The Górzyce municipality consists mainly of villages that used to be state farms. That means that the majority of its inhabitants are affected by material shortages and a lot of young people leave their homes just after they finish school. According to the data of the Central Statistical Office, in 2013, adults represented almost 80 per cent of the municipality population.
According to the Foundation’s findings, the local community very seldom identifies with the place of residence, they do not respect public property – there are many devastated buildings and littered and destroyed common areas. The inhabitants are not willing to participate in public affairs and the people-to-people contacts display a high degree of aggression. Such attitudes are passed on to the young generation.
The aim of the project was to educate and involve children and youth in the municipality to become active citizens, to enhance their responsibility for their own community and to shape entrepreneurial mindsets among young people.
Thanks to the project implementation, a group of 10 young volunteers was created and they are now ready to get involved in the activities developed by the Foundation in the municipality. Also, Local Youth Council was set up and they will cooperate in running civic education workshops for their peers, starting the new school year 2016/17.
20 young people developed business plans for their own businesses located in the municipality. Children and youth took part in a cycle of workshops on civic education, tolerance and counteracting aggression; study visits were organized for them in various municipality institutions. Regular debates were organized for the villages’ inhabitants, which were also attended by young people.
The project beneficiaries were children and youth aged 6-19 from the former state-farm villages in the Górzyca municipalitu: Pamięcin, Laski Lubuskie, Radówek, Żabice and Spudłów.