Youth-led ECO community projects for prevention of school drop-outs

<< Background >>Being involved in creating educational programmes for different target groups in Europe and beyond, we were deeply concerned with the issue of early school dropout, which still remains a challenge across Europe. While some countries have already reached the EU’s 2030 target of reducing dropout rates, others continue to struggle, especially in certain regions. For example, Portugal has made overall progress, but areas such as the Algarve still face alarmingly high dropout rates. In Serbia, too, the numbers remain above the target, particularly for vulnerable groups.We applied for this project because we saw a clear need to bring in some new and practical approaches that could motivate young people to stay engaged with education. Our aim was to connect schools with youth workers and involve students in social and environmental projects within their communities. With this approach we wanted to create learning experiences that felt meaningful and relevant, while also building cooperation between teachers and youth organisations.<< Objectives >>The main aim of this project was to contribute to the faster decrease in school dropout rates in our communities/countries, by providing additional approaches through offering quality youth work on involving students at risk into activities and programmes of initiating and implementing (eco) community projects, as a part of their service learning engagement and development of their competences for life, in interaction with their community.The specific objectives of the project were:1. Empowering youngsters in organising (eco) community projects and strengthening their competences for life through innovative toolkit and online course on initiating and implementing activities within green community service and learning programmes;2. Empowering youth workers’ capacities in collaborating with schools on reducing the school dropout rates through developing community service and learning programmes for young students (mainstream and at risk) - through innovative curriculum;3. Exchange good practices among 4 European countries with different realities regarding school dropout rates and the active citizenship of youth in communities and increase partnership on multiplication of the project results Europe wide.<< Implementation >>We have successfully implemented all the proposed project activities that include the following: •Online kick-off meeting•Outputs:-Toolkit of youth work for organising eco community projects as a methodology to prevent school dropout-Online course for youngsters on step-by-step in organising eco community projects-Curriculum for educating youth workers in collaboration with schools on reducing school dropout rates through developing community service & learning programs•Online mid-term meeting•Piloting of Toolkit and Online course•Local training courses of youth workers in Portugal, Croatia, Italy, and Serbia•4 multiplier events in Portugal, Croatia, Italy, and Serbia•Evaluation meeting<< Results >>•Developed and published Toolkit for developing youngsters’ relevant competences, in 5 languages (EN, PT, IT, HR, RS).•Accessible Online course for youngsters with step-by-step organising community projects, in 5 languages.•Developed and published Curriculum for training youth workers on developing community service/learning programme for prevention of school dropout, in 5 languages.•84 young people across the 4 countries of the project partners took part in piloting workshops for the Toolkit.•Total of 117 registered users successfully finalised the piloting version of the online courses and provided the valuable feedback.•53 youth workers across the 4 countries participated in the local training courses based on the Curriculum.•At least 16 teachers (four per country) expressed satisfaction with the quality and usefulness of the outputs.•A total of 136 representatives participated in the three national and one international conference, meeting the planned target.-At least 12 additional dissemination meetings were held (three per partner country), enabling direct engagement with organisations, institutions, and stakeholders.-A follow-up cooperation project idea was discussed and conceptualised.