From the 8th to the 16th of August 23 young Europeans from 5 different countries (Slovenia, Slovakia, Lithuania, Croatia, and Italy) met at the charming location of the Mladinski Dom in Hodos, Slovenia to “Reactivate themselves”.
But what does it mean “Reactivate yourself”?
The participants answered “To find the will to start again to practice sport and being in contact with nature” and “Find your inner balance after a long period of stress and uncertainties”.
This Erasmus+ Exchange project had several aims:
- Explore the impact of COVID-19 on young people in rural areas
- Preparation of a sustainable organizational module for the implementation of active outdoor projects for young people
- Empower young people and youth workers in the nongovernmental sector with tools for implementing preventive activities of youth health in local communities
- Preparation of a work plan for the implementation of activities of active spending time in nature
- To connect rural youth organizations and to transfer good practices for sports activation of rural youth for the period after COVID-19
Those goals have been reached thanks to workshops, learning sessions, and discussions for the entire duration of the project. Ideas created on this Erasmus+ are for example: “Basketball 4 inclusion” implementing basketball training and tournaments on playgrounds for the inclusion of refugees in local communities (e.g. Ukrainian people on the Slovakia border), “Hike & Bike” an Erasmus+ project consisting in theoretical knowledge about surviving in the wilderness, biking to state points and hiking and “Together is better!” a program of sportive reactivation for middle size cities embedding international communities and focusing on the power of companionship as a means to keep doing exercises.
These formal activities have been interwoven with exercises proposed by participants knowledgeable in their discipline, for example, football tournaments, basketball training sessions, combat basic movements, acro yoga, volleyball matches, hiking, and muscle toning.
Participants had also the chance to get in touch with local communities and talk with the Mayor of Murska Sobota to confront the subject of young people’s entertainment in rural areas and other areas of interest. This meeting happened in the frame of Kobilje where we also presented the topic of NGOs and how Slovenia manages its numerous non-government organizations.
“Reactivate Yourself” has not only provided great ideas to improve the active life of youngsters but also provided the participants the tools to become “reactivators” and enabled them to be reactivated in the first place.
