ESC: Volunteer Project with Children in South of Portugal - 5 young people

MOJU, abbreviation for "Associação Movimento Juvenil em Olhão”, was founded on the 16th October 2007 in Olhão and is a non-profit independent youth organization which isn’t aimed to satisfy religious, political, material and other demands. MOJU works at local and international levels and the main objectives of organization are: - To encourage active youth participation in society, directly or indirectly; - To develop activities (inter) cultural, educational, social, sportive, recreational and environmental aimed at overall development of young people in Olhão’s municipality; - To promote discussion and dissemination of information about the needs and aspirations of Olhão’s municipality youth, to contribute to the development and implementation of appropriate local policies; - To promote gender equality, active citizenship, social inclusion and non-discrimination in a perspective of respect for Human Rights and dignity; - To contribute to the mobility of young people as a tool for their personal and professional training and to promote intercultural dialogue; - To promote equal opportunities through the formation of citizens more aware, socially engaged, participatory and creative; - To collaborate with public and private, national and international entities, aiming the development and implementation of the objectives described above. MOJU is composed of a group of people who believe in the importance of youth participation in building society and these almost fifteen years of existence were marked by the strong growth of the Association. Nowadays we have over 400 members (aged 14+) and many partnerships with public and private entities at local, regional, national & international level. In terms of target groups, MOJU works with youngsters mainly from 12 till 24 years old from Olhão, predominantly young people with fewer opportunities and at risk of exclusion (at risk of dropping out or already in school dropout; with no perspective of life beyond day-to-day; not able to choose a path and fight for it; with no conscience that in the future is necessary to assume more responsibilities and they shouldn’t waste the opportunities they face actually). Complementarily with this main target group, we also work with children’s from 6 till 11 years and with youngsters from 24 years old, also from Olhão and also being predominantly young people with fewer opportunities and at risk of exclusion. MOJU has three offices, all of them located in social neighborhoods of the city (one is located on the neighborhood “Panteras”, other one is located on the neighborhood "Bairro dos Indios" and the third is located in the neighborhood "16 de Junho"). We rebuilt this places to create Youth Offices, concerning the needs and aims of the organization. In terms of physical installations our Youth Spaces are composed by youth cabinets, computer training center, social living rooms, arts and sports spaces, and school support offices. The Association possesses almost of the material resources needed to the activities we develop and when that doesn´t happen we establish partnerships with other organizations in order to face the needs. In terms of regular activities, we have included in the three Youth Spaces promoted by the organization, the following: - Leaser Room (recreational and educational spaces); - Digital Inclusion Center (space promoter of digital inclusion, where young people can do work, surf the Internet and play on-line); - Individual Monitoring Office (aiming to support the projects of school life/professional youth); - School Support (in order to combat failure and dropout); - Workshops for Non-Formal Education (to promote reflection on behaviors, attitudes and values); - Training and Mentoring (training teachers at the school tutoring); - Tutorial Support (in order to combat truancy and enhance the school environment in the emotional universe of the child/young person); - Psycho-social Monitoring (support for young people in developing their skills and psycho-social relational); - Parental Education (with the aim to support parents in the education process of their children); - Monitoring to Families (regular contact with families to combat family breakdown); - Combined Sports (sports activities for young people); - Arts Ateliers (with the goal of working the emotional component and artistic youth); - Holiday Activities (conducting various activities to occupy school holidays); - and Employment Space (space for support in creating Curriculum Vitae and search for jobs on the Internet). With this activities, MOJU aims to contribute to the development of spaces where young people can express their opinions and participate in the community, in an active and sustainable way, supporting the objectives of the EU Youth Strategy for 2019-27 which encourages young people to become active citizens, agents of solidarity and positive change for communities inspired by EU values and a European identity.