Proiect – InSport

Action type: Volunteering teams ESC type

Partners involved: Italy, Jordan, Georgia, Turkyie, Romania

Volunteers: 10/country from which 5/country with fewer opportunities

Topics: healthy lifestyle and sport methods for disadvantaged young people

Dates: 15^th July – 25^th August 2023

Duration: 40 days + 2 travel days

Facebook: Voluntariat pentru Comunitate

Objectives

Learning methods and activities

Under the pandemic restrictions youth were one if not the most affected group of the population, due to the lack of focus in the society towards their need for socialization, one of the most important being practicing group sports. Through this application we are addressing the priority of year 2022 – promoting healthy lifestyle among children and youth in a number of 4 small communities in Dolj County

Needs of youth:

• To have access to sport activities, especially in a pandemic context that cut them off from their main source of doing sports, that of face to face school
• To not be so dependent of school formal sport curricula, being capacitated to act as their own initiators of free time sport activities
• To become aware of the importance of healthy lifestyle choices starting from a young age and of the fact that it is an on-going work maintaining both their physical and mental health
• To change the mentality towards the one where they see themselves responsible for becoming involved in tackling the problems they are facing, through active participation in the life of a community

Hence the objectives of the project include:

1. Development of an environment proper for gathering information, testing and adapting methods to tackle the constant development of sport activities in small communities
2. Interpersonal development and competences useful in the work and personal life environment
3. Trial and error pilot testing the methods in partner communities
4. Development of the Guidebook with best practices and methods to be implemented
5. Training of YW/Teachers/Coaches on methods to adapt sport activities for social inclusion and methods to attract youth towards practicing constant sport activities

Activities

A1. Launch events, info notes and newsletters type. This Activity appoints to the community the primary aim of InSport and the objectives of the project, introduces the project plan to stakeholders in Dolj County, in an attempt to set up a solid communication channel with sport providers on one hand and youths on the other(beneficiaries of the project results).

A2. InSport Promotional Events (1 in each country, total 4). Small scale events that have the intention of introducing the project to the local communities in each country and attract attention by stakeholders (Newsletters, Brochures etc.).

A3. Mobilities in 4 small communities in Romania. Volunteering teams composed of 12 or 13 volunteers / small community (10 international + 2 or 3 local in-country volunteer) will develop the structure need it for social inclusive daily sport activities. The motilities will be focused on

A3.1. Mapping the community resources (logistic and human resources)

A3.2. Raise awareness in the community about the importance of the sport activities

A3.3 Raise awareness in the community about the need and benefits of social inclusion

A3.4 Develop a curricula of social inclusion sport activities for children and youth

A4. Guidebook development. The toolkit will include:

A4.1. Concepts and contents (learning outcomes) development to be acquired by target population;

A4.2. InSport games design;

A4.3. Development of problem-scenarios, representative of the concepts to be learned – social inclusion methods / tips for adaptation;

A4.4. Game context development and adaptation;

A4.5 Assessment tools development

A5. Final Conference – Closing Event. This closure activity will be delivered towards the end of the project as a summary with the main conclusions of the InSport project, recommendations and further outreach proposal for action. This event will also include statements about the exploitation strategy to be adopted by the partners

Timeline of the project

Requirments of participants

• Aged between 18-30 years old
• Resident from partner’s country
• Basic communication english level
• Motivated to participate in the project
• Be open-minded, motivated and ready to share experience and good energy
• Flexible for accommotation and working in rural looking environments
• Experience of working with children and disadvantaged groups will be a plus
• Having a Europass CV and a tailored motivation letter for our project, work and community
• Able to disseminate the results of the TC in social media and through their work

!!! Fewer opportunities cathegory belonging will represent an priority in the selection process

What you can take-away as an volunteer

• Practice sport and healthy lifestyle tools and methods that can be used in one-to-one and community basis
• InSport will empower youngsters to develop their social, emotional and solidarity skills; while increasing their physical fitness and promoting healthy behaviours. The project will also contribute to enhancing the educational staff’s/youth workers competences to apply this non-formal learning methodology by promoting and engaging in the sustainability of this actions in the communities
• Develop an inclusive attitude towards your target group and find out different ways to connect to it
• Expand your perspective by learning different approaches to handle disadvantaged groups
• Learn how to create dialogue for identifying connections between different problems instead of automatically reacting or going into advice-giving
• Explore your limits and create the space for yourself and others to unfold what is stuck or blocked
• Use reflection as a tool in working with people
• Be more aware of your presence and how to use it to improve the quality of your relationships
• Learn how to address issues openly to others and invite the others to adopt a collaborative attitude instead of a conflictual one

Youthpass

After the project, you will have the opportunity to complete your Youthpass certificate: a recognized instrument for non-formal and informal learning, used within Erasmus+ projects. You can find more information here.

Financial aspects

• The volunteer will receive, the reimbursement of the travel expenses according to the Distance Band Calculator.
• Also, the participant will receive 5 euros/day for food and 3 euros/day as pocket money. The payment will be done in 2 payments (half in the begining and half in the middle of the mobility), by bank transfer or in cash (for non-EU citizens since banks are not accepting to open an bank account).
• All reimboursements or payments will be made by bank transfer in LEI, Romanian currency, at the rate exchange of the project, between the hosting association and the volunteer and vice-versa, except situations were the amount is small and the transfer fee is not justified or the transfer can not be made.

All the costs with accommodation, facilities and related with activities will be payed by the HO

Accomodation

The volunteers will be divided into 4 communities from Dolj and Olt counties.

Similarities between communities:

• – In each community, volunteers will work with young people and children, through partnerships developed with schools and youth organizations
• – Each community has a hospital (with emergency room), supermarkets and socialization facilities at the level of small communities
• – All are considered cities, but they are localities with few citizens and with a daily life that brings more to the idea of villages
• – All localities have access by frequent public means of transport to Craiova (the county capital)

Aspects to score for all communities:

• – These communities are small communities, with warm and welcoming people, with children and young people who are eagerly waiting for you to come to their community
• – The zonal coordinator is in the community, together with young people and other resource persons from the community, all wanting to offer you pleasant memories and help you during the project
• – As part of the project, you will have two major visits to Craiova that will bring together all the volunteers from all 4 communities: one on August 12 at the Volunteer Festival (a large-scale event organized by our association that involves many young people, non-governmental organizations, local artists, etc.) and one on August 17 in which the association will prepare surprises for you in Craiova and a day full of beautiful experiences
• – We know that these localities have a good potential for developing the project and we are convinced that the volunteers will have unique experiences, despite the fact that they are not big cities. However, it represents a 42-day challenge for volunteers and a huge opportunity to experience new activities, together with relevant and welcoming people from the community

Partner countries

How to register

If you want to register to the project you can complete the application form by clicking HERE, and be a  from one of the following countries: Italy, Turkyie, Georgia, Jordan and Romania either as a citizen or resident. If you are selected, you will further receive more information about your participation in the phases of the project, practical information and next steps.

Team project in hosting community