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Students Reaching Out
Start date: Sep 1, 2015, End date: Aug 31, 2018 PROJECT  FINISHED 

Students reaching out In this age of individualization schools have a responsibility to raise students’ awareness of the importance to reach out to others who are in need. We would like school organizations to implement Voluntary Non-profit Work Placement in their curriculum. By doing voluntary work students can make an important contribution to society. To start with we want to develop a roadmap for schools. We will seek collaboration with local, national and international NGOs. But we also want to found a new NGO run by EU students in all participating countries, encouraging solidarity and entrepreneurship. Many schools are thinking about iPad/laptop education, so we want to educate teachers in eLearning, innovative tools, eTwinning, etc. The lessons we design in English will be about NGOs, Voluntary Work and Internationalization. All participating schools (Sweden, Germany, Turkey, Spain, France, the Netherlands) are secondary schools; with students between 14 and 16 years old. All schools strongly believe in the added value of this project and see exchanges of students and teachers as a necessity to achieve good sustainable outcomes. It’s important for students to experience the differences between countries, concerning social security, voluntary work, school systems and culture. The schools differ in experience in terms of eLearning and the use of ICT and in the area of voluntary work/cooperation with NGOs. The partnership will be based upon exchange of good practice and learning from each other. We have planned 3 Transnational Project Meetings for coordinators for planning and organization, exchanging ideas about the ongoing project, preventing difficulties, organizing teachers training sessions, preparing and evaluating the students’ exchanges. We have planned 2 teachers training sessions on Implementation of Voluntary Non-profit Work Placement and about Innovative Tools/ eLearning. Each school will take part in a students exchange twice a year. Before, during and after an exchange there will be activities concerning voluntary work, NGOs and fundraising. During an exchange students take part in voluntary work and fundraising activities. They follow workshops about local NGOs, present the outcomes of questionnaires (Young people and NGOs, National Social Security System). To learn about the different school systems they attend lessons. Finally, the students choose a target group which needs help and found their own NGO, “Students Reaching Out”. All activities are communicated via studentsreachingout.blogspot.com.es. Students upload their pictures and videos of activities. Updates of the project will be published on each school’s website and the local media will be tuned in every time when there is an activity. The results and impact envisaged are that school organizations will use our developed roadmap for implementation of Voluntary Non-profit Work Placement. When students do voluntary work, there will be many contacts between school organizations and NGOs/other non-profit organizations, which will increase the school’s support in the community. There will be a closer interaction between school and local authorities, local media and parents because they will be invited for the activities carried out during exchanges. Teachers can use the developed digital lessons in their courses about Internationalization and Voluntary Work/NGOs. In the schools eLearning will be improved. Students will be more motivated and the learning outcomes will improve because we will use students’ interest in the internet, social media, etc. Communication will be in English, so competence in English will increase. Students will become more aware of differences in social security in different countries and will see the needs of other people. By doing voluntary work and/or fundraising, they will become responsible citizens and will inspire and motivate other students. European citizens in need will benefit from the raised money. Founding an NGO will increase students’ feelings of solidarity and responsibility and provide the students’ entrepreneurial skills. In the long term, after implementation, all students will do voluntary work. We will publish our roadmap for implementation on the schools website for inspiration. When school organizations decide to start iPad/laptop education, teachers who took part in our training sessions can give workshops to their colleagues to improve their ICT-skills. Due to the founded NGO the schools will keep in touch with each other after the project has ended. They will organise fundraising activities and watch the situation of the chosen target group. Our schools are really committed to starting the project. Lots of people in the EU will benefit: school organizations, teachers, students, parents, NGOs, people in need and non-profit organizations. With students all over Europe reaching out, we hope to inspire people to make this world a better world.
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