Review on “Street Workout – Connecting Urban Europe, Building Healthy Europe” Youth Exchange

Youth in Action, Youth exchange
15-25.08.2014 I Zagreb, Croatia

From 15.08.2014 – 25.08.2014 EKE Bitola was part of the youth exchange “Street Workout – Connecting Urban Europe, Building Healthy Europe” which was held in Zagreb, organized by the Croatian Street Workout Association (HSUV). EKE Bitola took an active part in the implementation and enforcement of activities. The topic of this youth exchange was education of young people through sports and outdoor activities. 42 participants from Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Poland, Kosovo, Spain and Macedonia took part in the exchange.

The aim of this project was to increase active participation of young people and promote healthy life style in urban areas through “Street Workout”. The theme of the youth exchange was “Street Workout”, which is a movement based on exercises by using public facilities, such as equipment in schoolyards or park. The street Workout movement supports healthy living through readily available and financially inexpensive means.

The “Street Workout” movement supports healthy living through readily available and financially inexpensive means. Street workout is constantly gaining recognition and popularity worldwide, especially among the young people as a social movement and as democratic sporting activity.

In the activities the participants exchanged experiences, shared their culture and values, broadened their horizons, build capacity and promote “Street Workout” through Europe as healthy lifestyle. Participants had the opportunity to exchange knowledge and experiences not only in relation to Street Workout, but also on topics such as discrimination, ethics, active participation, entrepreneurship and volunteering.

By involving young people in Erasmus+ program we raised the awareness for the opportunities they have as European Citizens. Implementing mobility activities and providing high-quality non-formal learning opportunities involved young people gained deep understanding for active citizenship, unemployment reality, respect for diversity and inclusion and develop their key competences. Also, the idea of ​​this youth exchange was to promote solidarity and tolerance among young people, in order to foster social cohesion in the European Union and to foster mutual understanding between young people in different countries. The youth exchange also contributed to strengthening the young participants in terms of improving their self-confidence as well as encouraging them to take any actions that would contribute to the society in the future.

The partners have used the program to develop future European projects in their urban environment.