Online Empowerment Summer School for high school students
2020
Online Empowerment Summer School for high school students
The impact of COVID-19 pandemic has been felt across the world by everyone, especially young people, who have seen their everyday life and habits change overnight. Right from the onset of the lockdown in Cyprus last March, the Youth Information Centers of the Youth Board of Cyprus intensively have been working towards digitalising their services to carry on offering them to young people.
Εvery year each Youth Information Center organises an empowerment two-week summer school for high students, geographically covering all of Cyprus. Unfortunately, the health restrictions and protocols currently in force did not allow us to hold the summer schools this summer. However, the digitalising experience that was acquired by the Youth Info Centers during the lockdown was put into practice once again! The Empowerment summer school was organised and carried out in a different format, via Microsoft Teams.
The online summer school was materialised for two weeks from 27 to 30July & from 3 to 6 August 2020. The content of the programme was tailor-made to respond to the needs, interests and likings of high school students aged 14-17. Οnline sessions were conducted that provided a safe space for young people to interact, “mingle” and acquire new knowledge and develop new skills or reinforce already existing ones. Participants engage in online activities, such as photography and scientific experiments, composed their own song, designed their own online game and reinvented the use of objects at the up-cycling materials workshop.
The online summer school aimed at developing the young participants’ skills and thus contributing to their personal, social, and professional development despite social distancing imposed by the COVID-19 restrictions. In essence, the online version of this year’s empowerment summer school achieved the same goals as the ones materialised over the past years at the Youth Information Centers. Most importantly, despite not being physically together in the same space, young participants had an excellent and creative time together, each from his/her own home!
