We want to volunteer to make the world a better place. Erasmus Project

Project Title

We want to volunteer to make the world a better place.

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for Schools Only

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation; Access for disadvantaged; Health and wellbeing

Project Summary

With this project, we tried to create global solutions to problems that are shared by all countries involved through the promotion of volunteering among students and international cooperation. We have also tried to strengthen the European dimension in our schools and continue their internationalization processes. Our school has been the main coordinator of the project. IES Consaburum is an educational center of Public ownership that depends on the Education Department of Castilla-La Mancha. It teaches compulsory secondary education, non- compulsory secondary educatión, and vocational training. Located in the town of Consuegra, a rural area very well connected with urban centers, in recent years it has received an immigrant population and about 700 students come from the towns of Consuegra, Urda and Turleque. Currently, and given the monumentality that characterizes Consuegra, activities in the services sector derived from tourism are gaining strength. Recently and thanks to the process of internationalization that our school has suffered in recent years, it is beginning to open to the outside world and adapting to European development plans. The chosen partners have been diverse (schools from the south, east, west, north, and center of Europe: Spain, Latvia, Finland, Czech Republic, Italy, Poland) so that each participant can benefit from different experiences and produce relevant and high results. level. Our partners have been the Istituto Comprensivo Statale “Margherita di Navarra” – Monreale (Italy), Szkola Podstawowa w Psarach- Psary (Poland), Daugavpils 10.vidusskola- Daugavpils (Latvia), Stredni odborna skola Podnikatelska, s.r.o- Most (Czech Republic) and Juhani Aho school- Iisalmi (Finland). All of them are public schools, located in rural areas, in which secondary education is taught and which receive heterogeneous students. Our project has tried to encourage volunteer work among our students and it has been very enriching not only for some participating schools, such as Polish that had a Volunteer Club established but also for others, such as our school that hadn’t, because we have learned a lot from their experience how to start it up. Thanks to this project, we have created Erasmus + classrooms and corners in our centers, we have consolidated our internationalization offices, promoted our Volunteer Clubs and generated endurance and synergies with other initiatives that have arisen in our centers, which have been applied to very diverse areas such as care of the environment, health, social assistance, culture, and education, always giving a European dimension to the whole process. We have also involved those students with more difficulties, making them participants in both the mobilities and the activities generated thanks to this Project, like for instance by taking part in the activities of the European Week in our school. This experience has also served to prevent the students from suffering isolation and loneliness, such as the start-up of the anti-bully league of the IES Consaburum. Some of our main objectives have been: addressing early school leaving, raising awareness of the importance of hands-on learning and volunteering values, learning international and global cultural values, developing respect for all people (disadvantaged, immigrants…), encouraging in our schools the ABP (project-based learning), better prepare students for the future social and professional life that awaits them, the improvement of English language competence, the development of competencies for an open society that respects cultural diversity, like for instance when all the partners participated in the Carnival parade of Consuegra under the slogan “united in diversity” and our prize was donated to an Italian NGO. Our collaboration began thanks to the mobility of a KA 101 project, as a result of which several coordinators began to collaborate on an eTwinning project. From there, we decided to apply for this KA 219 project and continue managing the eTwinning project linked with it (awarded with the Europen Quality Label), which has functioned as a communication platform between partners and as a dissemination platform of experiences along with the website http://consaburuminternationaloffice.weebly.com/ka -219 – we-want-to-volunteer-to-make-the-world-to-better-place. Each partner has trained active student volunteers who collaborated in Children’s Homes (Poland), Homeless Assistance Center (Italy), Animal Shelter (Czech Republic), Public Places Cleaning (Latvia), Elderly- people Home ( Finland) and peer assistance, humanitarian assistance in town and environmental conservation (Spain). Each school has prepared seminars, workshops, leaflets, vídeos, etc., and the tasks written down in the application have been carried out.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 136500 Eur

Project Coordinator

IES CONSABURUM & Country: ES

Project Partners

• Juhani Ahon koulu
• Stredni odborna skola podnikatelska, s.r.o.
• I. C. S. Monreale II
• Daugavpils 10. vidusskola
• Szkola Podstawowa w Psarach