Partner - Socialinis Sufleris
Regions - Vilnius and Vilnius districts
Since 2020
Since 2020, The British Council Lithuania and the Social Breeze programme have co-organised volunteering projects for 15-18-year-old school students.
Volunteering plays an important role in building the social cohesion of communities and the percentage of young people in Lithuania who are active volunteers is steadily increasing. Volunteering helps young people to express their values, getting to know more about the social, economic and ecological issues their community is facing and provides an opportunity to gain new friends. Still, many young people have not discovered volunteering and the opportunities it brings yet.
The Social Breeze in Naujoji Vilnia project encourages young people to form small teams of five people and accept a ‘volunteering challenge’. The youngsters are invited to identify a social issue they care about and join local NGOs as volunteers. Participants of the project take part in volunteering activities for at least 20 hours, with their work being supported and supervised by coordinators. After a few months of volunteering the young people gather once again to reflect on their own development. They share what they have learned about the challenges faced by their community, the solutions the NGOs are currently providing and their ideas for the future.
During the project:Throughout the three months the project will help young people to gain the knowledge and skills that will enable them to participate more in their communities. More specifically, the project aims to:
10 local NGOs that support the youth in their volunteering effort, has been involved;
25 young people between 14 and 17 years old from different ethnic backgrounds engaged in the project activities
More than 520 hours of community service were completed by the project participants
5 social actions, through which the young people learn cooperation, planning, organisation and presentation skills, has been delivered
Discussions on volunteering and active citizenship involving local community members and representatives of the local municipality has been organised