Youth Volunteering Forces in Murter – Croatia.

Our youth exchange project “The GLUE project – Investing in young people” is in the middle of its follow up phase!

Recently we have published The GLUE video and first The GLUE project E-newsletter about volunteering. Please have a pick at the links and feel free to spread a good vibe we had during these past times.

Let me remind you of the main facts about our project:

The youth exchange “Invest in young people – the GLUE Project” was implemented in the period 29 September – 08 November 2017 in Murter, Croatia. The project allowed 40 unemployed youngsters from Croatia, Macedonia, Romania, Turkey, Portugal and Bulgaria to get together and learn more about volunteering and benefits we gain from it.

The main theme of the project was elaborated through various non formal methods of learning, learning by doing, role play activities, team-building, simulation, analyzing case studies, sharing practice workshops, discussion which allowed participants to learn more about the volunteers and how volunteers become the glue of the community. Through the project participants gained individual skills needed for the labour market, established links between society and people, learned how volunteers can help social inclusion of all groups in the society. The project gave participants the opportunity to practice and develop set of skills (e.g. presentational, research, problem-solving, and teamwork, communication and social skills) needed to better enter the labour market and boost their employability.

Our international group of participants had the chance to design and organize 4 open local volunteering actions in Murter and through them practice volunteering: Eco action focusing on cleaning the beach coast; painting and drawing on the wall in the local kindergarten; helping elderly people work with olives and providing them wood for the winter; rebuilding drystone walls in the archaeological site Colentum and help with cutting bushes and making space for a new pathway to be created were actions that allowed the participants to work for the benefit of the local community. Through the actions participants boost their self-confidence, self-esteem, and life satisfaction – they dedicated their personal time on doing well for others in the hosting community.

2 very useful and educative study visits were implemented during the project. Participants visited the association Most in Split where they learned about how one NGO deals and works with volunteers on daily base, what kind of volunteering actions are implemented in Split, what benefits do NGOs, volunteers and the local community have from volunteer work. Participants also visited the Center for Care and Education Juraj Bonaći in Split and had the possibility to interact with kids with disabilities, see how the Center functions, what activities these kids have during their day and simply have some fun time with the kids.

Following the project social media campaign was implemented by the participants of the project with the aim of raising awareness about the benefits gained from volunteering. The word was spread among local youngsters in all countries involved, pictures were collected and published on the International day of volunteers on the project Facebook page.

Campaign “I volunteer because…” is still on-going and you may join (till 28th February 2018) by sending a photo of yourself or your friend volunteer holding a paper in which is written your personal message about the reasons you volunteer, at ours or hosting organization email: mail@argonauta.hr, or by messenger directly to the The GLUE project facebook page.

Real life lessons don’t lie in books, but in working with selfless people like you. Thanks for reading this and volunteering!