Gutenberg - The German-speaking Student & Youth Organisation

Founded in 2009, as a representative student association for the Cluj German-speaking environment, the Gutenberg Association currently represents a national community of 400+ young German-speaking active citizens from all around Romania. Throughout its years of constant growth, the organisation has transitioned from being a local organisation to a larger national community working collaboratively towards a main goal: personal and professional development of young people, through volunteering and active citizenship.

The name of the Gutenberg Association refers to the German printer Johannes Gutenberg, who invented the movable type printing press. Thanks to this invention, books were printed in large numbers and education was developed throughout the world; as a result, more people had access to education. We intend to do the same thing: to be facilitators of the educational process, for children and young people. Therefore, the purpose of the organisation is to create added value through education and personal development, for children, youngsters and adults we interact with.

We believe that our country and the world can become a better place through education. So as a mission, we aim to contribute to changing the world to better through the following pillars:

- National dimension: Supporting the personal and professional development of youngsters, mainly from pre-university and university age level in Romania - by promoting voluntary work and active citizenship as actionable values;
- International dimension: Outreaching youth organisations and creating collaborative projects together and for our common young beneficiaries - by promoting international mobilities, voluntary work and civic engagement through transnational cooperation among young people, and also capacity building for the youth organisations involved,
- Entrepreneurial dimension: Developing social entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship mechanisms, together with Alumni and experienced members of the organisation, to generate financial resources and contribute to the sustainable development of the Gutenberg organisation and community - therefore contributing to promoting entrepreneurial values and skills among young people.

The organisation also has extensive experience in managing non-reimbursable funding from the public sector (both at the national level in Romania and funding from European level), as well as in managing partnerships and sponsorships from the private sector - successfully managing, in the 15+ years of activity:
– over 75 public financings - from public institutions in Romania / foundations or public institutions, consulates and embassies of the countries Germany, Austria, Switzerland / from the European level - through the European Solidarity Corps and Erasmus+ programs and more,
– over 70 private financings (sponsorships) - from private partnerships.

Some of the results of the association - in the 15+ years of experience in the implementation of educational and youth projects and programs, dedicated mainly to school students of all grades and university students - include having organised over 155 local, national and international projects, which helped us come into contact with over 55,000 children and young people as beneficiaries.

The main areas of intervention for the implemented projects are the following:
- Civil Society & Civic Education
- Nonformal education for children, youth, young adults
- Key Competences & Employability
- Entrepreneurship & Social Entrepreneurship
- Intercultural Dialogue

When discussing the organisation’s main and regular activities, in the field of youth work and especially youth participation and civic engagement, the most representative educational programme we implement is the Gutenberg Network of young volunteers - which has developed itself in an incubator for Youth Initiatives, where 400+ adolescents and students from 15+ cities in Romania organise their own projects in support of local communities, as volunteers and active citizens in their respective communities.

The goal of the Gutenberg Network is to equip high school students with the necessary actionable skills and tools to become active agents of positive change in the local community in their respective 15 small- and medium-sized cities in Romania. We have succeeded in developing the framework for an incubator for locally rooted civic youth and high school student initiatives and individuals with a total number of 400+ involved beneficiaries that have impacted over 800 fellow citizens through their local activities, just in the last school year. This is a yearly programme that has started and grew since 2015.

Regarding the added value brought to the participants in the organised projects, we mention:
- the quality level of the programs offered - a team accredited for training programs such as Youth Workers and Camp Leaders, Trainers and Facilitators, in Germany and Romania,
- the young team, close to the needs of the young target group and familiar with informal and non-formal working methods and tools, as the core of all our youth work,
- the grass-roots approach - having the young people’s needs and wishes as basis for all our initiatives, supporting them to actively engage as co-creators of their learning journeys and as active agents for bringing positive changes in the communities they are part of.