ACTeen – European Voluntary Service

From November 2019 until November 2020, a Slovenian volunteer Nives Ražnjević took part in a 12month long term volunteering project called ACTeen written and implemented by Ocean Znanja in cooperation with the Slovenian partner EUSA – European University Sports Association.

The project was approved and financed by the Agency for Mobility and EU programs, through the European Voluntary Service of the Erasmus+ program.

The goal of the project was to reach young people, especially teenagers and create activities through which they could build the necessary skills competencies and attitudes and finally to encourage behaviors that led towards awareness about the necessity of working on the civic competencies under the self development route.

To reach the goal, guided by Ocean Znanja and mentored by Mirko Logožar the volunteer made an impact through the following project activities:

  1. Creating, organizing and implementing educational workshops about being proactive, Critical Thinking, Active citizenship, Basics of photography and organized an online exhibition after it – Exhibit 1, Exhibit 2, Exhibit 3, Exhibit 4, Exhibit 5, Exhibit 6, Exhibit 7, Exhibit 8.
  2. Creating, organizing and implementing an educational workshop online for teenagers who have issues with approaching Chemistry in school – Organic Chemistry
  3. Creating educative posts on social media about – VOLUNTEERING explanation, examples and call for action, and VOLUNTEERING Past, Present and Future, CIVIL COURAGE explanation, examples and call for action, and CIVIL COURAGE Past, Present, SOLIDARITY explanation, examples and SOLIDARITY Past, Present and Future, COMMUNITY explanation, examples and COMMUNITY Past, Present and Future, SOCIAL RITUAL explanation, examples and SOCIAL RITUAL Past, Present and Future, COMPETENCES explanation, examples and COMPETENCES Past, Present and Future.
  4. Writing articles on the web page of the organization to spread awareness about active citizenship – READ NOW
  5. Creating a social media strategy to reach and impact the target group e.g. through bilingual slider posts about Fun, Education, European Solidarity Corps Mission
  6. Creating stop motion videos addressing topics such as civil courage, solidarity, the power of kindness, the importance of volunteering.
  7. Organizing free time activities for young people to build their social network. Some of the activities were – Learning new card games event and educational post about it, Basics of upcycling and facts about upcycling
  8. Motivating young people during the pandemic to explore, stay active and healthy. Here you can check the videos on – How to experience new things when limited with money Video 1, Video 2, Video 3.

Since an important part of her EVS was to learn and practice different digital skills for her personal project she made a 40+ pages long guide on how to approach Social Media for NGO’s, specifically Instagram, case study Ocean Znanja. If you are interested in this, check it out, it can maybe be useful for your page.

She also edited a final video about her whole experience, what she learned and who she met – the most important parts of her project – Check out the FINAL VIDEO HERE.

Nives finished her 12 month volunteering successfully and she went back to Ljubljana, but her impact on the organization stays.