The project “Lead and Inspire” under “Erasmus+” programme was a response to an often overlooked need of the young people nowadays – developing leader`s competences. In a world, full of distractions, where values often get mixed and confused, young people struggle to find their way to a healthy and meaningful existence. The once clear “role models”, have become very confusing in their message and example. A lot of superficial philosophies and ways of existence are competing for young people’s attention every day. The need for a healthy guidance has never been more needed than today. Stability, a clear message and example and a lot of patience is something that young people need but they rarely find. They need leaders, mentors, inspiring examples.
Our aim with this project was to deliver the necessary leadership skills to the youth workers that face different challenges in their everyday work with young people.
The project objectives that we achieved through the training course, part of the project, were:
- Enriching the knowledge about the leadership (roles, styles, ethics, methods) of the youth workers.
- The youth workers improved their leadership skills (mentoring, coaching, motivation, communication, management, achievement results, decision-making).
- The youth workers started to plan better their future work by creating a vision and mission for their activities based on leadership principles and will take steps towards their realization.
“Lead and Inspire” was directly related to the overall objective of the Erasmus + programme, providing the target groups included in the project with a direct opportunity to achieve the goal of lifelong learning, thus supporting the educational, training, professional and personal development of youth workers. The specific objectives of this project were analyzed and identified, based on the needs of youth workers for specific improvements in their activities, the opportunity for better coordination / team management, better communication with young people, increasing their job satisfaction, clear vision for their future, etc.
The training course, part of the project activities, took place between 12-21 June, 2022 in Varbovo, Bulgaria. It included 25 youth workers from Bulgaria, Romania, Lithuania, Poland and Croatia. To achieve the project aim and objectives, non-formal education methods were used during the training course. The youth workers learned more about what is leadership and leadership main styles. They gained their skills in motivation and communication. Their competences in mentoring and coaching were highly upgraded and developed. Through different simulations, team work, role games, they improved their knowledge on the leadership building processes and how leadership can be implemented in their everyday work with young people. The participants had the opportunity to visit the mayor and vice-mayor of Chuprene Municipality, the regional governor of Vidin Region, local NGO and business leaders. Thus, they had a direct observation and examples of leaders in different spheres of our life and learned how they deal with main challenges in their fields of engagement.
The official partners of Bulgarian Youth Forum in this project were: Ludbreška udruga mladih entuzijasta, Croatia; Asociatia “Centrul pentru Dezvoltarea Instrumentelor Structurale”, Romania; Asociacija Aktyvistai, Lithuania; Stowarzyszenie Projektow Miedzynarodowych INPRO, Poland.