Our main goal is to teach children about active citizenship and to boost youth engagement in the local community. We intend to train local volunteers so that they can be actively involved in our summer camp and in the social and cultural life of the community. We believe that the participation of young people in the social and civic life at the local level is crucial to provide them with the necessary skills to be active citizens.
Target group: 50 children, 20 young volunteers

Bucharest, district 1, Romania

Over the last decades, Romania has registered an increase in the emigration rate, especially of young people. According to data, almost half of the Romanian youth want to leave the country in search of a better salary and standard of living. Within our program, we intend to foster active citizenship and community engagement. We believe that, if young people are provided with the necessary tools to unveil their potential, and if their voices are taken into account, they will become part of the solution to current societal challenges rather than simply seek new opportunities abroad. Additionally, young people often do not take part in the voting process, due to a sense of distrust and impotence. We thus want to stress the importance of voting for leaders to represent all Romanian citizens.

We strongly believe that civic engagement should focus on the next generation of active citizens, namely children and young people. We aim to raise awareness on the importance of civic responsibility and participation and to make youths understand that “no one is too small to make a difference”. We thus aim to empower local youth to make them better understand the community needs as well as the role they can play to bring about change. In so doing, they can also discover new opportunities for their personal and professional development at the local level. Ultimately, by providing civic education opportunities to children and adolescents, we intend to promote intercultural dialogue and cooperation as well as to foster resilience in the face of the challenges brought about by the pandemic.

Stage1: promotion of the project in the local context and on the social media. Fundația Bucureștii Noi is already well-known for its social programs and non-formal activities for children and will seek to increase interest in local volunteering among young people
Stage2: training for the volunteers. Local volunteers will be trained on civic education activities that will be carried out throughout the summer camp. Specific workshops about community engagement and civil society activism will take place before the start of the summer camp. Additionally, every year, Fundația Bucureștii Noi hosts a number of young foreign volunteers. This represents a great opportunity for both local volunteers and children to come into contact with new cultures and to learn about active citizenship in other countries. The training program will last from october 2021 to july 2022
Stage3: implementation of the project. Non-formal education activities on active citizenship will be implemented throughout the summer camp which will take place in July and August
Stage4: Follow-up. Feedback will be gathered to assess project’s deliverables and outcomes. Child-friendly surveys will be distributed among participants, asking them their overall degree of satisfaction and providing multiple choice questions on the topics covered during the summer camp to assess if the program has been able to reach its goal

At the end of the project, we expect children and young people to have acquired knowledge and skills to be active citizens. In order to evaluate our program’s effectiveness, we intend to assess the results by comparing children’s and volunteers’ initial knowledge of active citizenship and their level of understanding of these topics at the end of the experience. This will be done through two child-friendly surveys to be completed respectively on the first and last day of the activities. Ultimately, we expect children and young people to become agents of their own development and to be able to disseminate what they have learnt.

This project will positively impact its direct beneficiaries, children and youths at the local level, but will also have positive spill over effects on the broader community. Once children and youths become catalysts of positive change, they will disseminate motivation among their peers. Furthermore, they will be able to actively participate in community, social and civic life by committing themselves to volunteering at the local level. Fundația Bucureștii Noi will always welcome local youths for its non-formal education activities that are carried out throughout the year, aiming to become a point of reference for all those who which to make a real, tangible change to improve the quality of life of people in distress.

Several people contributed to this idea. The project manager and the project coordinator developed the road map for the non-formal education activities focusing on active citizenship and the overall plan of action. Concurrently, our team of Italian volunteers, who have been collaborating with us through the Italian national civil service program, helped develop the full idea. This cause is important to us because we truly believe youth engagement is the key to address current societal issues and drive profound and positive change for the generations to come.

Human Resources (public relations, personnel, trainers, administration) 21000 EUR

Promotion (online & offline) 3000 EUR

Equipment 8000 EUR

Consumables 3000 EUR

We are open to any kind of advice and suggestions regarding youth development and active citizenship-related activities.