Our non-profit organization works with young people since its very beginning in 2008 - long before it got its name and was officially created. The common features of the first events were activities in nature, a lot of outside and board games, singing with guitars, but also preparing food for everybody and cleaning the cottage. The goal was to lead children to realize that they can have fun without computers and alcohol – and even while working.
Since 2008 up to the present day our organization works with children in the form of weekend activities. They are mostly events at a cottage, but we have also organized a number of trips by train.
To keep improving our youth work, some of our members participate in international training courses within the Erasmus+ programme. In 2015 we managed to organize such a course in the Czech Republic focusing on the latest trends in the area of non-formal learning. In 2016 we held a similar one focusing on intercultural learning and we also took part in a youth exchange in High Tatras.
The year 2017 was a huge step forward in our international activities, since we managed to organize 5 projects - youth exchanges as well as training courses. Around 150 young people from 11 different countries took part in these projects. The most successful one was probably the project Get Your Own Picture, which brought 50 young filmmakers to Prague, where they shoot short movies together. In the same year, we also organized our first project abroad - it was a trainig course focusing on shooting short movies in the beautiful village of Patara in Turkey.
At that time, we were also very enthusiastic about our series of 4 projects named Summer Camp Adventure, which brought motivated youth from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Spain to our summer camp, where they had chance to experience the job of a camp leader and learn to prepare activities for children.
Our biggest success and adventure so far was a training course in Lebanon, which we organized in February 2019 in cooperation with Amel Association, which is a lebanese NGO providing help to refugees, and an experienced trainer Ieva Grundsteine. During the 8 days in Beirut, we visited a refugee camp and a refugee educational and social centre. We heard personal stories of the refugees and learned how the Amel Association helps them in their difficult situation.
In 2021, we again managed to widen the geographic reach of our activities when we organized a training course in Yerevan, Armenia. It was a very valuable project, thanks to which many young Europeans had the first chance in their lives to learn what it is like to live in the middle of a war conflict and they had the chance to reflect their feelings in their short movies, which you can see on our YouTube channel. In 2022, we organized already a fourth version of our project Digital Youth, this time again in Turkey. We also continued in the tradition of our projects about organization of summer camps - within Summer Camp Challenge, we shared our experience with Turkish youth leaders, who are now able to organize their own summer camps in Turkey.
Each year, we are sending young people also to projects organized by our partner organizations. We publish information about all the upcoming projects at this page. If you are interested in taking part in any of the projects, don't hesitate and contact us at the email address lukas.dumsky@centrum.cz.
The international projects that we organize are co-financed by the European Union through the Erasmus+ programme.
Therefore, we cooperate with Dům zahraniční spolupráce, which is the Czech National Agency for Erasmus+.
Type of project: youth exchange
Dates: 1. - 9. 10. 2023
Venue: Mersin, Turkey
Description:
Digital art, which emerged in the 1960s, was created in order to draw attention to social problems by reaching and influencing large masses of people. Are you interested in social (and societal :)) issues and would like to learn to address them in new, creative ways? Would you like to learn to make an impact on people around you by painting a digital picture or shooting a video? Or are you already experienced in digital art and would like to become more socially active? In the project, you will join like-minded people, exchange experiences and opinions, learn a variety of new skills (creativity, digital skills, communication in English...) and work on interesting art projects. During this process, you will gain new international friends and explore the beautiful city and beaches of Mersin.
You can find more information in the infopack below. If you are interested in the project, fill in our application form.
Type of project: training course for youth workers
Dates: 19. - 28. 10. 2023
Venue: Tábor, Czech Republic
Description:
The training course „Skin in the Game" will gather young leaders who are starting to be active in youth work and need to gain more experience in order to turn into independent “leaders” that are able to organize activities on their own. Together, participants are going to work on their leaderships and communication skills, get more knowledge about the area of youth work and non formal education, try to organize educational activities on their own and gain confidence and motivation to become active youth workers. The training course is based on principles of non formal education no lectures, lots of various activities and games, hands on experience.
You can find more information and application form in the infopack:
Type of project: youth exchange
Dates: 30.10. - 8. 11. 2023
Venue: Erdemli, Turkey
Description:
Our project aims to improve young people's motivation on using digital tools and raise awareness on digital entrepreneurship. We want to give participants useful knowledge and show them different aproach to problem solving. After the exchange, the youth participants will have the potential to: improve technology skills related to real life obstacles, provide safe and conscious internet usage, provide the use of alternative Web 2.0 by reducing online games and social media addiction, develop skills to cope with cyber bullying, participate in more social activities (excursions and sports activities, social responsibility projects, etc.), reduce technology addiction and increase their skills to combat useless social media activities. We want to create space for multicultural dialogue and place for developing ideas. We will work through methods such as workshops, debates, sessions with specialists, recreating experiments.
You can find more infromation in the infopack below. If you already know that you are interested in the project, fill in our application form.
2015 - Magic of Non-Formal Learning
2016 - Multipliers of ICL and ICD
2016 - Eco-Entrepreneur (High Tatras)
2017 - Gender Awareness to be Aware (Estonia)
2017 - Multipliers of Non-formal and Intercultural Communication (Turkey)
2017 - Creative Entreprise (Italy)
2017 - 2019 - The Long Way to Europe (Romania, Poland, Italy, Cyprus)
2018 - Through Outdoor Experiential Learning to the Best of You(th)
2018 - EMpathY: Emotional Management, The Path for Youth - TC (Romania)
2018 - Green Youth Media (Turkey)
2018 - EMpathY: Emotional Management, The Path for Youth - YE (Romania)
2019 - Critical Thinking Youth FORCE (Latvia)
2019 - Improve Leadership Skills throught Storytelling
2019 - Nature and Primitive Technology (Spain)
2021 - Lab for Life (Ukrajina)
2021/2022 - Move in a Green Way
