Krimuldas ev.luth. the congregation continues to implement the Erasmus+ project “Mobile Program for Youth Learners” (MoPYL), in which a curriculum of non-formal education for young people for the development of leadership skills is being developed. On February 2, representatives of the parish will meet online with project partners – representatives of the Romanian Scout Society and the St. Gabriel School from Spain. During the meeting, they will discuss the issue of conducting research among teenagers and including the results obtained in the content of the curriculum, as well as other issues regarding the progress of the project.
In the project, research will be conducted among 14-15-year-old young people in order to find out their opinion about their abilities and character traits, values, relationships with family and peers, as well as their place and role in society and involvement in social processes. “In order to develop a curriculum for the development of leadership qualities and adapt it to the wishes and needs of young people, it is important to find out how young people evaluate themselves – how motivated, honest, responsible, creative they are, whether they are ready to make efforts to achieve their goals, show initiative, get involved in any kind of voluntary work, how they build relationships with family, friends, adults, or feel they belong to a social group and how they think they are valued by society,” Sandija Zaļupe, the author and manager of the project idea, describes the purpose of the study. “The research results will make it possible to understand the values, needs, and expectations of young people, as well as to adapt the content of the leadership training program and the methods to be used to them, not only within the framework of this project, but on a much wider scale. The results of the research will be available for use by organizations that work with young people in various fields.”
To obtain research data, sociological research experts hired by the St. Gabriel School created a survey, and the data will be obtained in all three member states involved in the project – Spain, Romania and Latvia. Based on the results of the study, the content of the curriculum will be adjusted. The lesson plans are already being developed based on the research carried out in the pre-project phase, in which the young people indicated the values that are important in their lives and that they would like to develop. In March, the curriculum will begin to be approved in the Sunday school classes of the Krimulda congregation and in the training of young scouts in Romania. In the course of the project, the curriculum content and methods will be regularly improved according to the youth’s feedback.
The curriculum for developing leadership is intended for young people aged 13 to 15 years. The training content for the development of personal and social skills of teenagers is based on basic Christian values, which include love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trust, gentleness and self-control, and is an integral part of the formation of a personality.
The developed curriculum will serve as a support for educators and other specialists who work with young people in areas such as education, religion, culture and others, thus ensuring the transfer of results to various sectors. It will be freely available in the digital environment in Latvian, Spanish, Romanian and English.
The project is co-funded by the European Union. It is implemented in the “Erasmus+” program in cooperation with the Agency for International Programs for Youth and will last almost a year and a half.
“The project “Mobile Program for Youth Learners” is financed with the support of European Commission’s programm “Erasmus+”. This publication reflects only the author’s views, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained there in.”
