CONECT project in Saschiz, Rupea and Valea Viilor aims to create volunteer corps
05.08.2010
| The PAPI centres in Saschiz, Rupea and Valea Viilor are starting a project aiming to create a corps of volunteers. The regional project “PAPI Volunteers” is being financed with 25,570 Lei from the CONECT programme. |
The project is of common interest to all the three partner communities: volunteering, a topic that direct beneficiaries and members of the target group will jointly explore. The topic was selected by all three partner communities and reflects the needs and interest of beneficiaries of becoming more visible in the community through concrete actions.
The project is also based on the need of increasing access and involvement of young people in PAPI, by creating a group of volunteers that would promote RECL services and projects and support their implementation. The main activities in the calendar of the project are selecting a group of volunteers in each partner community, training them so they can help in future activities (including IT trainings), involving them in a competition to create the community’s page, organising a common camp for training and team-building, initiating partnerships and good practices exchanges, as well as concrete actions with young volunteers for different target groups in the community.
“The project answers the need to open up a dialogue and a cooperation between the young people and the local administration in each partner community, in order to correctly identify the issues youth are facing that require public attention. They will be involved in volunteering activities that facilitate community development as a whole and especially those that promote RECL activities and services. The reason behind that special attention is that RECL integrates four very important institutions in the community’s life: City Hall, PAPI, school and library”, Florentina Călugăr, RECL manager in Saschiz, says.
PAPI services, advertised in the community
The project helps promote PAPI services in each partner community, according to age groups, profession and type of services; currently, most PAPI beneficiaries are children.
“Past experience shows that when there was a coordinated initiative, it was successfully implemented. For instance, founding the folkloric ensemble in Saschiz, in 2009, or creating a group of four young volunteers that, for one day, helped clean up the space where the Village Feast in Saschiz took place. These were isolated cases, which can however become a starting point and an optimistic premise in our work to set up a volunteer corps at PAPI, one that would be well organised, with a structured action plan for the short and medium term, with regular meetings and events in the community”, Călugăr explains.
PAPI volunteer corps
As a result of implementing activities in the project, members of the target group will become accustomed to volunteering; the community’s needs that need public attention will be identified (measures to answer those needs will be included in the short and medium-term plan of the PAPI Volunteers); there will be a transfer of good practices between partners; IT skills will develop by creating a webpage for each community in the project’s portal. In each of the three communities there will be a group of PAPI volunteers supporting local administration in advertising community initiatives and projects, generally, and specifically RECL services and projects.
Direct beneficiaries of the project are 30 young people (10 from each community) in the last year of secondary school and high school, aged 12 to 18, which will participate directly in the activities. They will also spend five days in a camp where they will learn about volunteering. Other direct beneficiaries are three RECL managers, two IT administrators and four teachers actively involved in organising activities. Last but not least, the project benefits PAPI centres and City Halls in each community.
“It’s a very interesting project that supports the direct involvement of young people in the community. We are waiting to know the future PAPI volunteers and use what they will learn during the project. Saschiz, as a KEP community, is actively involved in this project that we consider very important for the local administration and the locals themselves”, Saschiz Mayor Ovidiu Şoaită says.
The three partner communities have at least two things in common: on one hand, they are KEP communities and each Electronic Network of the Local Community (RECL) has developed new services and activities, good practice examples that can be replicated by partners. On the other hand, have great touristic potential due to the cultural heritage. Valea Viilor and Saschiz have fortified churches listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and Rupea and Saschiz have castles included on the national monuments list.
Online resources:
Modern equipment for a company in Saschiz, financed by the e-Growth programme
RECL Saschiz – the Champion of Young Talents
Keywords: CONECTvolunteersprojectSaschizValea ViilorRupea