The West of Ireland Leadership & Adventure Camp is a bilateral exchange that brought together 30 youths from Ireland and Germany for an 8-days residential camp in Ballyglunin Park Conference Centre, Co. Galway, Ireland. The objectives of the project were to help develop leadership skills, to promote healthy lifestyles, to foster mutual understanding between the participants and to learn from each other’s cultures.
To achieve all this, the participants attended leadership and team-building workshops in the morning where they discussed concepts and principles derived from the “7 habits for Highly Effective Teens” method developed by S. Covey. In the afternoons they were able to apply those principles to real-life scenarios of leadership and challenging adventures, taking part in individual and team activities such as caving, military combat games, sports competitions, cycling expeditions, cultural quizzes, talent shows, presentations about each other’s cultures.
An evaluation process at the start and end of the project assessed the quality of the learning achieved by the participants during the Camp, which was reflected on the YouthPass certificates issued for each one of them. The project received a grant from the EU Youth-in-Action programme.
Camp is a bilateral exchange that brought together 30 youths from Ireland and Germany for an 8-days residential camp in Ballyglunin Park Conference Centre, Co. Galway, Ireland. The objectives of the project were to help develop leadership skills, to promote healthy lifestyles, to foster mutual understanding between the participants and to learn from each other’s cultures.
To achieve all this, the participants attended leadership and team-building workshops in the morning where they discussed concepts and principles derived from the “7 habits for Highly Effective Teens” method developed by S. Covey. In the afternoons they were able to apply those principles to real-life scenarios of leadership and challenging adventures, taking part in individual and team activities such as caving, military combat games, sports competitions, cycling expeditions, cultural quizzes, talent shows, presentations about each other’s cultures.
An evaluation process at the start and end of the project assessed the quality of the learning achieved by the participants during the Camp, which was reflected on the YouthPass certificates issued for each one of them. The project received a grant from the EU Youth-in-Action programme. The main objectives of the Project were to develop leadership and teamwork skills, while also improve on our physical well-being. We also hoped to learn more about each other’s cultures and to discover new ways of developing good citizenship habits by learning from each other. To achieve these objectives we had informal workshops for one hour in the mornings to discuss leadership traits. We learnt about being pro-active, stepping outside our comfort zones, setting goals, listening empathically, appreciating and valuing differences, and balancing the many aspects of life.
We also had shorter discussion sessions (30-40 min) on some aspect of citizenship: solidarity & generosity, courage & daring, honesty & integrity, loyalty & respect. These sessions were led by one of the older participants but everyone was encouraged to contribute. In the afternoons we engaged in challenging outdoor activities that enabled us to put some of these life skills into action: gorge-walking & caving (to overcome our fears and step outside the comfort zone), climbed the emblematic mountain Croagh Patrick (to develop endurance and resilience , cycled around the Aran Island of Inishmor, played various team sports (tag-rugby, volleyball, rounders and soccer), some of which were unknown to the German participants, and we played a military game with laser guns.
In the evenings we had cultural activities: a quiz with questions about European affairs, its history and geography; an inspiring movie about some people escaping from a Soviet concentration camp across Siberia and China; a fireworks display; and a talent show on the last night.
