ACTYVUS JUANIMAS
“Active Youth” Association (Asociacija “Aktyvus jaunimas”) is a non-profit organization based in Kaunas that unites young leaders from Lithuania willing to work on a voluntary basis to facilitate an intercultural dialogue and enhance competence of the European youth. They cooperate with organizations of similar profile from all over Europe (more than 70 partnerships) to organize events and trainings using non-formal education (including sport) as a powerful instrument to encourage youth to take an active part in a society. By doing this they help young people to improve their skills and social awareness, share experiences and ideas, integrate them within the multinational environment of the EU, facilitate cooperation, create new joint initiatives and promote healthy lifestyle. In particular, they concentrate on youth (18-30 years old) that have fewer opportunities and/or disadvantaged backgrounds.
In general, the key goals of the NGO corresponding to Sports projects are: helping the underprivileged in Lithuania and other EU countries to (1) be better integrated into the society and (2) get access to using all the public (sports) facilities. At the same time, they (3) help youth build new cooperations for sports initiatives, increase the needed skills for that as well as motivation for (sports) volunteering; (4) enhance self-esteem of the underprivileged (e.g. disabled); digital & multilingualism skills, social awareness, tolerance and other important values; (5) facilitate cooperation between different Lithuanian sport organisations, NGOs, youth workers, and sport trainers; (6) raise awareness about EU citizenship, work towards reducing youth unemployment; defend human rights and work on elimination of discrimination; (7) initiate social inclusion and provide opportunities for everyone willing to do sports; (8) raise awareness of the importance of health-enhancing physical activity through grassroots sports. At the same time the organization aims to inform the public about different minorities in order to boost tolerance and lower xenophobia. This is done by also promoting Erasmus+ projects and opportunities behind it, because it is one of the best ways to fight the previously mentioned problems. Apart from other activities, they have massive experience and expertise in hosting Erasmus+ youth exchanges and training courses, that address key social topics for youth. Since September 2014 they have been coordinators for 12 Erasmus+ projects (as of February 2019).
Apart from organizing youth exchanges, sports initiatives and trainings, their association is also involved in educational activities for kids, cultural events, blood donations, clothes donations to those in need, quizzes, discussions on topics which are interesting to youth, and other projects aimed at helping youngsters, supporting and facilitating their creative initiatives.