The Pitch project info

From pitching your tent to the pitching event

The Project:  This is an Erasmus+ Project under the Program KA210-YOU – Small-scale partnerships in youth. The duration of the project is 01/03/2022 to 01/09/2023.

WHO are We? We are a Consortium of organisations, who became partners for the
purposes of this project. The organisations that are members of this partnership are:

·    Foundation for the development of the cultural BPOCS, Bulgaria

·    Asociatia Nevazatorilor din Romania Filiala Judeteana Arad, Romania

·    Unione Italiana Ciechi ed Ipovedenti Sezione Provinciale di Firenze, Italy

·    Sports Union for the Blinds “Pirsos”, Greece

·    ARTEVELDEHOGESCHOOL, Belgium

·    A.P.S. Loto Fiorito, Italy

What do we AIM to achieve and How?

·  Promote active citizenship, young people’s sense of initiative and youth entrepreneurship including social entrepreneurship 

·   Support inclusion and diversity in all fields of education, training, youth and sport

·   Take into account the environment and the fight against climate change

The project aims at nurturing and supporting v.i. youths’ sense of initiative and entrepreneurship by creating a safe and peer-learning oriented environment, which can facilitate the testing and validation of social entrepreneurial ideas. It also strives to promote inclusion of young v.i. people by developing guidelines for organizing peer learning hiking, involving v.i. and sighted youth together, going on a target oriented trip and learning from each other on the way.

Ø  Planning and preparing our social entrepreneurial and self-development and awareness workshops. All done by the involved youth. By the end of this first activity we will have:

·       The teams of the partner organizations will also obtain an updated and enriched version of a visual awareness for sighted people training course.

·       Development of guidelines and agenda for organizing mixed peer-learning hikes for sighted and v.i. participants in a manner, which is beneficial for the community as a whole.

·       Developed logistics of the hiking tour and a detailed agenda, together with safety rules, risk assessment and procedures in case of emergency.

Ø Implementing the mixed peer-learning hike for sighted and visually impaired participants. This will be done during a 10 to 14 days of organized hiking trip in the Spring of 2023, during which workshops prepared and led by the youth will take place.  At the end, we will have:

· Peer learning hike with mixed groups of 6 participants (3 sighted and 3 v.i.) from each partner country implemented in its full complexity over a period of 2 weeks – covered 300 kilometers and implemented a minimum of 8 workshops and additional trainings with a minimum of 36 participants in total (including 4 representatives of IT LARP partner and 2 team members from the leading organization)

· Tested guidelines for organizing peer learning hikes for mixed groups.

·  Tested visual awareness workshop.

·  Implemented and presented a minimum of 5 venue checks on the path of the hike.

Ø  Testing the mixed peer-learning hike on a national level. After the implementation, we will have:

·       Local/regional/national hike agendas, developed, tested and prepared for presentation and offer.

·       Local/regional/national v.i. networks, youth and volunteer organization networks, environmental organizations, tourism and travel agencies informed about the possibilities and benefits of this type of peer learning hike, as well as equipped with guidelines how to organize on their own or collaborate for organizing such hikes in a safe way at minimized risk.

Who can Join?

– young people with visual impairments up to 30 years of age by the time of the event, preferably with good English language skills, who are interested in developing existing skills and talents into social entrepreneurial concepts, which can be tested within a safe environment with a mixed group of participants with and without visual impairments.

– youth workers, starting from those coming from the partner organizations, who are interested
to deepen their knowledge and practical skills for providing support and working together with youth with impaired vision for the purpose of assisting the latter in achieving economic independence via social entrepreneurship. 
These youth workers will also be the promoters of mixed peer learning hiking tours, developing exemplary agendas and guidelines about how such initiatives should be planned and carried out in their most efficient form.

For more information about the project and how you can get involved, please contact: cubufoundation@gmail.com