INFORMATION ABOUT THE PROJECT

1. Project’s name.

„Pluses and minuses, that is advantages and disadvantages of participation of youth from Polgerita company”.

2. Project’s location.

Poland: Poznań and Puszczykowo near Poznań

3. Project participants, connected with the following organizations:

· Regionet Association

· International youth company POLGERITA

· Student government of Zespół Szkół Komunikacji

· Youth City Council of Puszczykowo

· City Council of Puszczykowo

4. Background and short description of the project

The project “Advantages and disadvantages” originated among the members of Polgerita company. PolGerIta is an international youth company run by young people, students of vocational schools from three European regions: Wielkopolska (Poland), Hessen (Germany) and originally also from Emilia-Romagna (Italy).

Through hands-on co-operation the young people experience how they can imaginatively overcome language barriers and constructively achieve an aim. They also learn to take responsibility for particular tasks, communication, and decisions they have to take along the way. The fact that they have taken the challenge to launch new products on the market and sell them, gave the company another, more realistic dimension.

In a project of this kind decisions are made continuously. A lot of them require uneasy compromises and quick reactions. This teaches the youth that is involved in the company the skills of teamwork, presenting one’s projects and the readiness to change one’s perspective.

Currently, Polgerita invents, produces and sells information boards – PINI. The board production however, is the pretext to develop in the young people the commitment, autonomy, enterprise, tolerance, teamwork and independent decision-making.

You will find more about the Polgerita company at: www.polgerita.net

The project developed as an attempt to answer the following questions:

- Why and how do we get involved?

- What are the pluses and minuses?

- What does our involvement look like from the outside? What makes life harder and what makes it easier?

The young people involved in the project are those who have been active in the Polgerita project, and possibly also active in the student government, youth city council, or other youth projects.

5. Anticipated results of the project (effect on the youth).

The project aims at making participants aware of, through collecting experiences and self-reflection, their motivation to get involved, persistence, obstacles and favourable conditions for the work. Another result of the project is to be the creation of a mini report on the pluses and minuses of participation of the selected youth in the social, political and economic activities. Three areas have been chosen here: Polgerita itself, student government and the youth city council. A separate issue is the relation: city self-governments and Polgerita NGO.

6. Plan of activities

- Workshops, brainstorming, collecting ideas concerning the project

- Participation in a week-long Polish-German meeting of Polgerita (selection of participants and leaders for the summer school)

- presentation of Polgerita company as a youth project to German journalists in the Warsaw office of Polsko-Niemiecka Współpraca Młodzieży (Polish-German Youth Co-operation)

- interviews with people from the outside, among others a representative of the local office of Youth Programme, members of the Youth City Council, a ‘guardian’ of Polgerita in Germany, members of Polgerita and student government, etc.

- Individual work – one’s own experiences

- Taking advantage of experiences

- Editing and press photography work, editing of the materials