Background

Serik Youth Education, Culture, Environment and Sports Association(SERGED ) is created to serves as a learning organization that gathers trainers, youth and adult learner, social workers, youth policymakers, experts, and volunteers with different levels of competences to actively be involved in the creation of civic activities with a European dimension and with benefits for their local community.

At a local level:

• To promote equal educational and labor opportunities for all, particular attention is given to hard-to-reach groups;
• Balanced integration of different ethnic groups by transnational projects and activities taking into account the multilingual character;
• Promotes the intercultural dialogue, exchange of knowledge and European awareness through the active participation of youngsters;
• Empower youth and youth structures through the development of initiatives to support personal, social and cultural development, with a focus on civic education, promotion of youth participation, intercultural learning and a community-centered approach through non-formal education methodologies.
• Recognition of non-formal education and learning by the society and the state;
• supports the development of young people through sports.
• supports young people to learn about different cultures through international mobility.
• it creates opportunities for young people to learn innovative learning methods and use them in their career development.

At the international level:

•             Promoting lifelong learning as a tool to adapt to the constant changes and to achieve personal and professional growth;
•             Involving youth in international educational, scientific, sport and  cultural exchange programs;
•             Promoting intercultural dialogue through different initiatives and Programmes (Erasmus +, Europe for citizens, Creative Europe, etc.).
•             Initiatives that develop opportunities for mutual understanding, intercultural learning solidarity, societal engagement, and volunteering;

•Supporting projects promoted by transnational partnerships and networks directly involving citizens and addressing their needs to improve the skills needed for the labor market.

Dear colleagues in this section you will read about the following experience of “SERGED”. Choose the section which is relevant to your project proposal. We are happy to answer your specific questions.

1. Social work/youth work and inclusion of hard to reach groups;

2. Entrepreneurship and Innovation

3. Media literacy

4. Youth and Sport

5. Education and Culture

6. Environment

Social work/youth work:

SERGED is implementing different local and international projects which aim at increasing personal development and facilitation skills of youth workers and leaders in order to be able to serve their day – to day activities with youths in schools and social centers. Through our network of international partners, we provide a ground to practice methods of facilitation with international and intercultural groups in workshops and activities based on non – formal education methodology. Throughout the process, we further straighten youth workers and youth leaders’ knowledge and actions to interfere in problem solving process and conflict resolution techniques. Our activities as well involve acknowledging skills and attitudes to play an active role in society at the local, national and European levels by being acquainted with the non-formal education methods and promote them in the field of youth work.

Second, SERGED is working at the local level to educate youth leaders and workers on inclusion - how to include and engage in projects marginalized group and motivate young people to participate in training, volunteer initiatives locally or internationally; how to motivate them to stay with the organization, to feel valued and more engaged and responsible for the processes in the organization. In this regard, we joined the project Innovation through volunteering aiming to enhance the capacity of NGOs to work with volunteers.

In our international network, we have organized study visits to promote and share best practices in the field of youth work in order to provide support to young people with fewer opportunities. We have designed TCs and YEs which focuses on strengthen effectiveness of work and involving youth. We are using a variety of working methods based on non-formal learning, coaching, dynamic exercises, role plays, games, brainstorming, simulations, case studies based on creativity, we aim to inspire participants to enhance skills related to intercultural dialogue, creative entrepreneurship, a social project for youth, the situation on the modern labor market, empowering of active civic life.

Not the last, in Turkey non -formal education and youth work is not yet recognized; thus, we participate at local and international level in debating on the importance of social recognition of youth work and non-formal activities and to 1) promote the recognition of young people’s skills and learning acquired through participation in youth work activities; 2) raise the visibility of youth work, its impact on young people’s lives and its contribution to society.

Entrepreneurship

SERGED has staff whose education background is business and entrepreneurship development, which helps the organization to foster their credo in training and exchange of know-how in the field of (social) entrepreneurship, start-up, project management, event management, soft skills development and others topics relevant to young people boosting their educational and professional background in the field. At the local level, we are organizing training, seminars, workshops, and exchanges that are directly targeting youths who want to get empowered, learn how to plan and run their businesses, providing them with simulation methods to test their ideas, and enhancing their knowledge in management.

We create a network of youth in terms of exchanging entrepreneurial skills and experience, to raise awareness on entrepreneurship and boost youth initiatives, to motivate youth and raise self-confidence to develop and present ideas, to encourage each other and promote youth activism, to improve entrepreneurial, employability skills and attitudes.

Environment:

to work for the safeguard of the natural environment and for its enhancement through the implementation of awareness campaigns to protect the environment; protection initiatives and events, educational projects for the promotion and development of an environmental sensibility among youngsters also in collaboration with local schools.

 Culture:

 provide opportunities for gatherings and cultural growth through training and documentation of cultural activities, dissemination activities of cultural concepts; organization of events such as seminars, exhibitions, conferences, book presentations, plays, and concerts.

Sport

The pleasure of movement and the desire to promote sport as one of the basic elements of a healthy lifestyle have brought us together. We started to become a team by running in a group and, especially, by participating in organizing events dedicated to the sport.

For the purpose of, we have developed different manuals to support the learning:
Creative thinking 

 Public speaking 

 Time management and personal
Emotional intelligence 

 Teamwork 

Soft skills: 

Massive Open Online Courses on topics of Creativity and Entrepreneurship:

SERGED is very active at the international level, too because this is how we can up-to-date our knowledge and also exchange with partners know-how and methodology. Throughout the year we took part in partnership projects in almost all 27 EU member countries, which means that we exchanged various of best practices internationally and also learned how other NGOs work on with the topic.