovative Education Center in Austria and Hodina H in the Czech Republic.

"TRIM - Tekmovanje Rekreacija Inovativnost Množičnost" aims to promote social inclusion in local communities in Slovenia, Romania, Norway, Portugal and Italy for 12 months by organizing sports, socializing and competitions.

The objectives of the project are:
• promoting equality in sports activities: gender equality and equal opportunities for all, for 1100 people from different backgrounds in Slovenia, Romania, Portugal, Norway and Italy for a period of 12 months;
• promoting active communication between people from different social backgrounds, in order to prevent social exclusion and understanding of people from different generations in the partner countries;
• promoting sports activities especially for young people in rural areas and families at risk, providing the opportunity to participate in free activities to young people with fewer opportunities.

The coordinator of the project is The Center for School and Extracurricular Activities (CŠOD) in Slovenia, and the other partner organizations are: Overhalla Commune Midtre Namdal Kirkelig Fellesråd in Norway, PROPÓSITO INADIÁVEL-Associação para Costumes Futuros in Portugal and Assoziazione culturale STRAUSS in Italy.

"RISE - Rome Inclusion through Sport in Europe" - addresses the needs of disadvantaged young people in the EU and organizations dealing with this target group, to combat discrimination, social exclusion and marginalization of young Roma through the exchange of good practices, consolidation activities of skills and development of education based on sports activities.

The main objective of the project is to promote social inclusion, equal opportunities and awareness of the disadvantaged situation of the Roma minority through sports-based educational activities.

General objectives of the project:
• promoting social inclusion, equal opportunities and sport-based education for disadvantaged young people (especially Roma) and raising awareness of the importance of health-enhancing physical activity through innovative cross-sectoral cooperation;
• encourage the development of the capacity of sports clubs, youth organizations, educational institutions to develop and provide sports-based educational activities, targeting disadvantaged populations, especially young Roma;
• collecting, classifying and promoting European good practice in the field of social inclusion through sport and developing a sport-based educational methodology, which will be introduced in a textbook accessible to the general public; -improving the skills of trainers, coaches, youth workers and NGO staff with the knowledge needed to carry out sport-based educational interventions for disadvantaged target groups, such as young Roma.

The coordinator of the project is the Budapest Association for International Sports (BAIS) in Hungary. Other partner organizations are: A.D.E.L - Association for Development, Education and Labor in Slovakia, TAKT Association - Together Advancing Common Trust in Northern Macedonia and Champions Factory in Bulgaria.

Sports-themed youth exchanges:

Snow in my life - the project aimed at providing the participants with the opportunity to meet and socialize with each other through winter activities. Thanks to this exchange, young people had the opportunity to make a comparison between winter sports in different countries and analyse how much knowledge they had on the topic.

The objectives of the project were:
• for young people to know the basic elements of winter sports;
• to find out what are the safety conditions when practicing cross-country, skiing, sledding;
• to learn and research the popularity of winter sports in their countries and other countries.

Blue Sport - being a multicultural and multidimensional project, it had as objectives encouraging young people to take part in sports activities carried out mainly at sea or other pools and water sources. The project also encouraged the adoption of a healthy living environment. This project appeared given the fact that many young people nowadays spend a significant period of time sitting in front of computers, televisions or phones, while less time is dedicated to sports activities. The lack of exercise, the sedentary lifestyle led to the emergence of various diseases among young people, such as: excessive weight gain, cardiovascular and respiratory problems, etc.

Fight with sports against sedentarism - the aim of the project was - to encourage the practice of a sport in everyday life and highlight the long-term benefits it brings, as well as promoting a healthy lifestyle.

The objectives of the project were:
• promoting outdoor activities as a leisure alternative to have a healthy lifestyle;
• encouraging the active participation of young people from four European countries through sport.

Through non-formal and informal learning methods, participants learned to enjoy outdoor activities and practice various types of sports. Thus, through these activities, the participants developed their sports skills while perceiving and accepting the physical as well as the cultural differences of other young people. Through the “sport” method, it was much easier for young people to understand these differences, developing at the same time their sports skills but also their social, civic, cultural skills.

Scout Society grants great importance in collaborating with partners for project development. We are willing to fully get involved in all stages of the process, from project development, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation to dissemination and then finally, project continuation including sharing best practices in our own networks.

We participated in and organized more than 90 projects in youth mobilities and mobility of youth workers, European Solidarity Corps projects, KA2 projects and Erasmus+Sport projects on topics such as Sport and Active lifestyle, Crafting, Active Citizenship, Diversity and Social Inclusion, Democracy, Entrepreneurship and employability, Environment and Ecology, Multiculturalism. In 2021, we worked with more than 2000 people in our projects.

Within the projects, we also approached subjects like Non-Formal Methods, Quality Aspects of Mobility of Youth Workers, Improving Quality in Erasmus+ Projects and others.

Information technology has recently become a part of every person's daily life. A number of aspects have begun to be digitalized and a number of activities have begun to take place in the online environment.

In this regard, the Scout Society has begun to adapt to the needs of citizens in the community and to organise a series of digital education activities. 

Projects:

Youth Escape Covid (Strategic partnership) - a project that aims to combat the negative effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on young people in Europe in a creative way. 

The Multimodal Escape Room application that will be developed as part of the project will help practitioners to configure the learning environment for the escape room. Among the features of the application are: suggesting how many players can accommodate a certain space, what challenges to organise, how long the "experience" could last, what types of topics can be used (e.g. culture and arts, migration, Covid19). In addition, through the application, the best "multimodal escape rooms" and their learning objectives can be shared with other practitioners and users (including other sectors such as school).

OBJECTIVES:
• to create escape room as instruments to develop active tourism and to promote local history;
• to empower youth to express their ideas, develop actions and create added value in their city/town/village in such a way to promote tourist and enhance the cultural heritage;
• to develop youth entrepreneurial skills & competencies in order to increase their employability opportunities; 
• to provide skills & competencies to youth workers such as critical thinking, problem thinking, time management in order to increase their employability opportunities etc.

The coordinator of this project is Scout Society and the other partners are: FAJUB - Portugal, ASSOCIAZIONE CULTURALE EUFEMIA - Italy, SYNTHESIS CENTRE FOR RESEARCH AND EDUCATION LIMITED - Cyprus, ASOCIACION DESES -  Spain, Association Cap Ulysse - France, ISTANBUL UNIVERSITESI - CERRAHPASA.

#Next Generation Shapes the EU's Digital Society - Strategic Partnership - The project approaches Artificial intelligence (AI) since it is expected to play a major role in shaping global competitiveness and productivity over the next couple of decades, granting early adopters significant societal, economic, and strategic advantages.

#NEXT aims:
• to promote AI through the most simple ways to build trust in AI (why and how to trust AI);
• to raise awareness of the importance of AI in social, political, and working life in the EU society;
• to raise awareness in society, train and act as a bridge amongst research, government, and citizens for trustworthy use of AI; 
• to bring youth operators (youth-led NGOs), youth workers, young people, researchers, policy-makers, and universities to improve young people’ critical thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making skills and give them a chance to improve AI’s norms (legal infrastructure of artificial intelligence); policies, ethics, law, and practice;
• to produce value-oriented, human-centric, and specific skills-focus development-related academic studies in the field of AI;
• to give a voice to young people on how to shape AI’s norms in developing better AI regulations, policies, rules, and legislation in the EU.

The coordinator of this project is STOWARZYSZENIE CENTRUM WSPIERANIA EDUKACJI I PRZEDSIĘBIORCZOŚCI from Poland and the other partners are DEX INNOVATION CENTRE from Czech Republic, bit Schulungscenter GmbH from Austria Graz, Avrasya Enstitüsü Araştırma ve Geliştirme Limited Şirketi from Turkey and Fthia in action from Greece.

Let's digitalize generations! (Solidarity project) - aims to increase the capacity of adults to use digital resources but also to develop the community and for adults in the community / region, especially those in rural areas - to create a favourable space for digitalization. As a result, the project aims to increase the employability of adults, but also inclusive communities / regions, with the study of these tools.

Digital connectivity for young people (Solidarity project), implemented in the local community but also in the adjacent rural communities, aims to help increase the accessibility of ICT equipment (laptop, desktop, smartphone) of children and young people, especially of those with reduced opportunities. Also, the activities of the project will contribute to the transfer of IT knowledge to young people from disadvantaged backgrounds and the development of absolutely essential digital skills.

Digital Empathy (DIGEM) - the project consists of seminars and workshops designed to teach participants that digital transformation can only be achieved through humanitarian values.

The objectives of the project are:
• To foster empathy
• To eliminate discrimination
• To provide practical tools and to broaden participants' digital skills and knowledge in order to improve volunteer management, online activism, and online communication.
• To strengthen the potential of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to better meet the contemporary needs of young people through the integration of technology and digital tools into youth work.
• To gain emotional awareness of discrimination
• To develop mathematical competences through innovation
• To develop literacy competences
• To develop responsibility (every young person is and should feel responsible for his local area and for the future).

The Coordinator of this training course is Active Cypriot Programs and European Learning Into Acceptance, ACPELIA.

Brand yourself for the future aims to increase the employment rate among young people up to the age of 24 as a result of the development of branding skills from a digital point of view.

Some of the most important workshops were: social networks around us, the future personal brand in social media and online environment in general, conquering the online environment, online security, and personal promotion with digital instruments, content creation, creating a CV and how to present at an interview face to face or online, etc.

Thanks to the implementation of this project, the young participants developed a clearer vision on the concepts of personal brand, social media and employability. The young people acquired knowledge about personal promotion in online environment, the functioning of the labour market, teamwork and others.

Also, the members of the Scout Society have important knowledge about digital tools and their creation, both creatively and technically. In this sense, the Scout Society has created results in this field, such as a series of sites for the projects that coordinated them or in which the organization was a partner. Among them are: https://restart.scoutsociety.ro/;  http://escape.scoutsociety.ro/;  http://sportsense.scoutsociety.ro/; https://conectivitate.scoutsociety.ro/; https://osin4sd.scoutsociety.ro/.

Scout Society grants great importance in collaborating with partners for project development. We are willing to fully get involved in all stages of the process, from project development, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation to dissemination and then finally, project continuation including sharing best practices in our own networks.

We participated in and organized more than 90 projects in youth mobilities and mobility of youth workers, European Solidarity Corps projects, KA2 projects and Erasmus+Sport projects on topics such as Sport and Active lifestyle, Crafting, Active Citizenship, Diversity and Social Inclusion, Democracy, Entrepreneurship and employability, Environment and Ecology, Multiculturalism. In 2021, we worked with more than 2000 people in our projects.

Within the projects, we also approached subjects like Non-Formal Methods, Quality Aspects of Mobility of Youth Workers, Improving Quality in Erasmus+ Projects and others.

Rural development is very important to create healthy local communities in rural areas, where opportunities are fewer and where there is even limited access to health, infrastructure, education, etc.

Some of the organisations’ volunteers come from rural areas. They are eager to contribute to the development of their communities and want to get involved in various activities that are organised. On the other hand, some young people cannot afford to get involved in the opportunities that exist in the urban environment, due to reduced financial possibilities or simply due to the fact that they feel excluded and inferior to people living in the urban environment. For this reason, and in order to create inclusive communities in rural areas, Scout Society has started to organise a series of activities aimed at rural youth and focuses on rural development in several areas. Projects:

Rural Business Innovation Hub

Aims to build and promote entrepreneurial skills among young people in rural areas, starting from an entrepreneurial attitude, and to apply it to solutions to the challenges of today's society.

Project objectives:
• Increasing the level of entrepreneurial skills among young people in 6 rural areas;
• Encourage the development of 6 rural communities and create opportunities for a better life;
• Raising awareness of the importance of entrepreneurial literacy among young people in rural areas;
• Document / demonstrate the usefulness of a HUB for business innovation in expanding opportunities for young people aged 18-30 in rural areas.

Digital connectivity for young people (European Solidarity Corps)

The activities organised throughout this solidarity project in the adjacent rural communities will contribute to increasing the degree of accessibility to ICT equipment (laptop, desktop, smartphone) for children and young people, especially those with reduced opportunities. The project also aims to transfer IT knowledge to young people from disadvantaged backgrounds living in the local community. In this way we increase the chances of integrating young people with reduced opportunities in rural areas.

Engage Connect and Empower Youth via Books (European Solidarity Corps)

The main reason for implementing the project is to contribute to increasing the accessibility of children and young people from the rural areas to books.

The change that we want to achieve is for the short as long as for the long term through sustainable practices. The change that we want to achieve for the short-term is to offer books to 200 children and young people in the rural areas, with fewer opportunities and from disadvantaged backgrounds, who do not afford owning or purchasing a book. This way, one of the main impacts from this action is that young people will start owning their very first book and will have the chance to develop their attachment to culture and reading.

For the long term, the changes that we will generate through the project in our community and in the targeted communities are:
• Promote the reuse of books through donation to people that need it.
• Organise similar initiatives in the communities. The young people in the communities together with their schools will continue this initiative each year.
• Awareness of the importance of being solidary and empathetic to the needs of the members in the community.

Another project in which Scout Society was a partner organization is the project "Healthy life - Happy life" which took place in an isolated village in Croatia, where together as young people from other countries and in the community were organized activities about health, lifestyle, solidarity, recycling, upcycling, plastic, wasted food etc.

Young people that participated exchanged information about these areas and worked together in the local community. One of the main activities of the project was woodworking, which was explained and guided by people from the local community.

Thanks to this activity, the participants became friends who have the same goal: to create a positive impact in the local community.  

The Youth4tradition Youth4Europe - young people went and interacted with the local community in Arcani, a rural area. Here, they were involved in the daily activities of a disadvantaged family and offered them help to create better living conditions. The young people also got involved in pottery activities and making national costumes specific to the area.  

Rural Youth SuperPower - Scout Society is a partner of this project, which aims to increase awareness of the problems and benefits of living in rural or peripheral areas. The project aims to:
• raising awareness of the problems, opportunities and challenges of living in geographically isolated areas; 
• acquiring new knowledge about sustainable development in rural areas; 
• to promote interactions between young people and to encourage active participation; 
• develop skills, abilities and soft skills to face the challenges of life in a rural / peripheral context.

Scout Society grants great importance in collaborating with partners for project development. We are willing to fully get involved in all stages of the process, from project development, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation to dissemination and then finally, project continuation including sharing best practices in our own networks.

We participated in and organized more than 90 projects in youth mobilities and mobility of youth workers, European Solidarity Corps projects, KA2 projects and Erasmus+Sport projects on topics such as Sport and Active lifestyle, Crafting, Active Citizenship, Diversity and Social Inclusion, Democracy, Entrepreneurship and employability, Environment and Ecology, Multiculturalism. In 2021, we worked with more than 2000 people in our projects.

Within the projects, we also approached subjects like Non-Formal Methods, Quality Aspects of Mobility of Youth Workers, Improving Quality in Erasmus+ Projects and others.

Creating inclusive communities is very important in the development process of the young people who are part of it. For this reason, in our activities, we emphasized social inclusion in a series of issues that were addressed through the implemented projects.

At the local level, in order to combat social exclusion, young people were involved in various greening activities, writing CVs and interviewing, sports activities, digitization activities, time management methods, combating bullying and cyberbullying, etc.

Throughout our activities and projects, we aimed to involve young people with reduced opportunities, who have financial problems, facing the lack of integration, who have been socially excluded, face cultural and language differences, are part of a certain social category or have a certain disability. Once they became involved in the activities, their self-confidence increased, began to feel part of the community and did not feel excluded by their peers. In this way, strong local communities have been built, in which members support each other and help each other. 

A special category in this line of action are young people with different types of disabilities, such as visual or mental. 

Projects:

Sport Sense project involved people with visual impairments. We aimed at creating sports events for visually impaired people who suffer from blindness and connecting them to the wider community. This project was thus able to build a bridge between individuals who lost their eye vision, often marginalized, and the rest of the community. 

HOSPITALITY - Holistic Sport Disciplines for People With Intellectual Disability - which aims to offer people with intellectual disabilities the opportunity to participate in physical activities focused on light gymnastics and relaxation, supported by moments of guided meditation. 

Football for All - Six partner organizations will work together sharing their expertise, based on the original project concept from USB, as a method on how to use sports for education and social inclusion in daily work with marginalized young people, such as young refugees, while tackling racism and discrimination.

People to People (European Solidarity Corps)

The problem that we aim to address through this project ist the lack of interaction between society and the people with disabilities leads to the social exclusion of the latter group by their communities. 

Objectives:
• Involve at least 12 people with reduced opportunities over a period of 12 months that could tell their story and how they managed to be an integrative part of society. 
• Improve the relation between local communities and people with fewer opportunities by building one online community of minimum 500 people where they could share ideas and solutions. 
• Raise awareness at the local level about the presented issue through the activities conducted together with people with disabilities.

Scout Society grants great importance in collaborating with partners for project development. We are willing to fully get involved in all stages of the process, from project development, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation to dissemination and then finally, project continuation including sharing best practices in our own networks.

We participated in and organized more than 90 projects in youth mobilities and mobility of youth workers, European Solidarity Corps projects, KA2 projects and Erasmus+Sport projects on topics such as Sport and Active lifestyle, Crafting, Active Citizenship, Diversity and Social Inclusion, Democracy, Entrepreneurship and employability, Environment and Ecology, Multiculturalism. In 2021, we worked with more than 2000 people in our projects.

Within the projects, we also approached subjects like Non-Formal Methods, Quality Aspects of Mobility of Youth Workers, Improving Quality in Erasmus+ Projects and others.

Scout Society is particularly interested in designing and partnering in initiatives that promote active tourism and the cultural heritage of the local, regional, national and European communities. Our activities contribute to the flourishing of the local communities and strengthen the connection between citizens and the local attractions.

Projects:

Escape depopulation and foster cultural heritage through active tourism - Strategic Partnership - The main idea of the project is to create escape rooms to promote the cultural heritage, impulse active tourism and local economy in order to avoid depopulation, by empowering young people to take initiative and to promote their own community and its history and local culture.

The projects’ aim is to create a set of adaptable escape rooms (1st project result) to be implemented in the villages of the partners (inside a historical monument – e.g.: The Castle of Medina del Campo), with scenaries based on the local history, fostering the cultural heritage with the purpose to increase the youth initiative and their employability opportunities, by developing their skills and competences and in the same time fostering youth active tourism, as a new sector of escape rooms is raising in the top preferences of leisure activities of young people, but also as group and family activity.

OBJECTIVES:
• to create escape room as instruments to develop active tourism and to promote local history;
• to empower youth to express their ideas, develop actions and create added value in their city/town/village in such a way to promote tourist and enhance the cultural heritage;
• to develop youth entrepreneurial skills & competencies in order to increase their employability opportunities;
• to provide skills & competencies to youth workers such as critical thinking, problem thinking, time management in order to increase their employability opportunities etc.

The coordinator of this project is Association Deses- 3 from Spain.

As for Adult education, we are continuously offering activities to our beneficiaries, especially on skills improvement, maintaining an active social (sports, social gatherings) and professional life (by organising courses to get a job easier as a senior).

Actual members of our association work in developing new projects on topics like Vocational Orientation, Coaching, Communication, Non-Formal Methods, Language Learning, Outdoor Education, Emotional Intelligence and many more.

Scout Society grants great importance in collaborating with partners for project development. We are willing to fully get involved in all stages of the process, from project development, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation to dissemination and then finally, project continuation including sharing best practices in our own networks.

We participated in and organized more than 90 projects in youth mobilities and mobility of youth workers, European Solidarity Corps projects, KA2 projects and Erasmus+Sport projects on topics such as Sport and Active lifestyle, Crafting, Active Citizenship, Diversity and Social Inclusion, Democracy, Entrepreneurship and employability, Environment and Ecology, Multiculturalism. In 2021, we worked with more than 2000 people in our projects.

Within the projects, we also approached subjects like Non-Formal Methods, Quality Aspects of Mobility of Youth Workers, Improving Quality in Erasmus+ Projects and others.

Gamification is a field that has started to develop a lot lately, being used in more and more fields, especially in science, education, ecology.

Thus, in a digital revolution, young people began to be more willing to various stimuli and their behavior began to be modeled including through the application of gamification models.

Scout Society works with young people who have studied or are studying gamification, who have focused on virtual reality, augmented but also mixed, develop various games in the virtual environment and are involved in robotics teams in educational institutions where they study.

The sciences that are studied by some young people are fields that over time have become boring for them, but the approach through play has become more and more attractive. Thus, the introduction of gamification models in the development of science, lately, has contributed to the increase of the level of interest from young people in several fields.

Also, some young people, members of the association are involved in the development of a game that aims to raise awareness of the need to reduce pollution and promote a clean environment. During the pandemic, our young people combined gamification and critical thinking in science and voluntarily made various products to protect medical staff.

Some specific projects in this field are:

Escape4SDGs is an innovative project designed to empower youth practitioners with the requisite knowledge, skills, and tools to create thematic educational escape games. These games focus on raising youth awareness of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The educational escape rooms serve as a dynamic medium, allowing participants to discover and understand various subjects autonomously. The topics chosen, such as environment, narratives developed, and the overall game flow have been designed to enhance the educational value of the experience.

The project will deliver a training KIT, complete with essential theories and methodologies on crafting educational escape games. It will also offer tangible examples of escape games centred around the theme of SDGs. The project primarily targets youth practitioners, providing them with novel methods to engage with their audience. Simultaneously, it also indirectly aims to engage the youth, especially those with limited awareness of the SDGs.

The "Escape Depopulation and Foster Cultural Heritage through Active Tourism – EscDep" project aims to address the challenges of young people moving from rural areas. Central to its strategy is the creation of escape rooms themed around cultural heritage. These are designed as a means to revitalize local tourism, stimulate the economy, and thereby counter the tide of depopulation. By motivating the youth to take charge, showcase, and celebrate their local communities, histories, and cultures, the initiative seeks to create a ripple effect of benefits. The objectives are:

Employ escape rooms as tools to enhance active tourism, spotlighting local history.

Enable the youth to voice their perspectives, initiate actions, and add value to their locales, fostering tourism and accentuating cultural heritage.

Bolster youth entrepreneurship, thereby widening their professional horizons and employability.

Equip youth workers with vital skills like critical thinking, problem-solving, and time management, further enhancing their employability.

The project has outlined two key deliverables. The first is the establishment of escape rooms set within partner village landmarks. Rooted in local history, these rooms aim to not only entertain but also to provide youth with a platform to develop their skills and boost their career prospects. Furthermore, it seeks to position escape rooms as a popular leisure choice for not just the youth but also families and groups. The second deliverable is a comprehensive guide on creating culturally-themed escape rooms. This resource is intended to share knowledge, promote the concept, and inspire similar initiatives across Europe. Through these efforts, the project aims to provide youth with alternative recreational activities and avenues for employment, all while promoting their locales and addressing the pressing issue of rural depopulation.

Game of trainers was a training course in which youth workers from the Scout Society learned more about lego education, basic information about gamification, designing a game on a page, principles for design, creating and developing a team game. In the games based on storytelling, the stages that the main hero goes through in the game were analyzed and discussed. Also, in a workshop, the values that are usually included in the games were discussed. The most important activity in the training was the creation and development of their own games. Thus, the following elements were provided to the youth workers: basic element of Gamification in educational job of youth work; basic elements of Digital Youth work and Digital literacy; tools and metodologies (digital & analogic), to empower, tools to evaluate and improve quality of youth work, critical thinking, through workshop preparation and sharing innovative evaluations methods (ETS competence model).

Helpful Deprivation was a project that was implemented together with a partner from Slovenia. The aim of this project was to develop a certain field through gamification and critical thinking.

It was applied these aspects in the development of an application for promoting the culture and tourist objectives of the local communities. The application was built in the form of a game to be as interactive as possible. Thus, the young people in the first phase thought of all the gamification elements within the application and then worked on its elaboration. The important element of the application was that those who want to can add various routes along the way, and once they travel a certain route, they can check it in the application. They can tick the route but only when they are around it.

At the moment the application is available for anyone who wants new experiences.

We also worked in developing new tools and non-formal education methods: for example, “Speaker’s Corner” a KA2 project, where we developed a new educational exercise to be used by NGO workers in order to develop life skills, public speaking skills and listening skills.

The main objectives of the project were: to promote the values of respect and tolerance, no matter our own personal opinions; boost empathy among people through role play; contrast hate speech and promote active listening; discuss serious topics relevant in young people’s lives but also the development of critical thinking.

Alexandra Sfirlogea

She is responsible for logistics, accommodation, equipment and other administrative tasks, as she has more than 7 years of experience in projects for young people and, in the last 5 years, she had participated in more than 15 youth exchanges in different countries.

Also, she participated in different training courses for writing the application forms, non-formal education and quality improvements. During these courses, she developed a range of competencies and abilities - public speaking, leadership, teamwork, and time and priority management. Given her studies in law, she knows how to provide support for the teams created in order to implement the projects and to motivate their members for a qualitative implementation.

Corina Lebedinscaia

With formal learning in communication and journalism (university degree) and a master in public relations and advertising, she is in charge with handling the coordination part. With proven experience in coordinating other projects - Erasmus+ project (ex. Multicultural village) or other non-formal education projects involving youth (ex. Flying books), she has the necessary experience to manage the projects.

Also, Corina Lebedinscaia attended the courses of a training center, obtaining the qualification of project manager. Thus, over time he had the ability to be a project manager for several projects, to be responsible for project management and its quality. At the same time, she was responsible for coordinating the project team for a series of projects, but also for maintaining the connection between a consortium of over 30 non-governmental organizations.

Having also graduated from the Faculty of Letters, she has greatly developed her writing and communication skills. In this regard, over the time, she has written several articles for the local press in Targu-Jiu, scientific articles and research papers for ‘Constantin Brancusi’ University in Târgu-Jiu and has done several translations for a Canadian magazine.

Rotaru Radu

Volunteering for more than 6 years in our organization. He has a major in Psychology. Also, he is a certified youth worker and a counsellor in personal development. His experiences in the NGO environment and non-formal education are consistent and relevant for our project. Until now, he has facilitated 10 projects on diversity and social inclusion, civic education, employability and entrepreneurship, emotional intelligence and coaching, in our organization with good results (Employment Lab, LifePath, Diversity Flow, Young People Act and others).

Eddy Hilitanu

He is a graduate of the Faculty of Economy and Business Administration at the University from Iasi. Other studies: Entry level economic diploma, Business diploma, Social Entrepreneurship Diploma, Social civic skills diploma.

Eddy has financial skills and a wide range of entrepreneurial ideas, which we actively employ when carrying out the activities within the association. Eddy is also a very important member of the team because he has done a lot of activities with young people, fostering a series of valuable relationships between young people from different countries. Eddy's project manager qualities were highlighted in the ‘Brand yourself for future’ project, when he successfully coordinated all project activities.

He is also a resource person who promotes the organization in the online environment. Applying the knowledge acquired in several courses, he creates concepts for creative materials that are posted on the Facebook and Instagram pages of the organization.

Iulia Golea

Iulia was a volunteer for the organization since 2018 and now she is our Media Officer. Currently, she studies for a bachelor's degree in modern languages. She is a hard-working person and took the challenge of studying foreign languages and arriving at the point where she knows 4 different foreign languages, English, French, German, and Japanese.

Before college, she was a scout and it helped her to develop academic skills, self-confidence, ethics, leadership skills, and citizenship skills which influence her adult life till this day.

Her motivation doesn’t stop there, she has always found a passion for the digital environment so she started to teach herself how to make graphic material. Over years she improved very much and constantly work to become better. She has developed videos, brochures, booklets, social media posts, and websites.

Mihaiela Cracana

Mihaiela is mainly responsible for Project Design and Implementation. She is a graduate student of the University of Essex (United Kingdom), with a Bachelor degree in Politics with Human Rights. Her studies as well as her experience as employee and volunteer for various positions and projects equip Mihaiela with the essential skills and knowledge to approach topics, such as Human Rights, Climate Change, Citizenship Education, Community Building and Inclusive Policies for migrants and minorities. On top of that, one of Mihaiela’s fundamental priorities is to create opportunities for young people to become active citizens through formal, non-formal and informal education at the national, European and international levels.

Tudorela Cotiga

I graduated from the Faculty of Education, Law and Public Administration, majoring in Law in Targu-Jiu. I have taken courses as a specialized educator, computer operator, and German courses.

I am the association's newest member, and I am responsible for the administrative side. Organizational spirit, team spirit, and experience with children are the qualities that brought me to work in this association. I am eager to learn everything about projects and to learn more about youth work.

Izabella Zekany

Izabella holds the position of project assistant. She graduated in Tourism Geography at the University of Bucharest, where she continued her Master's studies, graduating in Tourism Space Management and Hospitality Services. During her master's studies, she spent a year with Erasmus in Portugal where she improved her knowledge and came back with new experiences. Since her first year of university, she has been an active volunteer in different organizations and is interested in cultural environments.

Her main areas of interest are mental health, tourism, culture, and volunteering. She has started to develop her side as a facilitator, wanting to pass on her experiences and information.