The Ecosystem of Service Learning is Developing Locally!

The municipalities of Kosova, specifically the Municipal Directorates of Education, which have long been good friends of TOKA, through the support provided and confirmed over the years through the signing of Memorandums of Understanding.

Did you know that in total, TOKA has signed Memorandums of Understanding with 14 municipalities in Kosova in the year 2023 alone?

These Memorandums have been signed for various programs and projects, but fundamentally, through these Memorandums, TOKA and the municipalities collaborate to provide more empowering educational opportunities for young people.

We primarily collaborate with the municipalities at two levels in empowering the youth, through co-offering opportunities for young people or through training teachers in experiential learning methodology.

How do we do this exactly? 

Collaboration in providing opportunities for young people:

In the year 2023 alone, as part of the “Let’s Debate Change” project, TOKA collaborates with 6 municipalities in Kosova, namely the municipalities of Istog, Klinë, Pejë, Deçan, Obiliq, and Fushë Kosovë. In these municipalities, TOKA offers a variety of activities through 12 Debate Clubs, including weekly meetings where young people are trained in debate, being active citizens in their municipalities, and addressing community needs through planning and implementing a volunteer project, as well as through summer camps.

In the “More Career Education, Better Career Education” project, TOKA collaborates with 4 municipalities in Kosova this year, namely the municipalities of Prishtina, Skënderaj, Vushtrri, and Suhareka. TOKA collaborates with these municipalities to organize one-day workshops aimed at increasing students’ knowledge about career orientation and raising awareness about their personal career preferences.

The Service Learning program, specifically the Super-Volunteer Clubs, are supported by 4 municipalities in Kosova: the municipalities of Kamenica, Hani i Elezit, Gjakova, and Podujeva. TOKA and the involved municipalities cooperate with the goal of forming and supporting Super-Volunteer Clubs to create a place where volunteers meet, discuss, plan, learn, and grow, with the aim of finding practical solutions to community-related problems they themselves face.

As for the Solidarity Clubs project, which is the newest project of TOKA, we initially collaborate with the municipalities of Skënderaj and Kamenica to form groups of young people led by their teachers to organize the Day of Solidarity with their peers, where young people work voluntarily for a day in a business and then donate the earnings for a cause of their choice.

In this case, the municipalities actively support the activities by providing easy access to TOKA for young people, meeting spaces, necessary services for TOKA, and participants, and occasionally through funds allocated to support volunteer projects.

Teacher Training in Experiential Learning Methodology: 

The Experiential Learning Methodology module was accredited by the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology in 2022 as a methodology that offers more effective learning opportunities for students and a more creative and inclusive way of educating for teachers. With the aim of spreading this methodology throughout Kosova, TOKA has collaborated this year with the Municipality of Prishtina and Skënderaj to train teachers in this methodology and has offered continuous support in the implementation of this methodology in the subject of mathematics.

In this type of cooperation with municipalities, municipalities invest in raising the capacities of teachers in this methodology for which TOKA provides training, support, and mentoring.

We are very grateful for the partnership of these municipalities, and we aim to extend this cooperation to all municipalities in Kosova soon.