Go on Erasmus+

V In the beautiful setting of the snow-covered Jeseníky Mountains, we have organised the following at Ovčárna in March 2025: Winter International Training Course Expeditions for A programme for 32 youth workers from five countries (the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Finland and Malta), focusing on leading winter expeditions with an emphasis on safety, accessibility and inclusion. In the field, participants gained hands-on experience in expedition planning, risk management and barrier-free expeditions – including skiing on monoski, biski and blind cross-country skiing. 

At the end of October, we organised a training course in Český Šternberk Self-care & Burnout Prevention for 31 youth workers from 5 countries (the Czech Republic, Slovenia, the Netherlands, Finland and Malta). It focused on self-care as a key competence – managing stress, setting boundaries, emotional hygiene techniques and the prevention of burnout.

Sport as a way of motivating children? That was precisely the focus of the next project. In May 2026, they were looking for s leadcíme DOFE from Representatives from the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Finland, Slovakia and Lithuania discussed ways of naturally encouraging children to take part in sport and physical activity. Together, they shared their experiences, tried their hand at sports fencing, for example, and discussed with sports psychologists how to boost children’s self-confidence. 

Six DOFE leaders travelled to Malta in May 2026 to attend the EMAS conference. There, they met with other leaders from across Europe and Africa.  Part of the programme isfor example, Novala topic Recruit - Retain - Reward (Recruitment – Retention – Recognition). The participants therefore enjoyed themselvesor on where to find new managers, how to retain them even during challenging times, and how to recognise their contributions.

We met with the Slovak DOFE office for a few days in the beautiful setting of the White Carpathians in June 2025. We exchanged experiences, shared best practice and discussed the challenges we face with the programme. Together, we looked for ways to take DOFE forward. 

In collaboration with partners from Slovakia, We have visited Slovenia and the Netherlands organised in November 2024 weekly a training course in the natural surroundings of the Beskydy Mountains for 25 leaders. The course focused oný at kthe quality of Programme DOFE, volunteering and sharing best practice from expeditions.

In early June 2026, several members of the Czech National Centre travelled to Bulgaria, where they met with other colleagues from the DOFE national offices in Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria.

During several Over the course of several days, they shared their experiences, discussed common challenges and explored new ways to further develop the DOFE programme. Topics such as the following were discussed, for example: support for DOFE leaders, managing the programme’s growth whilst maintaining its quality, and engaging young people as ambassadors.