#LifeHack Academy: Opening the Doors to Adulthood
Publish date: 19 December 2023
Our initiative #LifeHack Academy was created from the desire to offer real assistance and understand the needs of young people. In 2022, we held meetings with youth from the Specialized Institutions Group in Gdynia. Their initial goal was to establish relationships with young people who do not have support from their parents or guardians on a daily basis. This results in fears associated with entering adulthood. We discovered their needs, talked, and spent time together cooking, playing games.
From these meetings emerged a desire to do something more. A wish was born to make these interactions provide the youth with tips and knowledge to help them find their way in adult life. This is how the #LifeHack Academy project was born.
The Assumptions of #LifeHack Academy
We direct our initiative to youth aged about 16-20 years. The project consists of a series of thematic meetings aimed at creating a resource of knowledge useful when entering adult life. Each session is led by a team of trainers consisting of VECTOR Group employees. The trainers have acquired various life hacks in many aspects of life – both personal and professional.
Our Goals: Strengthening and Development
At #LifeHack Academy, we teach how to gain self-confidence, a sense of agency, and resourcefulness, which is extremely important in the process of entering adulthood. We aim for each participant to acquire not only the necessary knowledge but also the ability to independently seek information – a key competency in today’s world. We achieve these goals through classes and workshops. Their themes focus on issues such as:
- Household Budget Management – learning to realistically assess earnings, living costs, effective saving, planning a holiday budget, choosing the right bank, avoiding financial traps.
- Introduction to the Real Estate Market – gaining basic knowledge about aspects related to the processes of buying, renting, taking out mortgage loans, understanding the principles and conditions of standard real estate contracts.
- Familiarization with the Labor Market – developing skills to create a good CV, learning self-presentation methods needed during a job interview, searching for suitable job offers. In each of these areas, we focus on a practical approach and active participation so that young people can not only delve into theory but also apply it to specific actions in everyday life.
The project takes place during the school year. Upon its completion, each participant will receive a package of materials that will serve as a guide in their first steps into adult life. #LifeHack Academy will conclude with the distribution of certificates and a reward for the most active workshop participant – an internship at VECTOR Group.
Creating Real Solutions
The first meeting with young people as part of the #LifeHack Academy took place at the end of November 2023 and was focused on developing practical skills, such as creating a CV and building personal competencies.
Within the #Lifehack Academy of the VECTOR Group Foundation, my classes on the labor market are an authentic journey into the skills of adult life. I share not only theory but practical life hacks, based on my own experiences, including failures that were crucial on my path. I love to shape not only knowledge but concrete skills, helping young people be ready for the fascinating challenges of adulthood. I am not an expert, but a partner in inspiring conversations, creating together paths to personal and professional success.
– says Magda, a volunteer at the BE ABLE TO HELP Foundation
Discovering What’s Hidden
In the #LifeHack Academy project, in addition to providing young people with the competencies and resources needed to enter adulthood, we primarily focus on self-discovery. We create a safe space where young people can find their potential, strengths, identify weaknesses, name the challenges ahead of them, and plan strategies needed to overcome them. We want our workshops to be an opportunity for participants to discover their inner “self”. Thanks to this, they will be able to build self-confidence based on a deep understanding of their own person.
