Service-Learning Promotion Program in Central and Eastern Europe (Balkan region)

In November 2015, CLAYSS met with educators from different countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and discussed service-learning in Latin America and in the region. They were all enthusiastic about implementing and/or strengthening service-learning in schools, universities, and social organizations. That was the beginning of CLAYSS work in the region.

Since then we have:

Jointly agreed that working language would be English

Translated some of our training materials and together with regional partners adapted them for online and onsite activities in the region.

Invited regional leaders to our annual conference in Buenos Aires.

Supported regional institutions willing to incorporate this approach to education.

Organized the First Service-Learning Week in CEE, Sarajevo, BiH, in October 2017.

Published a Handbook that explains CLAYSS approach to service-learning with particular focus and sensitivity to this particular region.

Awarded more than a hundred scholarships for our online courses: Development of Service-Learning Projects and Service-Learning in Higher education to educators in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Macedonia, Croatia, Montenegro, Poland, Russia, Albania, Kosovo, Hungary,

Published Service-Learning experiences in our monthly newsletter.

Participated in online webinars in the region.

 

What's our goal?
CLAYSS goal is to expand the potential of service-learning as an innovative pedagogy to the educational sector of Central and Eastern Europe. In partnership with local allies the program targets teachers, NGOs leaders, public officers involved in education, and students involved in service-learning projects. Our main goal is to promote service-learning in Central and Eastern European educational institutions and NGOs in order to help innovate in education and improve education in the region by building local capacity and develop a critical mass interested in the subject.

How?
We are dedicated to forming a critical mass interested in implementing service-learning projects and incorporating this pedagogy into institutions in Central and Eastern Europe by:

building service-learning capacity in the region through training and technical assistance;

promoting the creation of a Central and Eastern European Network and to help develop a critical mass interested in the subject, together with strengthening the voices of those already working on the subject at a regional level;

and by establishing an exchange and horizontal cooperation between Central and Eastern European Network and CLAYSS and the Latin-American Service-learning Network.

 

To learn about our next activities in Central and Eastern Europe, please find us on
Facebook under CEE Service-learning and / or contact; internacionales@clayss.org.ar

GOALS

CLAYSS goal is to expand the potential of service-learning as an innovative pedagogy beyond the limits of Latin America, offering this program to the educational sector in Central and Eastern Europe. Developed with local partners  CLAYSS offers a platform to build capacity in the region, seeking to provide opportunities to develop students’ “competencies”, as demanded by EU standards, in an effective, attainable way, being its ultimate purpose for partners to educate for an active citizenship, promoting young people initiative and social entrepreneurship in order to help innovate in education and improve education in the region.

Specifically we have been working in:

1. building service-learning capacity in the region by contributing to grow a critical mass interested in the subject;
2. establishing an exchange and horizontal cooperation between Central and Eastern European Network and CLAYSS and the Latin-American Service-learning Network.
3. consolidating a regional service-learning network involving civil society
4. cooperating in the improvement of conditions to increase the number of quality service-learning experiences in schools, universities and youth organizations in CEE
5. providing strategies and tools to facilitate and improve the relationship between educational institutions and their surrounding contexts

CLAYSS intends to continue developing partnerships with civil society organizations, schools and universities in the region, understanding that we may share what we know but it is mostly local institutions who will be able to introduce service-learning to their peers in their own region.