Τhe project

Today’s political developments make volunteering not only a central factor, but also a life-saving force for thousands of people. The fundamental idea of the project is based on promoting teachers and students’ civic spirit and solidarity experiences through volunteering, while improving their digital skills. Nowadays, European solidarity emerges through civic engagement actions and employment of resources, knowledge, and skills in the service of fellow human beings. Since secondary school students are the ones who will be the first to finish school and contribute to society in the next couple of years, their preparation is essential, not for a distant and unpredictable future but for tomorrow, when adversity is so obviously knocking on our door.

The manifestation of European solidarity, our democratic values, responsibility, perseverance, and their application in a digital world will all be served by the outputs of this project. Teachers will develop the ability to reach and inspire students, even from afar, students will enhance their critical thinking & sense of responsibility and furthermore and learn project management skills to exercise volunteering in a structured and impactful way. Schools, parents, local NGOs and local communities will be given the tools to cooperate like they have never done before. Now, more than ever, a project about volunteering is necessary for implementing change and for channeling the European value of solidarity and community service, from this generation to the next.

Objectives

The aim of the VoterS project is to reinforce a sense of community service and to develop a volunteering mind frame in teachers and students at secondary schools and use innovative digital tools to support them in participating in democratic life and service learning. As volunteering complements the idea that education is a method for social improvement, aimed at forming individuals with both an intellectual and a moral dimension, having the appropriate tools to apply it, can truly make a change in European societies. Through the VoterS project we aim to combine learning and community services to create thoughtful, active, and responsible citizens who will have a deep understanding of the social reality in which they live. Along the way we will provide to all participants, teachers, students, and schools, the necessary skills to responsibly exercise the rules of co-existence in a democratic society, fulfilling their responsibilities as European citizens.

VoterS at a glance:

• Online Symposium: Volunteering in secondary education (online event with school teachers from all countries)
• Development of teachers’ training course (curriculum and learning material for a 4 days course)
• Organisation of a 4-day transnational teacher’s workshop
• Development of lesson plans for the schools
• Online teachers’ workshop (exchange of lesson plans)
• Development of e-learning platform
• Mapping of local community needs by students
• 15 reports (5 per school partner) on local NGOs or organizations offering volunteering opportunities in each of their local communities
• Design volunteering campaigns (teachers and students)
• 3 detailed volunteering campaigns which will include: Assessment of needs, evaluation of human resources and assets, SMART goals, KPIs and Assessment method
• Implementation of volunteering activities
• Creation of students’ diaries: 10 digital diaries created by each school (30 diaries in total) by an equivalent number of students. Each diary will contain at least one podcast, one video, photos and one written text in the form of a diary (documenting events with a time sequence)
• Translation of all project’s results in ES, CAT, EN, EL, IT
• Students’ mobility “How we develop a digital diary” that will be attended by 5 students per partner school (15 students in total) and 1-2 teachers per partner organization (10 teachers in total). It will last 4 days with a working program of 6 hours per day
• Students’ mobility “Experiences and lessons learnt” that will be attended by the same number of students and teachers as the first mobility
• 7 “Volunteers from School” Local Schools Engagement Events (1 event in Girona, 1 in Madrid, 1 in Piraeus, 2 in Athens and 2 in Palermo).