Movement "Protasi"	Center of Creative Occupation

The addresses of our project

Organisation “PROTASI” for the primary prevention of addictive substances and proposal for a better quality in life.
• With professionals and volunteers for parents, teachers, students, health professionals, local community.

Activity fields

Centre of Creative Occupation (Youth Work)

Meeting points of Productive Learning
AND Primary Prevention of addictive substances

• Educational process
  - Learning by doing
  - Energetic learning
• Personal development
• Community education and involvement
• Work groups
• Facilitator instead of educator

PRODUCTIVE LEARNING MODES in THE CCO

Young people are:
• Learning on the basis of experience
• Trained to be able to achieve something both for oneself and one’s environment
• Treated to feel themselves important and valuable members of society
• Inspired to produce something, to improve, to achieve, to prevent, to express, to communicate etc.
• Motivated to understand their activities as a learning process and to shape it as an educational process in order to understand their experience and quality their action.

Organisation of work

• The CCO is for students 10-16 years old
• Groups of some 7-12 students of almost the same age
• The CCO groups work at the Youth Centre of “PROTASI” during weekends for 2 hours from September to June each year
• Every September the groups are reconsisted with old and new members
• Diverse learning environments with volunteer facilitators (group work in the CCO rooms, transnational youth exchanges, excursions and visits (theatre, exhibitions etc)

Target groups

The CCO is targeted to children and young people who have:
• A weak social background or problems in their families (divorces, deaths, drugs etc)
• Poor opportunities to entertain themselves in their leisure time
• Who are at risk or being excluded from education and society
• Not special problems but want to belong to a youth group.

The CCO groups are managed by…

• The team
  The team of facilitators are pedagogues and youth workers with practical and theoretical qualifications as well as artistic knowledge (puppet theatre, handicrafts, handicrafts etc. All of them work on a volunteer basis with high commitment.
  They lead (in couples) each group of children
  The team of facilitators is also leaded by two experienced facilitators who receive counseling and support by the scientific team of PROTASI.
• The facilitators of each group for children support their personal growth, monitor progress work in cooperation with families, plan, manage, coordinate, evaluate with the children the tasks each group undertakes
• The facilitators themselves are constantly trained in short and long term seminars and have frequent meetings as a team for coordination, exchange of pedagogic problems and experiences, study cases etc.

Task-based learning

• The tasks for each group are chosen according to the children’s interests and the availability and interests of the facilitators (contract)
• Each group plans the year’s activities, shares the roles in the group implements the tasks and activities evaluates the results, presents the final product (theatrical play, puppet theatre, exhibitions handicrafts, concerts etc) to the parents and local community
• Multicultural youth exchanges, INEPS Youth Congresses, transnational meetings are valuable resources for training young people in tolerance, friendship, solidarity.

The main aims of the CCO are to encourage the students to assume responsibility for their own life.

• To offer them opportunities
• To motivate them to make positive choices
• To train them to discover or develop their personal, social and management skills.

The activities of the creative occupation groups

• Started in 1993
• More than 800 students have been members of the groups of the CCO until today
• More than 5.000 students have attended or participated to short term activities
• The Creative Occupation groups exist for 15 years with a stable participation of approximately 50 students each year
• According to a survey of the first year 75% of the members of the CCO declared that their group played a very important role in their self-awareness, self-esteem, obtaining of management skills, making of decision for studies, making of friends

Supportive agencies

• Ministry of education
• National Youth Agency
• University of Patras
• Technological Institute of Patras
• Municipality of Patras
• Primary Prevention Centre of Achaia
• INEPS (International Network of Productive Schools)

Financing and costs for the creative occupation groups

• The two stores building of the CCO (240 m2) belongs to Movement “PROTASI”
• In the building of the CCO are carried on many activities concerning all the projects of “PROTASI”
• The facilitators of the CCO groups work on a volunteer basis

INCOME

• Member fees
• Activities
• Donations

EXPENSES

• Materials
• Leaflets, posters etc
• Functioning costs

More information

Movement “PROTASI”
CCO – Centre of Creative Occupation of “PROTASI”
Sarantaporou 20, 26223 Patras, GREECE
Tel./Fax: 0030 2610 451790
E-mail: protasipat.forthnet.gr
http://www.protasi.org.gr