Active Citizens participants are encouraged to undertake social participation in the various aspects of their lives, and, specifically, to undertake a Social Action Project as part of their learning journey. Social Action Projects are planned and delivered by the participants based on what they learned during the trainings and where they feel they can make a positive impact.
Nevenka Bončić, teacher at the Forestry and Woodworking Vocational School in Karlovac, manages a Social Action Project aiming to connect the school arboretum to the system of public lighting. Nevenka’s school is located in a green oasis with more than one thousand different species of trees and shrubs, however when the sun sets this beautiful park turns into a dark and unsafe area, often subject to devastation and violence. Supported by the British Council Nevenka, together with her colleagues and students, started a campaign to raise this issue and gain public support seeking to mobilise the authorities, stakeholders and potential donors and engage them into finding solution. What’s more they also included in their project active citizenship education for teachers and students involved with the project. Through this campaign Nevenka aims to teach her students that they can act as active citizens and start actions of their own to solve problems in their local communities.
This project is managed by Svjetlana Višnić and Ksenija Sanković from Karlovac Cinema Club and Melita Spahic Bezjak who runs a Centre for dance and performing arts Free Dance.
„Dance, Film, Action! Keep it Green!“ is a collaborative art initiative that seeks to introduce young people with alternative ways to have fun in the park. It infuses the creative and learning processes with the aim of drawing attention to the needs and problems of youth and children, preventing vandalism, involving young people in creative work and introducing children and youth to dance and film art. The activities that will take place within this social action project are lectures and workshops on creative process of dance filmmaking, dance and film workshops, introduction to dance library and public lecture at the Youth Library as well as workshops on active citizenship.
At the end of the project the participants will have created a dance video as a powerful tool for raising awareness of youth problems, such as vandalism and alcohol.
Free School association runs a project in Plaški, Lika region, in cooperation with Janja Gora Studio, an association that is already active in the community and provides creative clay art workshops. The aim of the project is to provide active citizenship training to 8th grade students of Plaški Primary School and to inspire the participants to start community initiatives that will strengthen youth leadership and community development. Project activities will commence in September 2011 and include active citizenship awareness workshops, as well as creative workshops. The final result of the project will be a wall mural depicting students' ideas for community development. Representatives of local authorities and parents will be invited to the presentation of the mural and the students will be able to assert their role as active citizens and potential community development leaders.
ZEdukacija project consists of five different ecology workshops for high school students of Sisak Moslavina County. It is managed by Active Citizens Adelita Selmić and Marina Kasa and implemented by NGOs, schools and other organizations that active in the field of youth work, ecology and community development.
The first workshop took place in April, at the Recycled Estate Vukomerić where our participants learned how Permaculture works in theory and praxis. The second workshop was on organic food production and it was held at the International Volunteers' Centre in Gvozd, where we were hosted by our project partner Suncokret.
This project aims to increase ecology awareness among high school students and teach them about life-concepts that exist in harmony with nature and have a creative and respectful approach to the human habitat.
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