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BECreative
Start date: Aug 1, 2015, End date: Dec 31, 2015 PROJECT  FINISHED 

Project „BECreative (Business = Enthusiasm + Creativity)” activities took place on the island of Hiiumaa between 21th and 27th August 2015. There were 18 Estonian and 21 Italian participants, age 13 to 17. Many participants were youngsters who were involved in organization’s activities before. Italian participants had been volunteering before and Estonian participants had been involved in activities in Kärdla Youth House, for example camps, youth house activities and Italian Language and Culture Club organised by EVS volunteer from Italy. The main subject of the project was creativity – how to use your creativity and turn the outcome into business. The project wanted to find an answer to how to be entrepreneurial by using creativity. The sub-themes of the project were volunteering, and entrepreneurship. The activities included group works, creativity training through active methods, creative Scavenger Hunt, touring on Hiiumaa, meeting entrepreneurs and pitching ideas. There were also free time activities such as cultural evenings, disco, swimming and playing games. Advance planning visit took place too. Hiiumaa is a very small island with only 8400 inhabitants. To get to the island you need to take a plane or ferry. There is one secondary school and one vocational school, no universities or colleges. If the person wants to live on the island, he/she should be very flexible and compliant about the job opportunities. The other and very grateful opportunity is to be the employee for oneself and create jobs for the other island inhabitants too. Unfortunately, the school system does not support creativity too well, but creativity is very important case when becoming entrepreneurial and starting with company. That is why this project was important. Young people are relatively isolated as Hiiumaa is an island. That is why youth exchange programs are very important to establish contacts with representatives from other cultures and to gain experience in project management. It was important to combine fun activities with useful and educational learning. Learning about other cultures expanded youth horizons, communication and social skills. Youngsters were taught to think creatively, they were guided to think by themselves, they were encouraged to volunteer to get experience and to experiment their ideas, they were given an opportunity to express their opinion. Youngsters also learnt about other cultures, participation in teamwork, to manage ideas and knowledge how to become an entrepreneur. Youngsters learnt the most how to deal with language barrier and cultural differences as Italian participants did not speak English much and had completely different attitude towards the program and youth exchange than Estonian participants. It was important project for Italians because their youngsters were very motivated to take part in different opportunities they were offered to. The most important part of this project's themes was supposed to be volunteering and entrepreneurship for Italians as in Italy it is very hard to find a job as there is a lot of unemployment in Italy. Unfortunately, it turned out that the real motivation for Italian participants was travelling and they did not care about the program much, in fact not only youth but also youth leaders. Carrying out the project means that youngsters participated in intercultural dialogue which means that the project reach one of its objective - it offered cultural diversity, opportunity to meet foreigners, to travel and practice their language skills. Now, almost half a year after the youth exchange, it has had a great impact on many Estonian participants. They have been volunteering more and according to the post project survey carried out in the beginning of February they have managed to bring their ideas into life for example starting with youth council, participating in intercultural conference in Sweden and some of them have started with new creative hobbies, for example creative writing and song writing. The future shows if they become more creative, entrepreneurial or be involved in voluntary work. Unfortunately, Italian participants did not take part in this survey.
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