Irakli Todua
Sandro Urushadze 
Mzia Apridonidze

Executor of the project:

Georgian Organization of the Scout Movement 
“Scouts of Georgia” 

Executive group:

Vakhtang Akhaladze, George Demuria, Gigi Sulashvili, Tika Qoiava, Levan Djishkariani, Mamuka Khantadze, Mary Gurgenidze. 

Director of the project:

Mzia Apridonidze

Dates of the project execution: 01/12/2000 – 01/12/2005 
Place of the project execution: Tbilisi, Georgia. 

1. Aim of the project
2. Short analyses of existing situation in Georgia 
3. Georgian Organization of the Scout Movement (GOSM)
4. What is "Scout Social Center"

1. Aim of the project 

The aim of the project is establishment of the “Scout Social Center” in Tbilisi, Georgia. With the help of development programs, the main goals of the center are: 

· To promote non-formal educational process of the young generation. 

· To provide an assistance in physical, intellectual, spiritual and psycho-emotional development of the young generation. 

· In contrast to the on-going process of society-polarization, to affirm into the young generation tolerance, solidarity, sympathy and other common to all mankind principles. 

· To assist the professional orientation process of the young generation, to help the young people to gain the deserving place in the society. 

2. Short analyses of existing situation in Georgia 

In 1990 Georgia began its way to the state independence. Within this way our country and people had to overcome many difficulties. The problems were caused by the objective circumstances such as changing one social-economic formation with another. There were also many outward factors. It is remarkable the ethnic conflicts in South Osetia and Abkhazia inspired by the forces from abroad. The jurisdiction of the Georgian Government was lost in the above-mentioned regions, local population (350 000 person) was forcefully banished from the native lands and in spite of many attempts of Georgian government and international commonwealth to return them back to their homes, they are still refugees. They stay in the hardest social conditions in different parts of Georgia, most of them – (250 000 person) sojourn in Tbilisi. 

The great part of the local population of Georgia lost their jobs after destroying the economic unions between the ex-Soviet Republics. A lot of factories, industrial units and enterprises were closed. 

Unfortunately no attention is paid to the introduction of the new programs for extension courses and training of personnel according to the demands of the market economy. After the state program of the education reform was carried out in Georgia, a chance to get a free higher education and acquire a profession is decreasing day-by-day. 

You’ll see a lot of vagrant beggar children on the streets. According to various statistics number of beggar children in Georgia is more than 3 000. The attitude of the society to such kind of children is quite nihilistic. 

The civil war, the violation of the territorial integrity of Georgia, the hard living conditions caused the present polarization of the society. 

The society has been divided into ethnic, territorial, religious and other groups. It becomes harder each day to maintain peace, mutual understanding, solidarity, respect and sense of integrity between the rich and poor people, between the local population and refugees, between the people with different ethnic or religious orientation. 

The new generation is being formed as a consumers’ society and all the moral principles common to all mankind are being left behind. 

The youth organizations, such as Pioneer and Komsomol organizations stopped functioning more than 10 years ago. The above-mentioned organizations, correspondingly to the state system of that period, assisted young people in forming into the full value citizens and in gaining the non-formal additional education. 

The new established non-governmental organizations can’t fill the formed gap because of the following reasons:

· They do not have enough experience to function independently. 

· Because of the hard economic conditions in Georgia, the government can’t help the non-governmental organizations in development. 

· According to the acting legislation of Georgia, the commercial organizations are not granted any privileges for the financial assistance of the non-governmental sector. 

· According to the law, it is prohibited to transfer the state property to non-governmental organizations for free.

That is why the share of the youth-oriented organizations in the third sector is less than 1%. If we consider the existing attitude of the state and society, the young people in Georgia have the little chance to attain the deserving place in the society and to realize their possibilities.

Because of all above-mentioned, Georgian Organization of the Scout Movement (GOSM) decided to found a “Scout Social Center” in Tbilisi. The main goal of the center will be to help young people to become full value citizens, to adhere to all mankind principles, to start activities against the social polarization.

3. Georgian Organization of the Scout Movement (GOSM)

Georgian Organization of the Scout Movement – “Scouts of Georgia” is a non-governmental, youth organization. Officially it was registered on January 14th, 1994 by the Ministry of Justice of Georgia (the second obligatory registration was in 1999 in Saburtalo district court of Tbilisi). On December 26th, 1997 GOSM became a full member of the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM). 

Today GOSM unites more than 1000 members, during the last years more than 5000 young people went through the ranks of “Georgian Scouts”. 

The aim of GOSM is to reveal and realize the physical, intellectual and spiritual potential of the young generation using the scout methods, with non-formal training to help young people to feel themselves the full value citizens of their country and the whole world.

For today the main priority of GOSM is to found the “Scout Social Center” in Tbilisi. 

4. What is “Scout Social Center” 

“Scout Social Center” is a place, where young people from different social sectors will have an opportunity to meet each other and according to their interests participate in any program they want. 

The acting development programs in the center mainly represent the components of four principal directions:

· SOCIAL – (Humanitarian and social programs promote professional orientation and civil development) 

· INTELLECTUAL – (Educational programs – learning foreign languages, computer and other humanitarian or technical sciences) 

· PHYSICAL and PSYCHO-EMOTIONAL – (Arranging competitions, hiking, walking tours and other measures mainly in the nature) 

· SPIRITUAL – (Arranging discussions on various religious directions, inner world and its development, about the history of orthodox church, etc).

All the programs will be based on the well experienced scout methods – teaching by doing, preparing development programs, working in small groups, etc. 

Work of the center will be realized by the people of different professions who have desire to work on preparation and carrying out the programs according to their profiles without any reward (volunteers). The center will have partner relations with educational and scientific institutions, non-governmental organizations and religious centers. Besides, together with its partners, the center will work actively to attract budget and non-budget means for the implementation of concrete programs. 

The center will have the Supporters’ Council and the Executive Board. The Supporters’ Council takes responsibility to search the necessary means for functioning of the center, approves the budget introduced by the board, plans the strategic direction of the center’s work. The Executive Board directs daily activities of the center, prepares the budget project and accounting to present to the Supporters’ Council, is responsible for carrying out the strategic tasks. 

On the first stage work of the “Scout Social Center” will be realized by GOSM. GOSM will select the director and the personal staff and present it to the Supporters’ Council. Also, GOSM will be supervising the center’s financial activities. 

On the next stage “Scout Social Center” can be reformed into an independent legal entity. 

The “Scout Social Center” will be located in the central region of Tbilisi.