In the period 20.10.-27.10.2021 In the period an international youth exchange YOU and the Mount had been implemented in Lozen, Sofia. The event gathered together participants from Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyprus, Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania and Poland. “You And the Mount /YATM/” was a youth exchange which aimed to show the relationship between the people and the mountain. With the project, we encouraged young people to continue to look for sustainable tourism and sport, we showed them that unwise behavior in the mountain sometimes leads to serious consequences. By gathering young people, we aimed to teach them basic skills that are essential for practicing tourism and sports in the mountains. They acquired advance skills that was useful not only in the mountains, but also in their everyday lives. Through all the activities we have planned, they were taken out of a comfort zone, they had to solve cases they encountered in the mountains, but these skills would also be useful in their everyday lives.
The development of tourism and mountain sports is becoming more and more popular. The name “You And the Mount /YATM/” was chosen because we wanted to show what the relationship between the people and the mountain is.
Project objectives
- Acquiring skills in extreme and unpredictable situations in the mountains;
- Prevention of the risks of practicing sports and tourism in the mountains;
- First aid skills in situations already created;
- Selection of proper equipment and route in foreseeable mountain situations;
- Selection of appropriate equipment and route in predictable mountain situations;
- Creating website/blog/web platform by the participated youngsters in the project, where they can share good practices, advices with each other, can add their friends and can stay in contact after the project. Based on the accumulated knowledge of the previous days, the youngsters will begin to create the website/blog/platform for future communication between the participants and their friends on local and international level.
- Understanding EU priorities in policies for young people, their personal and professional development;
- Understanding EU policies on sustainable development and policies in EU countries.
DURING THE YOUTH EXCHANGE, YOUNG PEOPLE HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO UNDERSTAND:
- The need to have no emotional but rational thinking, decision making when choosing activities in the mountain;
- How important is the purely human attitude and how they should respond when they see a person who is in an unfavorable situation and trouble.
THE PROFILE OF THE PARTICIPANTS WAS AS FOLLOWS:
- Young people who practice the activities listed above with experience and interest in the topic;
- Young people who really want to improve the quality of performance of mountain and extreme sports and activities and help their peers to avoid fatal incidents.
- The selected participants have to work after that for follow-up and dissemination among young people at local and international level;
- The age of the participants was 18+ with.
The duration of the youth mobility was 8 full working days. The project followed the non-formal learning approach and was combined with teamwork, exercises, discussions and teamwork.
“You And the Mount /YATM/” is co-funded by Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union in cooperation with Bulgarian Sports Development Association (BUL) – YATM coordinator, Social Policy And Action Organization (CYP), Bosnian Representative Association For Valuable Opportunities (BIH), ATET Zimbrul Carpatin (ROM), A.D.E.L. – Association For Development, Education And Labour (SVK), Zavod Za Sport Ajdovscina (SLO), Stowarzyszenie Promocji Zdrowia i Profilaktyki “HOPP” (POL).
