ESC: Schuman Volunteers - High School European Club in Silesia

European Integration Club in the Complex of Schools in Wojkowice has been working since 1994. It was officially registered in the European Integration Committee Office in 1998. The priority of our activities is intercultural education of the youth and adults. “All different – all equal” is the beacon of our work. In the united Europe the contact between Poles and people of different cultures is more and more frequent. There is the necessity to bring up young people in openness, tolerance and understanding for other people. Also adults should be made interested in other cultures. We are against racism, xenophobia, anti-semitism, intolerance and violence. We motivate others to act together for the purpose of tolerance, equality and respect for dignity and human rights. Through intercultural activities we want to make young people appreciate differences between people, cultures, ways and views of living. We want to participate in building societies of people who are tolerant, solitary and sensitive to others’ harm and where people’s dignity is shown in the equality of treating them. We want to build the society, where everybody is treated equally – with no division into the best and the worse. We encourage young people to participate in discussions, workshops, debates and to learn from each other. Solidarity with others is our inspiration to act in order to decrease isolation and social exclusion. We believe in Europe open for the world. We believe that student’s direct and personal contact with international volunteers will lead not only to creating their open-minded, tolerant and well-educated way of thinking, but also promote the idea of learning languages and encourage them to take on challenges in their lives. The membership in the Club makes our students more active citizens. For the last 15 years (since 2006) we have gained experience with EVS/Erasmus+/ESC volunteers. Thanks to them we were able to enrich our knowledge about other cultures and we feel well prepared and motivated to host volunteers also in the future. Ever since the beginning our Club has been very active in the field of promoting European integration idea. Below are mentioned some of the activities: -Participation in various competitions related to Europe and activism (the members of the Club have received many trophies); -Visits to European Union Institutions; Participation in projects (conferences, meetings, campaigns, etc.) organized by various organizations (Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Polish Robert Schuman Foundation, European Academy Otzenhausen in Germany, etc.) -Implementation of Socrates Comenius project in our school; -Regular participation in Polish-German seminars at the Centre of Political Education in Wendgraben; -Organization of various events for the Club from the district and region (for example: Third Silesian Forum of European Clubs, Second Competition of Silesian European Clubs- Syriusz award, Our Place in Europe, My Place in European Union, etc.); -Meetings and workshops on European topics at the schools in our region; -Annual participation of the Club in Schuman Parade in Warsaw (in 2005 our club got the first prize in the contest for the best European Club in Poland, in 2006 we won a contest for the best idea for appearance in the Parade and in 2011 we won prize for a workshop on volunteering, in 2014 we won the flash mob competition).