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: training course for youth workers
Dates: 3. - 10. 5. 2024
Venue: Tábor, Czech Republic
Project content:
“Connect for Impact” is a training course focused on networking, which aims to connect youth workers from different youth organizations in order to:
Form new partnerships and develop project ideas.
Exchange good practices and inspire each other.
Gain new motivation and “drive” for their work on youth projects.
You can find more information in the infopack:
Type of project: youth exchange
Dates: 10. - 22. 6. 2024
Venue: Slavňovice, Czech Republic
Project content:
1) Intercultural learning → because we will be staying together with people from other countries and we want to use the chance to learn as much as possible, become more open and respectful.
2) Sustainability → because we will be staying at our beautiful campsite and we want to use the chance to make you more aware about nature around us and the importance of protecting it.
3) Active citizenship → because we don‘t want you to keep what you learn only to yourself, but to share it in your community and influence others.
You can find more information in the infopack:
Type of project: training course for youth workers
Dates: 21. - 23. 9. 2024 (+ 2-4 travel days)
Venue: Tábor, Czech Republic
Project content:
Our European societies are increasingly filled with disinformation and fake news that aim to awaken fear in people and undermine their trust in democratic institutions as well as one another. The information war of Russia against the EU is more intense than ever. Partly because of the power of disinformation narratives, people are losing the ability to discuss common issues constructively, disagree with respect. Disregarding different opinions as stupid can eventually lead to radicalization of those people, who originally only wished to be listened to.
At the same time, media literacy is being underestimated at schools in most European countries. Youth are often lacking the chance to talk about their opinions with others in a safe space, discuss and be confronted with other points of view. Even though these seem to be the most crucial skills these days.
The idea of this TC is simple: Let‘s Talk!
An infopack with more information is coming soon.
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
