ESC: BYSC - Building Youth Supportive Communities

CDC is a youth NGO in a rural community focused on providing young people opportunities for personal and professional development through nonformal learning.
Curba de Cultură is all about reaching out to rural youth. We are an NGO committed to non-formal learning, to culture and to participation opportunities. Our focus is to improve education levels and community engagement for the young people living in rural environment in Romania. We take our work very seriously, yet we do it in a relaxed, witty and humorous spirit. A youthful spirit.
Our main goal is to revitalise rural environment. In our view, change finds its most fertile ground in the ones most aptly equipped for change: YOUTH. Their energy and their desire to set a new way of doing things inspired us to provide for them an organisational framework capable of allowing them to implement this change for themselves and for the community they live in. We believe that our projects function as a pilot initiative addressing the issues of rural development, educational access and better opportunities for the ones who need change and a better life within the rural area.
Our organisation's headquarters are based in Izvoarele, a small rural community near the town of Vălenii-de-Munte, in Prahova county, Romania. The other affiliate organisations we run are located in Roșia Montana, in Alba county, Transylvania and in Slon village, Prahova county. The youth centres are offering information services, coaching, public libraries, leisure time activities and youth advocacy.
Curba de Cultură focuses on teenagers and youth development. Our mission is to use non-formal education as a complementary method to the formal educational system for young people. We want to create the premises for a better development of the young people and their more suited integration within their respective communities. We want to make young people aware that they actively belong to their local and national culture.
For the period of 2014-2018, we, at Curba de Cultură, have prepared a multi-layered strategy targeting our core objectives.
Operationally, we aim at:
• Increasing international exposure for young people in rural communities through Youth Exchanges developed by young people;
• Hosting EVS volunteers in youth centres in Izvoarele and Rosia Montana in non-formal learning, rural development and personal development related projects;
• Capacity building for rural youth organisations in Europe through participation in trainings, seminars and job shadowing mobilities ;
• Providing residence opportunities for young artists with an interest in studying rural communities;
• organizing contact making events for establishing relevant partnerships in youth projects in Europe;
• developing a programme for art residencies in order to create a strong link between performative art and the rural environment, and also to provide the place for reflection and work dedicated to young artists.