Curba de Cultură

Curba de Cultură is all about reaching out to rural youth. We are an NGO committed to non-formal learning, to culture and to participation opportunities. Our focus is to improve education levels and community engagement for the young people living in rural environment in Romania. We take our work very seriously, yet we do it in a relaxed, witty and humorous spirit. A youthful spirit. Our main goal is to revitalise rural environment. In our view, change finds its most fertile ground in the ones most aptly equipped for change: YOUTH. Their energy and their desire to set a new way of doing things inspired us to provide for them an organisational framework capable of allowing them to implement this change for themselves and for the community they live in. We believe that our projects function as a pilot initiative addressing the issues of rural development, educational access and better opportunities for the ones who need change and a better life within the rural area. Our organisation's headquarters are based in Izvoarele, a small rural community near the town of Vălenii-de-Munte, in Prahova county, Romania. Curba de Cultură focuses on teenagers and youth development. Our mission is to use non-formal education as a complementary method to the formal educational system for young people. We want to create the premises for a better development of the young people and their more suited integration within their respective communities. We want to make young people aware that they actively belong to their local and national culture. The strategy of Curba de Cultura for the 2018 - 2022 is set on four main pillars: •Providing safe and secure spaces for young people’s leisure time in order to facilitate personal development with an accent on non-cognitive skills o Consolidating the position of an NFL educational operator in the region o Establishing the position of a cultural operator in the region o Identifying and renovating a space for cultural and artistic perfomances o Increasing the number of young people exposed to internationalization •Providing participation opportunities for young people in the enlarged area of Izvoarele commune (Maneciu, Izvoarele, Teisani, Cerasu communes and the town of Valenii de Munte) o Developing and offering long term educational and service learning opportunities for young people o Hosting and organizing at least 2 national / regional youth camps per year o Hosting and organizing at least 2 international youth camps / events per year o Enlarging and diversifying the volunteering programme addressing young people •Advocating for youth rights and opportunities to local and regional stakeholders o Establishing a network of private, public and media organisations involved in promoting the youth sector o Developing a national volunteering programme as a public policy proposal o Establishing a local youth council as a consultative body next to the local council o Preparing and training young people for political participation o Developing and performing a regional research / study on youth needs and interests •Developing the capacity of the youth sector, locally, nationally and on a European level o Providing training and mentoring for youth organisations nationally and internationally o Developing a performance management system for youth organisations and youth centres scalable to national level o Developing an evidence based system for youth activities monitoring and evaluation, scalable to national and European level