To support young people, to give them meaning and direction!

Dear Leaders, Supervisors, Coordinators and Award Participants,

We live in a time that we will surely tell our grandchildren about. And when they are in a situation that seems impossible, challenging, and unprecedented, we will be able to both understand and support them, and give them adequate advice and guidance on how to deal with it.

As you know, the Award was born in such a challenging situation, shortly after the end of World War II and the goal to a large extent, was to support young people in this unprecedented situation, and to give meaning, direction and inspiration in a moment when they most need it. 

We know that the rules and restrictions in this situation are important. We know you respect them. We believe the Award could be something that will make this period of social distancing and inaccessibility a little more meaningful and full of rewarding experiences that you can do in your own home. And we, the Award team, are here to support you in this.

 We know that you are already successfully managing the online school education. That is why we challenge you and give you the unique opportunity to make the Award last, exist and give you what you need most today.

We realize that most of the participants’ sections are probably related to activities that take place outside and/or with other people. We fully understand that their continuation at the moment is absolutely impossible. Guided by the philosophical principles of the program – to be developmental, individual, fun and progressive, we decided to give it more freedom to adapt, change and continue in the restrictive environment in which we currently live. Having made some extraordinary meetings with the International Award Foundation, as well as those with the Award Team in Bulgaria, we are pleased to share some guidelines that will give you the flexibility, freedom and opportunity to continue developing yourself through the Award.

General recommendations and guidelines to keep in mind:

For participants:

•     Activities that are performed independently and do not come in contact with other people may continue unchanged if participants and their parents wish to do so and if this activity does not put them at risk of infection.
•     This situation is an excellent opportunity for participants to enter in the ORB any missing activity logs.
•     Meetings with the Leader can also be made online via email, phone or video calls.
•     If your activity cannot be continued due to the fact that it requires circumstances that are not currently possible and in the foreseeable future, you may change your activity. How you can do this, see here.

For Leaders:

•     We encourage young people to carry out activities that are possible in the current situation and contribute to their goals, such as learning, preparing support materials, and the like.
•     When we return to the normal pace of life, let us be pragmatic and open to allow young people to make up for what they have missed.
•     Support young people to change their activities. You can organize a group chat and come up with creative and innovative activities that can happen at home.
•     The Award team in Bulgaria continues to work – albeit with their own home, so we are at your disposal for all your questions through mobile phones, the Internet, email and other digital communication tools (Skype, Google Hangouts, Facebook messenger and etc.).

To support this process of change and adaptation, we have created a number of materials and tools that are available to you as follows:

Video address by Lyubomira Velcheva, Executive Director of the Award in Bulgaria (video, BG);

Ideas for adapting sections and resources for home-based activities (pdf, EN);

Skills section and how to adapt it for home implementation (video, BG);

Physical recreation section and how to adapt it to exercise at home (video, BG);

Service section and how to adapt it for home-based activities (video BG and pdf EN);

Adventurous Journey and how to prepare for the upcoming season while at home (video BG and article EN);

Ideas for various activities in the sections of the Award (pdf EN).

You can find all the materials in one place here: HERE.

In addition, we will be glad to invite all of you to a virtual meeting in the form of a webinar, in which you can ask any questions that you have in your mind or that may arise.

Virtual Meeting 27.03.2020, 15:30 https://us04web.zoom.us/j/317975813 (Lilia Harizanova and Iva Krastanova)

Virtual Meeting 01.04.2020, 19:30 https://us04web.zoom.us/j/339727969 (Lilia Harizanova and Iva Krastanova)

Once again, we want to share that the entire Award Team is available and will do everything in its power to support Leaders, Participants and Supervisors in continuing to make the Award work, change and give meaning and inspiration to this new reality.

Some see this new reality as a challenge, a difficulty, an impossibility. However, we choose to see the opportunity for development, the potential for learning more about ourselves, the time to invest to be healthier and better to cope with even more difficult situations in the future.

Thank you for being with us!