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Adventure for Democracy Camping | Civic Europe
Community development, Youth participation and empowerment

Adventure for Democracy Camping

An accessible place for everyone, where civic engagement and democracy are spread throughout the community.

Creators

Who is behind this?

Patricia Ciocan

Social Mobility and Democratic Education Association

http://www.amosed.ro

Romania

Idea

Idea pitch

We want to create a space where young people from Turda and surrounding areas can gather together and organise local projects. Thus, our project facilitates the dialogue between people with different backgrounds and experiences while working on the projects. We act on two fields: we stimulate organization of activities in our local community and youth development in project management. All these will be organized in a camp, accessible for all local NGOs without involving additional costs.

Where will your project idea take place?

Turda and surrounding areas, Cluj county, Northwestern Romania

What is the specific societal challenge faced by this region?

There are little to none opportunities for our community to learn about civic cohesion and to be involved in developing their community. Therefore, the level of active citizenship will continue to remain very low until activities which tackle this problem will be implemented. Our approach is to facilitate the implementation of a series of workshops which will provide the essential knowledge for planning and implementing activities for the community. At the same time, the people involved in the organizing workshops will gain skills and valuable know-how that is useful for their future projects, so it becomes more likely that they will implement other initiatives in the future. In this way, we aim at the removal of social lethargy in our community.

Who are you doing it for?

1. Local NGOs from Turda and surrounding areas which will have a space where to organize activities that will stimulate civic cohesion and youth engagement
2. At least 600 young people from Turda and surrounding areas will learn how to contribute to a positive change in their society. They will develop skills such as project management, communication, financial, technical and marketing skills that will facilitate better local projects, which will help them to implement projects in the community.
3. Local community which will benefit from the initiatives created by the participants of the activities implemented in the camping

How do you plan to get there?

In January 2022 we plan to purchase the land that will be used in setting the camp. We will build the construction consisting of utilities and a conference area. We will create a website that will include sections with information about this initiative, the applying process for the NGOs that would like to use the camp for organising civic initiatives.
In May 2022 we will start increasing the visibility of our initiative by inviting local NGOs to organize activities in the camp. By doing so, we will popularize the camp using our previous collaborations with local NGOs.
From May to November, all local NGOs that aim at developing our local community will be invited to organize civic projects here. In order to assure transparency and fairness we will implement an application system. Every single NGO that would like to use the camp will have to fill an online form in which they will offer details about their organization, the period when it will take place, details about the project, number and category of participants and if they need additional equipment.
We will also decorate and equip the camp with facilities that will offer a welcoming experience for people who will use it such as bean bags, tents, garden lights, benches and hammocks.

What are the expected results?

At the end of the project, in November 2022 we will have at least 30 activities that were organized in the camp by local nonprofit organizations. We expect an average of 20 participants at every activity. All participants will gain basic knowledge about how to contribute to a positive change in their community as well as the skills necessary for the implementation of activities which tackle social issues. We will see a growth of civic engagement in the entire area over time because a lot more young people will become socially active and will be able to identify the issues in their community and initiate activities to solve them.

How does your idea strengthen active citizenship at a local and community level?

The Turda’s community do not have civic places which could be used by young people for organizing local projects. Once this camping will be created, it will become a space used for facilitating exchange of different ideas that will determine social inclusion. Exchange of ideas will involve sharing good practices in organizing local projects that will facilitate organizing better projects. Young people will develop skills such as project management, communication skills, teamwork that will help them in becoming more competent in tackling local social issues. The developed skills will also help them to integrate better on the job market. All in all, our local community will have more strategic projects, more opportunities for young people and highly skilled volunteers.

Why is this idea important to you?

The project manager, Damian Ovidiu Cristian has organized more than 50 local projects for youth. Financial manager, Ciocan Patricia has over 4 years experience in organizing and participating at youth programs that aim at increasing social engagement. Marincean Leonardo Mihai is the marketing manager. He organized more than 100 projects for youth and he has a wide experience in training young people and developing them a wide variety of skills. Roman-Crisan Horia is the coordinator of community relations. At the moment he coordinates a NGOs network that contains more than 100 local NGOs. All four are accredited as youth workers. They live in Turda and are very connected with the local community, implementing projects in it for over 6 years.

€ 35000,-

Total budget

€ 35000,-

Funding requested from Civic Europe

Major expenses

Land: 12.000 euro - it is necessary for setting the camp
Fence: 3.000 euro - it is necessary to protect the land and to restrict the access to it.
Construction: 15.000 euro - it will include an area with toilets, showers and a conference area
Promotion: 5.000 euro - paid ads will increase the project's online visibility

What do you need from the Civic Europe community?

What should a camping include for you in order for you to be convinced to constantly organize events there?

Team

patriciaciocan

Idea created on April 26, 2021
Last edit on April 26, 2021

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