Youth Read 2 Recover project
Objectives
The solidarity project "Youth Read2Recover: Traditional & Digital Reading for enhancing literacy among youth" aimed to cultivate a reading culture among young people in a traditional or digital way, through alternative and active participation, experiential learning and utilizing non-formal learning methods. The project contributed to the improvement of their mental and spiritual health, development of digital skills and improvement of young people's quality of life.
A great range of experiences and opportunities was provided to young people regardless of theirbackground and with an emphasis on young people who face various challenges such as : learning, financial, social or disabilities in order to reinforce the reconnection with the book and literature. Exploiting technology, the project managed to establish a healthy relationship between them, free from the idea that the book is a tool for school and academic achievement.
In particular, the objectives of our project were:
-reconnecting young people with the world of books for the improvement of their mental and spiritual health and thus the quality of their life
- development of critical thinking skills
-cultivation of linguistic expression in an experiential way
-enhancing the creativity of young people through innovative ideas related to reading
-development of digital skills related to digital reading software and applications (audio books, Ebook readers)
-strengthening the social inclusion of young people with fewer opportunities (vulnerable groups, people with disabilities, people with learning difficulties, people with social difficulties) through reading activities in our local community
-creation of a mobile library in order to use it in events, camps, activities with young people.
-exploitation of writers, poets of our local community
-creation of a collection of recommended books for the Youth of various topics and categories
-social contribution to the local community
-promotion of solidarity projects and the European Solidarity Corps program at local and national level.
Activities
Innovative ideas were turned into actions in order to motivate and challenge young people to participate and get connected with books and literature. A number of experiential workshops, alternative activities involving writers and poets from the local community, leveraging the traditional but also digital way of reading books have been taking place Specifically, the following activities have been implemented:
-Collection of used books, categorization and archiving
-Creation of a mobile library
-Implementation of a research on young people's views and attitudes towards literature and books and their preferences in subjects and thematics.
-Visits to libraries
-Meetings with writers, poets, academic professors of our local community
-Youth discussion groups with writers and poets
-Visits to bookstores and activities at the bookstore
-Picnic and reading books at the beach, in the parc, in the fields.
-Outdoor cinema and screening of films based on books, discussions about the movies
-Workshops for digital reading and digital books.
-Visit to book cafes, reading and discussions
-City Game and tour of the mobile library in different city squares
-Orienteering game in the park, with books as checkpoints
Results
The project “Youth Read2Recover: Traditional & Digital reading for enhancing literacy among youth" positively impacted young people of our local community by helping them improve their mental and spiritual health, develop digital book reading skills, improved their quality of life through reconnecting with the books.
The achieved results were:
- Development of the mental health and spiritual health of young people
-Improvement of quality of life of young people through the reduction of stress, the relaxation, the tranquility offered by reading, the expansion of the imagination,
-Development of young people's digital skills through information and training in the use of applications and software for reading books
-Improvement of expression skills and emotional intelligence of young people
-Strengthening the social skills of young people
-Decreasing the time of young people dealing with social media and online games
-Exploitation of writers, writers and poets from the local community of Larnaca and their direct involvement in the project activities
-Promoting reading in our local community
-Implementing innovative ideas in our community such as the mobile library and free use of the library in youth events
-Positive change in our local community since the culture of reading will be cultivated
-Improvement of the intellectual level of young people