Impact Summit GLOW-YMLP 2018
Latest News Impact Summit GLOW-YMLP 2018 On December 14th and 15th, YMCA Bitola hosted the third annual Impact Summit at the Continental Hotel in Skopje. Each year, the Impact Summit serves as an opportunity for YMLP and GLOW club leaders to showcase their service projects and explain the impact of their projects in their communities, and most importantly, it serves as an opportunity for club members to meet and reach out to other civic young leaders throughout Macedonia. This year, 77 club leaders attended the event in Skopje to showcase their service projects. Regional clubs were responsible for designing, implementing and fundraising their own service projects, including applying for grants from YMCA Bitola for any materials they required. Clubs this year had extremely creative and impactful projects including: working with youth with special needs, upgrading playgrounds, running healthy eating workshops and designing city murals among many others. In addition to collaborating on service projects, the YMCA invited special guests from the Peace Corps to train students on topics to encourage clubs to keep giving back. Until now, these summits had one-day agendas, but this year we had two days to offer the following curriculum focused on: 1. Fundraising and development of corporate relations 2. Recruiting and promoting active engagement among clubs 3. Investment management 4. Product Data Management From recent survey results, students were extremely satisfied with the weekend classes and events. We especially want to thank our donors, the European Foundation for Democracy (EED) who supported our work with the development of the clubs, as well as our corporate partners OKTA: Tinex, SASA mine, Alkaloid, Pekabesco, Zhikol and other corporate and individual donors for providing monetary donations to enable our service projects and the impact of the Summit. We look forward to seeing all we can accomplish in our communities this spring.
Service Projects of GLOW & YMLP clubs (Autumn) 2018
Latest News Service Projects of GLOW & YMLP clubs (Autumn) 2018 GLOW and YMLP Clubs Leading Positive Change in Their Communities! Every year, our GLOW and YMLP campers reconvene in their communities to initiate and lead a series of service projects throughout Macedonia. All service projects are developed within regional YMLP and GLOW clubs – local, youth-led clubs which empower young men and women to become leaders in their communities. These youth are often GLOW or YMLP Camp alumni who, through their club activitles, are able to apply what they have learned at camp about leadership and civic engagement in their communities. Our clubs were responsible for designing implementing and fundraising their own service projects including applying to grants from YMCA Bitola for any materials they require. We’re excited to share the below projects YMLP and GLOW leaders carried ou throughout ther communities in Fall 2018! We also want to especially thank our donors: the European Endowment for Democracy (EED), and our corporate partners OKTA. Tinex, SASA Mine. Alkaloid. Pekabesko. Zikol and other corporate and individual donors for providing the monetary donations to make the 2018 service projects possible. Thank you clubs for leading change in your communities! Kocani: Club members purchased blanket making materials for families in need for the winter. Club members worked together to make their own blankets and deliver the blankets to familles who needed additional warm clothes for the winter season. weder. Ohrid and Strumica: In Ohrid and Strumica: club members sought to fight trash around their schools, by cleaning the trash around around local playgrounds and schools. In Ohrid made trash receptacles brighter and more obvious to the eye with bright paints. In Strumica, club members created an environmental awareness campaign so keep their city clean. Kicevo and Bitola: In Kicevo and Bitola, club members and local community members sought to cover hate speech in their community. (a swastika). The Kicevo club painted an electrical box with a friendly mural. Similar in Bitola, club members painted a mural of the mountainous Pelegonia region over hate speech in their community. Shtip: Realizing youth with special needs continue to be a marginalized community in Shtip. The club of Shtip did arts and crafts with 20 disadvantaged students in their community. The community of Shtip hopes to build lasting connections with the youth they Supported. Deicevo: In Delcevo, club members sought to create a more comfortable space for people with special needs in their community. They painted the day center with colorful murals to make the kids feel more welcomed. Skopje: in Skopje, the club led workshops in their community about leadership and the importance of freedom of expression.
Formal reception for corporate partners 2018
Latest News Formal reception for corporate partners 2018 On October 29, 2018, the YMCA for the fifth time received the corporate partners of the premium leadership camps GLOW and IMLP. This was an event where we reminisced about the fond memories of this year’s camps and thanked our corporate partners without whom the entire YMCA youth development program would not be possible. The event was opened by the Executive Director of the YMCA, Viktor Iliev, who welcomed everyone, thanked them for their interest and then invited the American Ambassador to the Republic of Macedonia, Jess Bailey, who spoke about his visits to the GLOW and ILMP camps, the progress he saw in the development of the program and determination of the young people who could testify. After that, Sonja Boyarovska, Tinex’s Corporate Social Responsibility Manager spoke about the importance of investing in the youth of this country. Ambassador Bailey shared some thoughts on the importance of investing in the youth in Macedonia and also introduced the attendees to the idea and need for holding these camps. Afterwards, some of our campers gave short speeches and shared their personal experiences of their participation with the guests present. YMCA Executive Director Viktor Iliev spoke about the importance of outdoor education and camps as a form of informal learning, after which he presented the awards to this year’s corporate partners: Gold Sponsor: OKTA, Silver Sponsors: Tinex and SASA Mine, Bronze Sponsors: Alkaloid . Peccabesco and Zhikol. Then there was a period of informal socializing with some of our campers. This was an opportunity for the representatives of the companies to become better acquainted with the results of the program through the personal stories of the campers, but also an opportunity for further cooperation with the YMCA and the Peace Corps. This was an excellent opportunity for companies to demonstrate their corporate responsibility and build a good image for themselves and the products/services they offer. Becoming partners in the implementation of the GLOW and IMLP youth development program of the YMCA means creating a tradition in the development of top leaders in Macedonia supported by one of the best companies in the country and the region. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.
Just Another YMLP Thing
Latest News Just Another YMLP Thing Here we publish three posts from our guest blogger the Macedonian kid, about the YMLP camp! Enjoy! PART I Chants, core values, s’mores and rough camping. If you know what those four things have in common that means you have been to the Young Men’s Leadership Project (YMLP). For those of you who haven’t had the chance to be there, you need to know that at YMLP we love chanting ALL THE TIME, our 7 core values are our Bible and we love going rough camping and eating s’mores. Because of that, 1 decided to make a series of posts to introduce you to some of the best things we have at camp and get you closer to the action called YMLP. I’m going to start with my personal favorite – the chants. At YMLP, before every meal and every big activity, we have this thing called lineup. All 8 teams would line up next to each other (usually at the basketball court) to hear what’s gonna happen next at camp from the camp coordinators. ANNOUNCEMENTS, ANNOUNCEMENTS, ANNO00000UNCMENTS!! After all the announcements are done, each team, one by one, would go and chant their chants. See, on day one, every team is given a couple of hours to come up with their team name, flag and a chant that will represent their team during the week so the campers would start from day one to work as a team. Some decide to do a parody of a popular song, some choose something new and catchy and some just yell (well, most of us do that). Every team has one. In the beginning they’re usually short and not in sync and campers think it’s weird but by the fourth day, everyone is chanting every single word and starting to lose their voice. Everyone just loves them! This year, I was the Counselor-In-Training (CIT) for the RED team, and as soon as we went over the rules, we got together and started to come up with our stuff. First order of business – our name. We had a few good suggestions but we decided to call ourselves – Fire Nation, inspired by the Avatar animated series but don’t ask me what that means and why we chose that name because I don’t know the first thing about Avatar. For the flag and chant, we decided to divide and conquer. Those who were good with drawing went to come up with the flag, and the rest of us stayed to think of a chant. As a CIT, I decided to leave the campers to come up with a chant out after an hour of a few unsuccessful tries, I took matters in my own hands. Remember the song “Country Roads”?! Well, we changed a few words and came up with the best chant at the camp this year. Almost midnight, Shula Mina, Red Fire Nation, Krushevo City, Life is hot there, hotter than the sun, Colder than the mountains, worries we got none. YMLP, take us home, To the place, we belong, Shula Mina, Mountain Mama, Take us home, YMLP Since the very beginning, everyone started singing it alone with us. What can beat a campfire song at a camp? Our short chant was: “WHO ARE WE?! FIRE NATIONI!!! WHAT DO WE DO?I BURN, BURN, BURNI!” Pretty cool, right?! The purple team had a nice remix of “Old MacDonald Had a Farm”, the green team did a parody of “We Will Rock You, the white/vanilla team had a nice vanilla scoop at the end of their chant… All in all, we had great chants this year! What makes this chanting thing even cooler is seeing everyone, no matter what team they’re in, chants all the time. It takes a while to become used to all the yelling and noise at the lineup, but once the campers get the memo, you can’t stop them. That’s not all, tough – teams are not the only one to have a chant. All the coordinators, facilitators and staff have their own. Every time our program coordinator Steven would start his announcements we chanted: “He’s Steven, he is quirky!” He hated it in the beginning but got used to it since he had to hear it all the time. The counselors had their own chants from last year: “COUNSELORS ARE WHAT?! DYNAMITEI!! COUNSELORS ARE WHATI DYNAMITE!!! TICK, TICK, TICK, TICK, TICK – BOOOOOM DYNAMITEI!” This year, we chanted “CALORIES, CALORIES, CALORIES” when the lineup would go too long and we just wanted to eat. haha. “LEAVE NO TRACE” and “WASH YOUR HANDS” were also an integral part of our lineups. When someone (mostly Connor, our lead counselor) would say. “Sounds good?” Our answer was always: “SOUNDS GREAT! And you were always feeling AWESOME at camp! I can go on and on about all of our chants but you get my point, right? We love chanting (and we chant) so much to a point when its sooo annoying to the outside people. And while we know that, we just can’t stop – it’s bigger than us, haha! I was going to finish this post with the last sentence but then what would be a post about YMLP chant look like without a chant to end it with? Here we go: *I GOT SPIRIT, YES I DO! I GOT SPIRIT, HOW ABOUT YOU????!!!!!” PART II As I stated in my yesterdays post. I’ll be writing a series of posts about the things that make Young Men’s Leadership Project (YMLP) what it is. It’s time for our core values. At camp, we focus on the development of leadership and employability skills, personal development, appreciation and respect for the environment, civic responsibility, diversity, inter-ethnic understanding, and contributing in our communities. The way we do all these things is by following our core values that guide all staff and campers throughout the week at camp. Caring – for yourself, the community, and others. Honesty – be
GLOW Camp 2018
Latest News GLOW Camp 2018 We had the ultimate summer at Camp GLOW 2018 located in Krushevo at the Begova Korija camp grounds! Our theme this year was, The Future Is Female, in which we spent a week empowering young women across Macedonia from all walks of life. These campers had the opportunity to participate in a variety of workshops on topics including environmentalism, civic responsibility, human rights and diversity, youth employability, and leadership. Through these workshops campers gained important life and leadership skills to apply in their everyday lives and in their future career endeavors. Camp GLOW is an experience unlike any other especially when you arrive at the beginning of camp surrounded by strangers and unsure of what to expect and by the end of the week you have become a part of a GLOW family with.new lifelong friends ready to take on the world! “For me camp meant a welcoming place filled with amazing people from different backgrounds. An accepting place where you can be your true self. Camp was also a great experience that taught me how to love and respect myself and in the meantime love and respect others. It has taught me how to be a great leader who can help and support other people who are struggling with the same problems that I was struggling with before camp.” Jovanka Panova (camper) *GLOW is a life changing experience that everyone has to experience it at least once in their life. It changed me and my attitude, made me feel more confident in myself and it taught me to always say my opinion and to speak out. Also, I met amazing people who I still keep contact with and I’m really grateful for that. Would love to go back again!’ Ana Marija Minova (camper) “So, Camp GLOW was the highlight of 2018 for me, and here is why. One thing I still come back to from time to time are the letters ! received from the Kind words wall. I could never imagine how much those words would help me and encourage me to pursue my goals. It is really great to know that there are people who support you and root for you. Another thing I am sure I learned from Camp Is the fact that Irealized how many more opportunities are out there in the world, and that it is not luck, but hard work that will help me get those chances. That is thanks to the Employment fair, the Project Design Management etc. And last but not least. which I didn’t expect at all, is the fact that i have become so much more confident to express my opinions and thoughts outside of GLOW. Before camp. I thought that people wouldn’t understand, let alone respect, my thoughts on different subjects. At camp I learned that I am not the only one that has such opinions, and now it is so much easier to voice my thoughts. I never knew people were willing to listen to me. Elena Mirova (campen» We want to especially thank our donors: US Embassy. FOOM, European Endowment for Democracy (EED), and our corporate partners OKTA, Tinex, SASA Mine, Alkaloid, Pekabesko, Zikol and other corporate and individual donors for providing the monetary donations to make this unforgettable Camp GLOW 2018 possible.
Orientation Training for Camp Staff 2018
Latest News Orientation Training for Camp Staff 2018 On Saturday March 24, YMCA Bitola hosted the annual GLOW and YMLP Pre-Camp Training for our Camp staff and counselors in training. All in all, 55 camp staff and 15 counselors in training came together at NOVA High School in Skopje to learn about their jobs and responsibilities as facilitators, counselors, support staff, and counselors in training at GLOW and YMLP. The GLOW and YMLP team works hard during the Staff training in order to plan lessons, group activities, meals, camp outs, s’mores and more for our campers to enjoy. This year. they worked on new and exciting aspects to our program. In 2018, GLOW will increase our number of facilitators from 8 to 10, in order to provide a more robust program, and more meaningful classes. This will contribute significantly to the new curriculum subject that can be found at both camps of Youth Employability. The staff also learned about a new aspect to our program that began last year at YMLP – a volunteerism simulation that campers will learn about designing and managing projects through, that will this year be found at both camps in conjunction with the camp service project. Our volunteers learned about all of these parts of camp and more! This year, GLOW and YMLP Coordinators focused on giving our staff usable skills that will be valuable at camp, and also in life that our camp staft will be able to carry with them in other endeavors. Depending on positions at camp, our staff learned such as basic safety procedures, how to manage group dynamics, empathy, how to write a lesson plan, and even classroom management. We are confident our staff will use their newfound skills to make this years camps the best ones yet. Camper leaders also had a chance to participate in the training. While the majority of our campers will be recruited in April, 16 campers will return from last year to act as Counselors in Training (CiTs) at the 2018 camps. These campers are in a valuable position to learn all about what being staff at GLOW and YMLP really means, so that in the future they can come back to be full camp staff. CITs participated in the training by being matched with their counselor mentors, and learning all about how they can be a leader on their team and work with their counselor to make camp an amazing experience for this year’s new campers, just like it was for them. The GLOW and YMLP Staff teams thank NOVA School in Skople for hosting us for our staff training. Also we want to thank the European Endowment for Democracy (EED), our corporate partners OKTA, Tinex, SASA Mine, Alkaloid, Pekabesko, Zikol and other corporate and individual donors for providing the monetary donations to make this training possible.
Volunteer actions of GLOW-YMLP clubs (spring) 2018
Latest News Volunteer actions of GLOW-YMLP clubs (spring) 2018 The GLOW and YMLP Youth Fund from YMCA Bitola provides opportunities for GLOW and YMLP clubs across the country to implement the skills they have learned in project design and management through grant writing and project implementation to improve their community. In the first grant applications, seven GLOW and YMLP clubs were awarded grants based on their project proposals, written by youth leaders, in the areas of the environment, civic engagement and the arts. These clubs completed their community service projects with materials provided by GLOW and YMLP funds—each project was completed for less than $100. GLOW and YMLP Bitola held an event to raise awareness for their community about the importance of cycling and other clean, environmentally friendly methods of commuting to work and school. Their event, where guests participated in competitions, reflections and games, had over 35 participants learning about air pollution. Iskra, club mentor and GLOW training advisor in training, said: “What I loved about our service project was the dedication and effort of our team dedicated to the subject – air pollution. especially in a time of insatiable apathy. The project attracted a lot of people to see what we have to say and influence them in a positive way, so that they can be satisfied, because our efforts have paid off and we have seen the results we hoped for – self-awareness and awareness of the power for change that people possess.” GLOW Kriva Palanka gave back to the City Museum, a local community institution where the club made its home. With the materials of the Youth Fund, GLOW Kriva Palanka cleaned the museum spaces and wiped and painted the older benches throughout the property. The seven members of the club devoted a total of 14 hours to this project. The youth leader of Kriva Palanka and alumni of the GLOW camp Adriana said: “What I liked most about our service was that we did something good for our community and for the institution that allowed us to use its halls to realize our amazing meetings. The project make us feel motivated to make more changes in the community, so we can be better! Ohrid GLOW and YMLP club held an event for the recycling of electronic waste in the high school SOSU St. Cyril and Methodius. With the help of the director and employees of the school and a recycling company from Skopje, NULAOTPAD DOO. the club collected and shipped 28 computer processing units, 5 printers, 2 boxes of disassembled components, 178 keyboards, 4 boxes of miscellaneous cables, 88 computer mice, 7 CPU fan units, 87 wired pointing adapters, 42 CRT monitors, 1 scanner, and 10 flat screen monitors in Skopje for environmentally safe recycling. Their club leader, Philip, who attended the YMLP camp in 2017, said: “What I loved most about our community service project was the fact that we inspired a number of people in our school to volunteer and help us get off the ground right. (recycling) from our broken electronic equipment. After our project, the members felt very fulfilled, liberated and happy, because now we made a lot of free space that was not there from all the broken electronic devices. The help from the school, the students, the recycling team from Skopje and the members they became very proud and happy. GLOW Debar ran art workshops for youth in their town – the results of those workshops were put up for sale and all profits were donated to the local center for youth with special needs. GLOW and YMLP Struga held a community recycling event, where community members learned about the importance of recycling through games and contests, including the what-can-be-recycled-from-a-bottle contest, with winners receiving reusable bottles that can to use them to reduce dependence on plastic bottles. Martin from Struga said: “What I liked about the community service project was the coordination of GLOW and YMLP and the goal of it – to make a greener environment. After it was done, the members felt useful and productive. They also felt proud of the large amounts of plastic collected”. GLOW and YMLP Tetovo held an event “Ancient Olympics”, promoting health for all children regardless of ability / disability in their community. They had fun encouraging local youth to get outside and exercise through play. All the money raised through their event was donated to the local center for people with special needs, who were also invited to participate in their event for free. “What I liked most about our project was the organization and dedication of our team members during the project and organization. With the exception of the efforts made by the club mentors and leaders, we are also very grateful for our generous and active participants of the GLOW club in Tetovo. Without them, our project wouldn’t have been possible, and ultimately, the fact that we created an event to raise awareness for underprivileged children and make our society a better place for all of us, regardless of appearance, race, gender, etc.” , said Fatlinda, one of the young leaders of Tetovo and alumni of the GLOW camp. Completing our service and project made me and my club members feel proud and confident and so happy for the work we have done, because all the money that the participants donated was given with so many surprises for children with special needs and finishing it speech with meaning, which made it even more effective and rewarding.” GLOW and YMLP Vinica held a community beautification project. They painted a long section of wall in their shared park that was covered in graffiti. Their project got word of mouth with some local community members in the park coming to see what they were doing. The Vinica Club is excited to open up an opportunity for future community service projects – they want the local high school to paint some beautiful murals on the wall they cleaned and painted for their
Service Projects of GLOW & YMLP clubs (Autumn) 2017
Latest News Service Projects of GLOW & YMLP clubs (Autumn) 2017 The Camp GLOW and Camp YMLP Youth Fund by YMCA Bitola provides opportunities for GLOW and YMLP Clubs throughout the country to implement the learned skills in service project on topic about design and management by writing a grant and implementing a project to improve their community, in the first round of grant applications, seven GLOW and YMLP clubs were awarded the grant based on their project proposals, written by youth leaders, in the areas of environment, civic engagement and arts. GLOW and YMLP Bitola plan to organize a 2-hour event for the environment involving a presentation together with the “BitolaNaTocak” initiative, about the pollution in the environment and the things we can do to stop it from spreading. The presentation will have a special focus on communicating to at least 50 youth how useful cycling is for people and the community. They plan to have some fun and interesting games to invigorate the participants, which will include games, for instance, the game “Do It by Yourself”, fun facts about bikes and the environment, music, and much more and will be held at Shirok Sokak in order to raise awareness and motivate the public to use greener transportation. GLOW Kriva Palanka is planing to improve the yard of the City Museum of Kriva Palanka, a local institution funded by the Municipality of Kriva Palanka – in order to support the museum’s current initiatives in exchange for supporting our clubs and events. GLOW Kriva Palanka will clean, sand and paint 13 benches in the museum yard and clean and renovate (pull weeds, pick up trash, fix) the museum playground. GLOW and YMLP Club Ohrid will promote an electronics recycling day for at least 11 schools in the Ohrid Municipality, NULA OTPAD DOO (NOD) (Zero Waste), a non-profit organization is authorized by the Government to collect and safely dispose all of the electronic equipment. This service, including the pick-up and transport of all items is offered at no charge. GLOW and YMLP Ohrid will create an efficient pick-up circuit and submit that information to NOD. GLOW Struga will hold a community event which will promote recycling among youth in their community. Their event will emphasize clean living through environment and physical activity by organizing games integrating sports and recycling and distributing Information about how to get involved. GLOW Struga is hoping to get 35 local youth motivated to get civically engaged in their local community through environmentalism and physical activity! GLOW and YMLP Tetovo is planing to hold an “Ancient Olympics” event promoting health and wellness for all children regardless of ability/disability in their community. The Ancient Olympics Fundralser will be designed to accommodate approximately 100 people, primarily students both with and without disabilities. including volunteers who will lead the sessions and activities. In order to incorporate history and a positive atmosphere, components of the ancient Olympics, such as an opening ceremony, traditions, decorations, art, and a closing ceremony will be included. Every participant will contribute with 100 denars, which will be donated to children in need through a local NGO. GLOW and YMLP Vinica will paint over the graffiti on the walls of the local park, giving the high school art classes students the opportunity to repaint the murals and beautifying the neighborhood for the community members who frequently visit the park. GLOW Club Debar will hold workshops for the local kindergarten in their community to encourage arts education and appreciation. The club will help 25 children to create paintings which will be put on auction and sold in the community to support families in need through the local Red Cross.
Corporate sponsor event
Latest News Corporate sponsor event Wednesday, October 25th 2017 YMCA Bitola in cooperation with the American Ambassador in Macedonia Jess Baily held the Annual corporate sponsorship appreciation event. The event focused on the impact made by the GLOW and YMLP Youth development program over the past year and our gratitude to our sponsors for their continued support. The event was held at the Ambassador’s residence. Ambassador Baily was introduced by the Peace Corps Director Mark Hannafin. He spoke about his past visits to GLOW and YMLP camps and the energy and determination of the youth he witnessed there. GLOW staff member and camp alumni Dijana Jovanoska, and YMLP Counselor in training Nenad Stojevski spoke about their experiences and growth within the GLOW and YMLP program, and thanked all the sponsors for their continuous support. Ioannis Geroulanos, CEO of OKTA, gold sponsor of the GLOW and YMLP Youth Development Program, spoke about the importance of youth development programs in Macedonia, his own positive experience in similar programs, and urged all present companies to invest in the program, explaining the value of corporate sponsorship to both beneficiaries: to the program itself and to the companies that choose to become partners. Viktor Iliev presented corporate sponsor appreciation awards: Gold sponsor OKTA, Silver sponsor Lynx Resources (SASA Mine), Bronze sponsors Alkaloid, EVN and Zdravje Radovo, and also the US Embassy, ELEM, TTK Bank, TAV Airports, and Vitaminka.
Improving camp standards in Finland
Latest News Improving camp standards in Finland This event is a continuation of the activities to agree on common standards for camps in YMCA Europe. Following the events organized by the YMCA of the Netherlands and the YMCA of Setubal, Portugal, the Finnish YMCA hosted a training conference for camp leaders with a focus on camp management. All these events now belong to a larger program of YMCA Europe called YMCA Camps in Europe. The training site is a residential camp of the Finnish YMCA located on the island of Harva, a unique, picturesque place in the Finnish archipelago, not far from the city of Turku. This project was funded mostly by the grant that YMCA Finland received from the Erasmus+ program and this training event was the main activity of the project that lasted from 31 May to 29 November 2017. Partners of the projects are YMCA in Estonia, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Macedonia, Romania and the Netherlands. In addition, we had trainers and participants from Georgia, Kosovo and the YMCA from the USA. We had a total of 40 people and that is the limit related to the capacity of the place. For that reason, unfortunately, this time we could not propose the participation of more YMCA movements. The guest from the YMCA, Mary Cambray, held a session. Our second guest from YMCA Camp Echo, Bernard Rocca is holding a session in Europe. There are many YMCA organizations with a long tradition of camping, which have an elaborate high-quality service, take a unique approach to children and young people, and their staff are trained within sophisticated systems. Most of the YMCA camps represent very high standards and are recognized as such by the communities. However, in most cases YMCA movements work separately and it is difficult to talk about common standards in organizing camps and training staff. This project is the next, very important step to join the facilities: a group of current or future camp managers will be trained in a common system, in fact they will shape this system. The YMCA of Finland is well placed to host this project: it has several good camps, experience in training volunteers and staff. But above all, they have dedicated young leaders who want to cooperate with their colleagues from other countries. The training program included topics that are characteristic of camp management: • strategic planning, administration. marketing, staff team building. However, we had workshops that were very relevant to contemporary issues involving the YMCA. One of them is diversity, which is also a matter of camp management in our case. Since the training took place in one place, the forms of several activities took advantage of the local specifics. We built a raft (and used it), sailed around the Archipelago, cooked and ate in an old mine and those who wanted to sleep outdoors in hammocks did so. Also, as a special Finnish contribution, from this event we will propose a form of support in a traditional Finnish way, which we want to apply in cooperation with the YMCA who are at the beginning of developing camp programs. This is called Talkoot – Support for YMCA Camps in Need.
