Daphne Gavrili
ATHENS MOBILITY ITINERARY
ERASMUS PROJECT HAND-IN-HAND IN CREATING SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY WITH YOUNG STUDENTS 2020-1-UK01-KA229-078814 ITINERARY 26 – 30 th...
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HAND-IN-HAND
About HAND-IN-HAND IN CREATING SOCIAL RESPONCIBILITY ERASMUS PLUS PROJECT
Our Objectives
Welcome to HAND-IN-HAND, a School Project funded by ERASMUS PLUS 2020-1-UK01-KA229-078814. Our mission is to foster collaboration and inclusivity among students. We believe that by working together, we can achieve great things. Through our project, we aim to create a supportive and engaging learning environment where students can explore their passions and develop new skills. Join us on this exciting journey of discovery and growth!
Meet the team in FB
PROJECT SUMMARY
Developing social responsibility is in a way challenging, as children have a tendency towards self-absorption. Their world revolves around them, their needs and their purposes. It is not something that they have to be blamed for, of course, as it is the attitude characteristic of their age and of our times. Unless we try to address this lack of involvement, they will most likely not change it on their own. Teaching social responsibility means not only making children aware of the world, but also helping
them understand themselves and the others. By achieving this, we will make our schools a better place, in which inclusion and mutual support are the norm. We will
identify challenged groups in our communities and schools and try to make a difference. Therefore, we have initiated this partnership with a view to joining our efforts and experiences, to get to understand ourselves and the others better.
We want to observe how 5 different countries in Europe understand the importance of social responsibility, what projects they involve their students in and how they organize them. We wish to follow the good examples that we observe in each
school.
OBJECTIVES
There are a lot of benefits that we considered to be obtained through volunteering and these will also turn into project objectives along with objectives stemming from the international dimension of this project. Some of the most important
ones would be:
- To increase our students’ sense of community and reduce engagement in risky behavior
- To develop positive civic behavior and self-esteem
- To develop students’ sense of responsibility for their communities
- To improve communication, time management and critical thinking skills
- To improve language skills
- To boost attitudes of tolerance, respect and non-discrimination
- To develop intercultural competence and cultural awareness
PARTICIPANTS
The project is aimed at students and developing their civic responsibility.
Therefore, they are the first group in the order of importance.
Students we are targeting are 12-14 years old, boys and girls, some of them belonging to disadvantaged groups (immigrants, learning disorders, physical disabilities, social challenges, migrant background etc.).
An overall number of 100 students will participate directly and a number of 40 accompanying teachers.
MAIN ACTIVITIES
There are 5 main exchanges planned within the project.
Each exchange includes 3 main topics:
- Presentation of social challenges in the local community successful volunteering projects in the school
- Initiation and
- Implementation of volunteering project with foreign students.
C1 is held in United Kingdom, C2 in Romania, C3 in Poland, C4 in Turkey and C5 in Greece.
IMPACT
All partner schools are expected to benefit from the activities in the long run.
First of all, the teachers who accompany students in mobilities will become a source in the project.
They observe and analyze the practices that each host school has in terms of classroom organization, teaching methods, use of technology, organization of the staff and aspects related to extracurricular projects – who is in charge of them,
what resources are used, how students are organized and coordinated for these events.
Also, they will observe the relationship of the school staff with students’ parents. They will then present the information to their colleagues on return.
Therefore, teachers will broaden their expertise and will exchange practices, applying the best ones and the suitable ones in their schools. As a result, the school will benefit in the long run.
RESULTS
Concretely, our project will produce the following results: initial and final questionnaires related to involvement of students in volunteering projects at the beginning and at the end of the project, volunteering self-assessment forms which will be applied to students to observe their level of awareness of local problems, their talents and skills with which they could contribute to volunteering projects, presentations of partner institutions, presentations of volunteering projects in each school, projects implemented collaboratively by the 5 partners during exchanges and students’ collaborative work results during them, exchange reports designed by host partners, dissemination materials – posters, brochures, flyers;
evaluation instruments applied on participants, project evaluation documents, impact report designed at the end of the project.
FINAL EVALUATION
Impact of project - GREECE (evaluation)
In the evaluation of our school 100% answered that the implementation of the project gave them the opportunity to feel they belong to the school more and to a bigger community, especially when the other countries visited ours. They all said that Erasmus project gave them inspiration to find out more about other countries. Teachers and students feel that the school benefited by the intercultural exchange, emphasizing values such as diversity, tolerance, and open-mindedness. The project helped students and teachers to develop a deeper understanding of European values and integrate them into their lives.
The project theme "Hand in Hand in Creating Social Responsibility» also had a profound impact on our school community. As we got engaged in activities related to social responsibility the students’ awareness of societal issues and challenges increased. Students gained insights into the needs of the community and the world, which fostered empathy and a sense of responsibility. They had the opportunity to connect with individuals from various backgrounds such as elderly people and people of small villages with very little opportunities. This exposure fostered empathy, cultural understanding, and an appreciation of diversity. Engaging in social responsibility projects often leads to personal growth. Students developed critical skills like communication, problem-solving, and leadership. They also believe that they became more resilient and adaptable as they faced real-world challenges. Working on this Erasmus project that aimed to create social responsibility often involved teamwork and collaboration. Students learnt how to cooperate effectively, shared responsibilities, and leverage each other's strengths to achieve common goals with students from different countries that often did not speak the same language creating a stronger sense of inclusion. Participating in such a project that address social issues provided students with a sense of purpose. They saw how their actions made a positive impact, in the school and out in the real world, which boosted their self-esteem, their engagement and motivation to contribute to society. The majority felt that there is something that can be done even with their small power and said that they became more interested in political and community matters, contributing to informed and active citizenship in future. Thought the project we addressed more global issues like climate change, poverty, world famine and children’s’ rights. They learnt about the importance of ethical behavior and how it affects the well-being of communities and society as a whole. They realized how important is to volunteer, to support charitable causes,or may be to pursue careers in fields related to social change and community development. As a school, definitely built a valuable network with many contacts by collaborating with community organizations and individuals as a school community. Witnessing the positive impact of their actions and the changes they can bring about even with small actions all admitted to be inspired and motivated to take the initiative in other areas of their lives. Students saw the concrete, measurable results of their efforts in the activities we did in the school and out of it for the project related to social responsibility. In summary, the project "Hand in Hand in Creating Social Responsibility" helped our school community to grow and fostered our active engagement in society.
The biggest challenge, however, was the lack of travelling documents of our students. As they come from 25 different countries their participation in the nobilities meant issuing visas and residence permits. In the two years covid-19 period issuing a visa or renewing a residence permit cards seemed impossible to all of us, parents and teachers. All of our students come from disadvantaged background, families of one parent, economic immigrants of refugees, facing economic uncertainty and doing the “odd jobs”. We are very proud to be able to work with all students organizing virtual events (4 in total) , online collaborations and e-twinning project with the other schools and with all the Erasmus team to participate. We also organized school trips inland to give everybody the opportunity to benefit in a way and to take active part in the project. We offered guidance, facilitating the application process, and organizing information sessions for both students and their families. We also gave a little push for the parents to see the residence permit cards of their children as very important to have. Unfortunately we did not succeed in all cases mainly due to delays caused by excess paperwork and covid-19. Also the lack of participation mainly due to parents not being convinced to allow their children to travel to Turkey made us not to participate in that mobility and to transfer the amount to the nobilities to the other countries. https://www.diapol.online/,https://dfngavrili.wixsite.com/hand-in-hand
Impact of project - UK : (evaluation)
The project has had a very positive impact on the school, not just for the students and staff who took part, but also the wider school community, who all wanted to get involved with volunteering and hosting our school to visiting countries. Erasmus project theme, “creating social responsibility” has been spoken about in assembl;ies and lessons and students have articulated the importance of being more socially responsible and more aware of what is happening in the local community. It has helped promote tolerance of each other and an appreciation of different cultures and backgrounds, and that diversity should be celebrated, not ignored.
We faced many challenges along the way, COVID, delays with mobilities, changes to events, trying to work out what to do next. But we learnt from each other and every school supported each other equally, so there was always comfort knowing that you would be helped out with any issue that you had with your mobility.
Volunteering has been a success, with the ongoing success of the Nearly New Uniform shop, and new members of the school community have signed up to continue volunteering to keep the shop going. This has introduced new students to volunteering and will help sustain the shop into the future.
We hope to have a volunteering club set up after winter, where students go out into the community and volunteer where they can. We are looking at maintenance of local parks and volunteering at food banks in Spring 2024.
Students who took direct part in the mobilities were asked to give feedback on how important it is to be more socially responsible and the impact of the mobilities. The response was overwhelmingly positive, with every child saying that there had been a positive impact from the project and that they were changed people because of it. They were able to learn about countries and cultures that they had never visited before, try new cuisine and make international friends, amongst many other things.
Being a part of the Erasmus project has definitely made us grow as a school and we have collaborated with more staff within the school on one project than ever before, and have made long lasting links with European schools, where we can continue to learn from each other and share resources from the project. It has been life changing for us all!!!!
Link to student comments from survey:
123-456-7890
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