The main goal of this project is to connect young people with nature by developing their personal competencies and practical skills through meaningful outdoor experiences. The project will support participants in finding and setting their own boundaries, using nature as a resource to launch new ideas, increasing their motivation as well as building physical and mental strength.
BASIC INFORMATION
Topic: developing personal competencies and practical skills through nature
Dates: from 08.06.- 14.06.2021.
Location: Samobor, Croatia
Age of participants: 18 to 25 years
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES
- improve the physical health and emotional well-being of participants through outdoor activities;
- increase self-awareness, personal self-confidence and self-esteem through accepting challenges, achieving success and learning from their mistakes;
- develop physical literacy and specific activity skills that will enable them to enjoy outdoor activities now and in the future;
- combine practical and field methods to promote greater understanding and respect for nature, local society and culture;
- develop a deeper awareness and understanding of the environment of the participants and motivate them to actively seek opportunities to reduce their impact on the environment;
- increase their intercultural awareness and communication in a foreign language;
- increase your knowledge of the Erasmus + program and the Youthpass certificate.
METHODS AND ACTIVITIES
This project will awaken the positive feelings of the participants as well as encourage them to think outside the box. Participants will learn how to find a measure in the use of technology, and direct it in the right way.
Throughout the project, mobile phones will be used as little as possible, will be used for the purpose of recording video material that will be used to disseminate the results of the project. This project will improve the learning success of the participants, increase their sense of initiative and entrepreneurship, as well as self-empowerment and self-esteem. Furthermore, their foreign language competences, intercultural awareness and motivation to participate in future education and training will increase.
WORKSHOPS
This youth exchange will be organized in Samobor, Croatia, and will include 20 young people and 4 group leaders from 4 countries: Croatia, Greece, Portugal and Romania.
Through various methods, participants are introduced to the topic of the project. The choice of non-formal education method will put participants at the center of their learning process, as it will give them the most important role in conducting workshops and encourage their active participation. This will result in improving their teamwork, gaining practical skills, improving their communication and achieving learning goals. The methods used in the main activity are storytelling, nature-based games, discussions, team games, orientation exercises, research and thinking.
INFLUENCE
This project will affect participants in the following ways:
- It will promote their creativity and imagination, as well as enable them to interact meaningfully with the environment.
– Slobodnije će razmišljati, dizajnirati vlastite aktivnosti i pristupiti svijetu na inventivan način.
- It will teach them responsibilities.
- It will provide a different stimulation, nature actually activates more senses - you can see, hear, smell and touch external environments.
- Most ways of interacting with nature involve exercising: participants will become aware that they do not need to engage only in sports or other structured activities to spend time in nature and improve their physical condition.
- It will make them think, because nature creates a unique sense of wonder for the participants that no other environment can provide.
- It will reduce stress and fatigue, urban environments require what is called focused attention, which makes us ignore distractions and exhaust the brain. In the natural environment, we practice the kind of effortless attention known as soft fascination that creates a sense of pleasure rather than fatigue.
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