Grow Romania – represents a youth initiative for youth development. It combines internationalism with non-formal activities to create a life changing experience. The purpose of Grow is to raise awareness, to motivate high-school students to be active citizens and to take an active role in their life and their community. At the end of the Second World War Europe’s visionary politicians decided to prevent war in Europe and that the best solution was to, little by little, become a federation. Building on this idea, Grow trainings are held by international trainers because direct interaction is the best way to break a prejudice and to promote unity in diversity. Grow addresses a sensitive topic in Romania: values. We explore values on different levels: from students speaking about what is right or wrong and personal values to country values and European Values. Grow is a complex project that engages the entire community and brings together high school students, international trainers, volunteers, teachers, parents to share and celebrate the Grow experience. By keeping contact with our participants for three years we build, self confidence, self-awareness and we help them understand that life is what each one of them make of it, and that being young for them there is a whole world of opportunity that they can take. Our impact analysis proves that the program has a strong impact on participants. There is an average of 20% increase in their self-confidence and self-awareness, in their sense of direction, they are more information-wise and many of them consider their trainers as their role models, appreciating different cultures and different perspectives. Grow Romania Impact: 40 partner countries; 180 international volunteer trainers; 95 Romanian volunteer trainers; 305 organizing volunteers; 22 cities from Romania; 10.400 meetings with students; 30.000 hours of training; 130 high schools; 120.000 people involved indirectly; 7.700 applicants; 3.700 participants.





(Der vorstehende Text gibt die von den Projektträgern selbst erstellte Zusammenfassung ihres Wettbewerbsbeitrags zum Europäischen Jugendkarlspreis 2012 wieder.)