PRAIS Foundation

We are the young generation!

Initiated by the PRAIS Foundation, the national program “We are the young generation” – STG addresses 50,000 students from the 9th-12th grades and 800 teachers, 245 high schools from 20 cities, 3 common and one village in Romania: Bucharest, Ploiesti, Timisoara, Cluj – Napoca, Iasi, Roman, Brasov, Codlea, Fagaras, Predeal, Rasnov, Rupea, Sacele, Victoria, Zarnesti, Bran, Harlau, Targu Frumos, Feldioara, Prejmer, Miroslava and Raducareni, who received free educational material.

The report “Social determinants of health and well-being of young people” published by the World Health Organization – WHO, shows that the level of life satisfaction decreases with age and is more pronounced among young people from disadvantaged families. Age and gender inequalities show that the response to stress factors in the school environment is higher among young people aged 15 years and with a higher rate among girls.2 Thus, well-being both physically and mentally, is the key element behind the evolution and personal development of adolescents and helps maintain a positive, open-minded attitude, awareness of the importance of study, knowledge, as well as the assumption of moral values, self-esteem and respect for others.

The project “We are young generation!” Wants through its activities to stimulate creativity, to valorize the talents of all young people, to support teamwork and the development of young people’s relationships with their colleagues. The three contests of the project, # BestFlashmob2017, I have talent! and Quiz, have involved over 7,100 pupils, 515 teachers who have supported the involvement of students from over 100 high schools. The main channel for information and online activation of the youth community is the platform integrated with social media channels (Facebook and YouTube) and the portal www.tanarageneratie.ro, which contain articles and studies from specialists, psychologists and renowned athletes.

We communicated with high school students through the itinerant conferences “The state of the well-being of the younger generation. Today, for tomorrow!”, inviting artists, sociologists, psychologists, Olympic champions, managers, teachers. Through storytelling, we’ve managed to break any barriers. Authentic life stories, dialogue with young people have turned the conferences into ample debates and exchanges of inspirational ideas.

Silvia Bucur, President of PRAIS Foundation

“The PRAIS Foundation aims, together with its institutional partners, to create an active community of adolescents, friends, colleagues and their families. Voluntarily, we will engage in a series of interactive actions to promote well-being, based on moral values, the desire to know and the joy of living. “We are young generation!” Is the community we invite you to join! Together we will make the difference!”

The PRAIS Foundation conducted a survey on the impact of the project’s activities on the well-being of young people, this being the key element underlying the evolution and personal development of adolescents. The state of well-being, both physically and mentally, contributes to maintaining a positive attitude, open to the new, to knowledge, as well as to the assumption of moral values, self-esteem and respect for others.

The PRAIS Foundation’s questionnaire was applied between November-December 2017, in Iasi and Bucharest, with 245 students and teachers participating in the “We are the young generation” conference in the two cities, as well as at the awards events of contest # BestFlashmob2017.

The results of the survey show that 88% of the respondents from Bucharest and Iasi considered that the informational materials, distributed free of charge, were useful and impactful, responded to the expectations of the young people and helped them to carry out the project’s activities, contributing to the achievement of its objectives.

The promotion of high school activities in competitions was done using the Facebook page dedicated to the project, with the youngsters’ interest in the online environment being well known. This contributed to the valorisation of the students, their group of friends, colleagues, teachers and the family, said 77% of Bucharest respondents and 80% of Iasi respondents.
In the opinion of one-third of respondents, participating in #BestFlashmob2017, Quiz, and I have talent! contests have made it possible to realize that team work is beneficial.

The impact of the program “We are the young generation!” was remarkable, 64% of the participants in Bucharest and 74% of Iasi considered the continuation of the program in the following years as very useful.
One of the questions gave the young people interviewed the opportunity to personally designate the factors that produced their well-being. Thus, for the respondents in Bucharest, these were on the first places: friends, music and teamwork, the choice of friends being made by 77 participants out of 180. For the respondents in Iasi, friends, as a factor that produces your condition well, ranked No. 3, with teamwork and excursions leading up, with no major differences between options, most of which are relatively equal in choice.

The STG program has created a virtual community with students, teachers and parents involved in the activities proposed within the national program through the on-line portal www.tanarageneratie.ro, the Facebook page – www.facebook.com/suntemtanarageneratie/ and YouTube account – www.youtube.com/suntemtanageneration. The site www.tanarageneratie.ro has 9,248 visitors, with a total of 38,769 views of the page. The Facebook page summed up in just 531 days 19,978 likes, with a total of 879 posts, with a total weekly reach of 6,225,566 and 7,445,646 total impressions. The YouTube channel has 154 videos and 318,937 views.

Promotion in the media:

3 media campaigns
36 press materials (on-line, TV)
8,519,501 online visitors to the monthly traffic of each site where articles were published

The institutional partners of the project are: School Inspectorates from Iasi, Neamt, Prahova, Brasov, Timis, Cluj and Bucharest, National University of Physical Education and Sport in Bucharest, Romanian Federation of Fencing and Romanian Football Federation.

The results obtained at the end of the first edition of “We are the young generation!” were made possible by the grant from Coca-Cola Foundation in its annual community-based project selection that it organizes internationally, as well as Coca Cola Romania’s local team who supported this project.

Photo album