Play Your Cards Right II - Summer Challenge

After the winter training Play Your Card Right! we decided to move our idea further and organize an upgraded version of the training. Based on our previous experience we felt that one phase training missed the follow-up part. We wanted to support participants not only by giving them theoretical and experiential input, but also to see the output of the project. Thus we organized a three phase project.



Three parts:
Part I. - Training course in CZ: 6th - 13th June 2015 /excluding travelling days)
Part II. - Put in Action: between June and August 2015
Part III. - Epilogue in CZ: 28th - 29th August 2015 (excluding travelling days)

In the first part we provided youth workers with experience and theoretical knowledge of experiential education. In the second part we supported them in planning and preparing their projects using methods of experiential education back at their countries. The third phase was the evaluation process when we met at the end of the summer to evaluate our learning process and reflect on our experience.

On this blog there are some of the projects which were held in participants´ countries.

Croatian summer projects

Heart of Adriatic – experience it, preserve it

Where? National Park „Kornati“, Croatia, boat trip

When? 21.08.2015., 9 a.m. – 17.30 p.m.

Who? Around 40 children from the summer school for the „little swimmers“ (age 4 – 6) and volunteers from 3 partner organisations(12-15)

Why?
The main goals of the project were:

• to bring awareness about enviromental preservation to kids
• understanding the importance of preserving natural habitat 
• to promote a healthy lifestyle. 

That is why we took them to the area of the Kornati National Park that is characterized as an area rich in extremely important submarine communities. During the sail on the boat, the voulunteers gave the lecture to the kids about the flaura and fauna in the Adriatic sea, how to preserve it, how to treat it responsably and respect the nature. Also there was a short presentation safety on water.
On the biggest and the most famous island – Telaščica, we saw the big, wild and rough cliffs and the salt lake called «Mir» with its curative characteristics. We also saw the area of the Aleppo pine-trees and holly oak woods and other interesting species. At the end on the visit to the island, the kids showed us what did they learn at the „swimming school“.
On the way back, the children handed out some flyers to the other tourists at the boat, took some pictures with the, shared their opinions about the trip.

More info: http://www.b-portal.hr/2015/09/08/zavrsen-projekt-sigurnost-na-vodi-sedamdesetero-djece-naucilo-plivati-djeca-i-odrasli-upoznati-o-opasnostima-na-moru/

Youth Exchange "Live Healthy, Be Wealthy", Trenkovo, 06. - 15.07.2015.

What? 10 day youth exchange for 25 participants from Bulgaria, Italy, Czech Republic, Finland and Croatia

Who? Croatian Outward Bound 

Description: We believe that living a healthy lifestyle is a fundamental component to achieve optimal mental and physical well-being and that sport is a tool for social inclusion and tolerance. In this 10 day project the  proved the importance of everyday physical activity and balanced diet through outdoor activities, games, workshops, personal projects and discussions.  They became promoters of a healthy, wealthy and happy life bringing their energy in the center of Pozega, where they had a flash mob, a very powerful "hymn to the healthy living".

http://www.outwardboundcroatia.com/en/youth-exchange-july-2015/

Video from the project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gi6cgMpV-HQ

Czech and Slovakian summer projects

Little explorer of nature

What? This project was a five-day suburban camp in Prague. 
Who? The organizer was the association Ekodomov.
When? 29. 6. 2015 - 3. 7. 2015
For whom? In the camp there were 12 children and two teachers. The children arrived in the morning and in the afternoon went home with their parents. 
Where? The camp was held in forest kindergarten Šárynka. 
The main goal was to provide children with the exploring experience of Czech countryside. We mainly spent time outside - discovering, researching, playing, exploring our surroundings.

What we learned:

• to recognize trees, insects and birdsnot only by their voices.
• to recognize which plants use to cook healthy tea and which plants use to dye textiles
• how to make our own soap and bake our own sourdough bread in our clay oven 
• and much more!

        

Evka and Matúš´s project

Once upon a time, there was a group of young students eager to organise a Conference. However, their motivation to bring the Conference to reality had decreased. Fortunately, two members of the team did not loose hope and decided to do a teambuilding for their colleagues. And the project during the course was a perfect occasion. 

Who? Eva Phanvanová and Matúš Adamkovič

What? teambuilding meeting for the Organisational Committee (Org.Com) of the Conference.

It was a one-day event, which started in a picturesque nature of Sásovská dolina near Banská Bystrica in Slovakia. We had a picnic and we just relaxed and chatted. Afterwards, we went to Banská Bystrica and stayed in a tea house, where we did our teambuilding activities. 

Goals: to raise motivation of our colleagues and to raise awareness of the tasks and responsibilities of each of them. Our goal was to motivate them to put energy and effort into their work and to build a team spirit. 

Outputs: We find good relationships among the members of a team the foundation for a good team work. Event though the number of participants at our teambuilding meeting was lower than expected, we had a great time together and we find the overall meeting as productive and successful.

Hungarian summer projects

Panka´s project

What? Team building weekend for my Foreign Affairs Committee (of my university) at Lake Balaton. 

For whom? My target group was a group of university students (between 19-26), we were 9 of us. 

Goals: My aim was to get know their needs and expectations and their feedbacks about my work, because I'm the leader of our Foreign Affairs Committee and I want to improve the team for more efficient future cooperation.

Flow: Basically I started our sessions with energizers and in order to get know each other more (and our new member) we played some get-to-know-each-other games, name games, etc. 

Output: So far I can say it worked, because those who participated the weekend are really active, 100% members of the committee, I feel they take more responsibility and care of our programs and activities with the Erasmus students.

Trip to the Middle of the Sun

What? 3-day training course in a small Hungarian village, Mátranovák 

When? At the beginning of August 2015.

For whom? This training is made for NGO’s workers and youth workers of a group of 15-20, to help them to raise their self-awareness and social sensitivity.

What is it about? The training leads the participant to a fabulous world of tales and adventures where they can connect with nature, themselves and their resources. We are working with the methods of folk therapy, experiential learning, and the Hero’s Journey model by Joseph Campbell. The weekend has a frame of a Hungarian folk tale, and with the activities participants are led through the whole tale, where they are going through the stage of the Hero’s Journey process, the departure, the initiation and the return.

The departure has the main phases of ‘the call to adventure’, ‘refusal of the call’, ‘supernatural aid’, ‘crossing of the first threshold’, which are followed by the steps of the initiation, ‘the road of trials’, ‘meeting the mentor’, ‘temptation’, and ‘the ultimate boon’. And the main elements of the return are ‘refusal of the return’, ‘the magic flight’, ‘crossing the return threshold’,’master of the two worlds’ and the ‘freedom to live’.

The learning process of the training are supported by various solo and group activities, such as storytelling, campfire, inner journey, guided visualisation, games, group challenges and hiking.

                             Cypriot summer project
  

Plan it by the sea

“Plan it by the sea” was a single-day project of activities on the beach and the idea behind it was that it should be a response to a problem we observed in our community. We noticed that Cypriots tend to stick with their old friends and are not very open to making new ones. Therefore, the goal of our project was to give the participants the opportunity to meet new people, cooperate and have fun with them in order to promote socializing. 

We had around 20 participants from 19 to 28 years old and most of them were friends of our friends.

We started at around 10am with some energizers and name games to break the ice. At the last name game (the “blanket”) we separated the group in two teams and each one had to come up with a name and a slogan. After a short break we explained that for the games that would follow we would count the points of each team in buckets of sea water. The team that would collect the most water at the end of the day would be the winning team. 

¨

We continued the morning session with 5 team-building games and then, had a big break and lunch together at the restaurant of the beach. During the break, the participants had free time which turned out to be a great opportunity to get to know each other better. 

We started the afternoon session with some short energizers and continued with the two big activities of the day. The first was the Commando Course which was quite demanding isince the participants had to give their best performance and work together in order to 

finish with the best time. They also had to cooperate to prevent the other team from 

winning by throwing at them sea-water. 

The second activity was Zumba on the sand. Even though it didn’t require any team work abilities it was the best conclusion to the day since it gave the participants the chance to dance and have fun with their new acquaintances. One of the highlights of that day was that many random tourists who were there joined us and 

danced with us, proving that dancing always brings people closer. 

We closed our project around 7pm with a reflection in a circle where the participants gave us some feedback and share their feelings after their experience.