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BACK TO REALITY
Start date: Aug 1, 2014, End date: Sep 30, 2015 PROJECT  FINISHED 

Back to Reality is youth exchange focused on active citizenship in Europe for participants between 18 and 25 years old, who want to learn about different opportunities for youngsters for how to be active and do beneficial activities for him/herself as well as for surrounding society, plus additional basics of video making techniques and promoting ideas in this modern way. Project participants were youngsters from five countries - Czech Republic, Slovakia, Lithuania, Romania and Turkey, official language was English. Initial idea was leaned on common opinion, that especially youngsters nowadays tend to escape from reality to the world of technoligies and internet, which has its really serious and wide consequences for individual as well as for whole society. The main aim of this project was to raise awareness on active citizenship among youngsters in Europe and point out the possibilities, which is EU offering nowadays to all young people in Europe and also behind the borders. First part of the exchange was dedicated to deep exploring of the topic of active citizenship and its particular subtopics, as volunteering, NGOs in the world like examples as well as NGOs around us, healthy life style, current problems of our environment and what we can do for improvement (nature protection, support of refugees, appearance of our towns/communities...). Introduction consisted of various icebreaker activities, where we learnt about each other through interactive games. During the first day were also presented organizational issues and familiarity with timetable. Introductory thematic activities then focused mainly on general characteristics of bad habits of todays youngsters, active citizenship, where participants presented their level of knowledge on the subject through non-formal methods. As a result we have become familiar with the various approaches to civil society with regard to the concept of the individual, but also to the cultural differences of participating national teams. Attention was paid to areas that are related to civic activism. The debate has revealed a wide scope of potential active citizens. In other activities, the participants expressed their own concerns relating to the topic. As we know, many of us were already engaged in active citizenship and we could therefore mutually inspire each other and share the findings of our activities. Also ways how to make active citizenship attractive for youth, so they can promote it in their videos, were broadly discussed. One of the essential areas of active citizenship is the question of human rights and minorities. Therefore they were connected to activities that followed. For a complete understanding of the issues, participants acquired the basic knowledge concerning the formal conditions for the establishment of organizations working in the non-profit sector. Again, it was confirmed that the approaches of individual countries vary, but commonalities could be also found. To refresh the working sessions we went on a trip to the nearby Prad?d ? highest mountain in the region, where we enjoyed the fresh air and panoramic scenes. To the delight of all, most of the evenings were filled by the culture and cuisine of the participating countries. For relaxation, accommodation facilities served itself - there were held international matches in table tennis, darts, billiard and football. In our spare time, we frequently have used countless opportunities for exploring the scenic surroundings. The key task for the participants divided into international teams after agreeing which sub-topics are most relevant to our main topic, was to create short awareness raising spots, which pointed out bad habits of todays youngsters (e.g. spending too much time in virtual reality instead of being active in real life), help them discover new opportunities (volunteering for various NGOs on various projects solving current problems as for example refugees in Europe, Erasmus+, youth exchanges etc.) and promote active citizenship. These videos together with NGO guides in national languages including list of organizations offering various opportunities to youngsters in environment close to national teams, represent tangible outcomes of the project. All of them might be found on official web page of the project. Back to Reality took place between 2nd to 13th July 2015 in beautiful Jeseník mountains region, in the hearth of stunning nature, where we really got back to reality and forget for virtual world of technologies and internet for a while to focus on ways of how to be active and beneficial to our surroundings. During our stay, we have established many friendships and created a spontaneous group of young people who are not indifferent to what is happening around. On the contrary ? by the active approach we will contribute to creating a quality civil society, by which can be developed also public affairs.

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