Among the students we will recruit 100 participants and create 10 teams. Each team will participate in a series of 12 meetings improving their competences as local leaders and engaging them in volunteering. Sum of training hours for all teams will be 360 (120 meetings). The meetings will include personal development workshops, certified American training programs for the youth as well as practical trainings.

Ciechanow, Mazovian Voivodeship, Poland

Working as an association since 2016 and earlier as an informal group sine 2005, we have been observing a problem of reaching young people at the age of 14-21 in our town. During various events we conducted many conversations with young people and came to the conclusion that their awareness and knowledge about NGO activity is limited. Most of them identify volunteering or working for NGO as disadvantageous, unprofitable. They reacted with surprise and disbelief once the members of our association mentioned possibilities such as trainings, workshops, personal development, having impact on the community of our town. Young volunteers expressed their interest in engaging in social initiatives if they were provided with a proper external stimulus such as promotional meetings.

Our target group are young people at the age of 14-21, students of 10 schools located in Ciechanów. According to data we collected from the schools, at this moment the total number od students is 2800. Our real impact will reach half of them, i.e. 1400 students. As we conclude based on GUS statistics, with cooperation with teachers we will be able to
engage 7% of the students attending the meetings (i.e. 100 young people). They will form 10 teams to go through the 12-meeting program (in summary 360 hours of training). Each team will initiate or participate in at least one social initiative.

PROMOTIONAL MEETINGS in school gyms, common rooms or another space which allows to reach large groups of students. In case of room issues, additional meetings will be held in smaller groups in order to finally reach as many students as possible until we reach the result indicator.
TRAINING PROGRAM FOR THE YOUTH
As an effect of school meetings, cooperation with teachers and via our website and Facebook page students will be recruited to join the training teams. Each group will go through a 12-meeting program, 3 hours each. They will take place in our education center and/or in schools. Training agenda will strongly focus on:
1. Certified American programs for the youth: YouthMaxx and ChangeYourWorld.
2. Communication, cooperation, managing emotions.
3. NGO, volunteering, social activities, initiating and managing projects.
In the training we implement the methodology of John Maxwell Team – an American training organization.

EVENT
To sum up the project we will organize an event, during which the participants will join 4 trainings and a teambuilding challenge focused on both physical and intellectual effort, partly inspired by Boot Camp - American military training. Combining intellectual effort with physical challenges (paintball, archery tag, climbing) was proven by psychological research to build strong sense of identity and belonging to the group.

Implementing our project will increase the number of third sector volunteers in our town and will permanently raise the awareness of social initiatives, as well as functioning and form of working in NGOs. As a result of training program the participants will gain or improve their competence. Participants will be provided with visual identification such as t-shirts and blouses, which will assure their participation in visible to citizens. This will raise awareness of volunteers’ role and engagement.

By creating a positive experience of the participation in our project we hope to build a long-lasting memory in young people’s minds, which will as a result be a trigger for them to join the third sector. This project will influence young people’s engagement in the civic life of the town and region, encouraging them to participate in local initiatives. Inspiring the youth and giving them a toolkit of new competences will be a starting point in shaping new local leaders, who will influence the community in the future.

Core of the project team are

Maciej Kraszewski - leader of educational ngo in Ciechanow since 2005. As educator, trainer and certified coach he works with youth to develop their skills, learn to communicate, entrepreneurship. Provides trainings and workshops for teachers and NGO leaders how to work with young people and grow their potential.

Sandra Kraszewska - psychologist working with youth, helping them develop interpersonal skills, deal with problems. She train teachers and parents how to work and support teenagers.

Lukasz Niewiadomski - educator working with youth since 2005. As vice president of our organization. He works with volunteers, teach them skills like project design, teamwork and work management.

And rest of our amazing team :)

12000€ the cost of training for youth
7000€ integration/ certification event
6000€ personel cost
4000€ clothing and gadgets for youth

Does our world need well-trained volunteers?
What are your ideas how to create local community leaders of the future?
This project is strongly inspired by united voluntary organizations gathered around common values, like Peace Patrol in Poland.