Rota Jovem is a non-profitable Youth Association which promotes and supports activities for young people.

With 16 years of existence, it has about 1050 members, mostly youngsters from 16 to 30 years old.

We are based in Cascais, a beautiful seaside village, located about 30Km from the Portuguese capital city,  Lisbon.

Rota Jovem’s activities are open not  only to its members, but also to young people from the community in general, and they take place at a local, national and international level, developing and exploring partnerships and networks with other organizations working with young people.

One of the association’s “secrets” is to have the door always open to new, young and original projects, and to give the opportunity for the youngsters to   develop their ideas, their dreams and having all the support to do it.

Rota Jovem’s structure depends on the voluntary work of several young people, whose will and needs have lead  the association towards its main areas of action: international activities, trainings, environment, free time occupation in the area of sports, adventure and culture.

Local and national activities

Some of the activities that Rota Jovem has developed through the years are:

• Weekend activities in the area of sports, adventure, environment and culture, with the objective of giving the youngsters a healthy option for occupying their free times, interacting in a group with a strong sense of community;
• Members meetings, weekends of reflection about the association, a space to present new projects and develop the group spirit;
• Photography competitions organised by the members of the association to the local community;
• Several different workshops: Creativity, Interculturality, Internet...;
• Information and Support Centre for Youth Associations;
• Participation in the world wide campaign “Clean Up the World”;
• Organisation of an activity in the 1998 World Youth Festival that took place in Lisbon; and many others.

International activities

In the international field, Rota Jovem has been developing a growing number of activities. We have:

• Over 15 years working with projects related with international mobility of youngsters;
• Hosted and participated in several youth exchange projects in the scope of the Youth and youth for Europe Programme, evolving more than 1300;
• Sent over 100 youngsters for training courses abroad in the field of organization of international projects;
• Sent 64 youngsters abroad in the scope of the European Voluntary Service;
• Sent over 100 youngsters to professional trainings abroad in the frame of the Leonardo da Vinci Programme;
• Hosted more than 80 foreign youngsters in the scope of professional trainings in the frame of the Leonardo da Vinci Programme;
• Worked with a vast network of partners, from countries so different as: South Africa, Germany, Belgium, Botswana, Cuba, Colombia, Egypt, Spain, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Finland, France, Netherlands, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lesotho, Latvia, Lithuania, Namibia, Palestine, Poland, United Kingdom, Russia, Sweden and Turkey.

Several projects, trainings and workshops were organized in Portugal in the frame of: European Citizenship, Intercultural, creativity, youth exchange organization, international activities organization, Leonardo da Vinci Program, EVS Program, Personal Development, Environment, Training for trainers, Human Rights, among many others. As methodology, Rota Jovem uses non-formal education.