Erasmus+ dissemination activity in Turin, North Italy.

On the 14^th December I had the opportunity to carry out the dissemination of the project ABC of Inclusion that took place in Estonia last month.

Participating at an intercultural happening in the city of Turin I made a workshop about Erasmus+ project and about inclusion of young people with fewer opportunities.

The participant to this happening where mixed age people from 16 to 40/50 from different economical and cultural backgrounds. The happening was a volunteering day with immigrant from Africa and South Asia to share experiences and knowledges from a lot of different countries all over the world.

Helped by some friends working as group leaders in my Erasmus+ support association in Turin I leaded a 30-45 minutes workshop to explain what Erasmus+ is and the new techniques learned during the Training course in Estonia.

It has started as a short speech in the circle to explain the main concepts with free questions and curiosity from the people participating at the happening.

On the other side, thanks to the support of the other group leaders we gave the chance to youngsters interested in participating to these projects giving more details about what is Erasmus+, how to apply, what is possible to learn and give in these experiences and the different kind of project that people can participate in (Youth Exchanges, Training Courses and European Volunteering Service). And on my side, I discussed about the theme of inclusion in a intercultural environment and related to young people with fewer opportunities in our society.

Due to the strong interest of some young participant we decided to keep in contact with them to help them to find some Erasmus+ opportunities that may be interesting for them.

Some of the people participating already knew about the Erasmus+ and helped us to give information creating a nice opportunity to share our experiences in an intercultural group.

Italian team: Alberto Chiarandon

Workshop Erasmus+ Hungary part2

A few weeks have passed since the training in Estonia, where I think we got a good picture about how to work with young sters who has fewer opportunities. The task was given to each and every one of the national teams participating in the training to implement some form of training in their own community for a positive change.

Ont he training our national team represented Hungary. The members of the team were Javad Khalilli, Giorgi and I. As I know, Javad and Georgi have completed a workshop in Debrecen, Hungary for a few weeks, which I could not join because of my EVS in Croatia.

The day before yesterday, on the 17th December, I finally managed to implement the workshop with youngsters with fewer opportunities, at the workshop's current residence in Petrinja, one of the local elementary schools in Croatia, Osnovna škola Dragutina Tadijanovića Petrinja (http://os-dtadijanovica-petrinja.skole.hr/). The organization IKS, the local youth organization (my EVS host organization), helped me in the development and in the implementation of the workshop, which I appreciate. The participants in the workshop were 7th grade students, about 20 people. Since the participants had not heard anything about Erasmus + before, because of their socially disadvantaged situation and their younger age, the aim of the workshop was to enable youngsters to get involved more easily in the future in programs wich they can apply for, for example mobility projects, youth exchanges, and to get a picture of Erasmus + in general.

The course of the workshop:

1. Introduction

2. Some warm-up games / energizers

3. Presenting about Erasmus + and youth exchanges

4. Watching Erasmus + youth exchanges video (https://ec.europa.eu/.../indi.../young-people/youth-exchanges_en)

5. Storytelling about Erasmus + experiences / Benefits of participating in Erasmus + projects

6. Creating posters about Erasmus +

During the workshop, I have used a number of non-formal educational tools wich I have learned during the training. (energizers, warm-up games, sharing thoughts and feelings, presenting themselves and teamwork)

Young people with fewer opportunities

        In Wednesday 12th of December, we had the opportunity to present in a young audience, especially university students with the help of Jef, the federalists,  in Komotini Greece at Europe Direct the reasons why young people and their peers don’t know much about the Erasmus plus projects and in general why this problem is still on top priority.
How can we  fix this situation ?

       Nowadays, seldom do we observe young people who have a clear view and opinion about these issues. But which are the reasons and why don’t they  participate?

      So the presentation according to this plan, was separated into six parts.Firstly we had the chance to present ourselves and say some things about the Estonia’s training course, the aims and goals. After this brief demonstration, we presented the most well known projects to the audience, such as the Erasmus Youth Exchange, Mundus, Solidarity Corps and some others. It was quite interesting to see where was the knowledge of the Greek audience. Next, we had a Skype call with Eirini, and she gave an extra explanation of the Erasmus plus projects and she communicate with the young’s people and answered some questions.
      The fun part started when we prepared some questions, a small workshop, to examine the audience how carefull they were during the audience and to have some statistics about their knowledge. During the hole presentation we present to the people videos from different expriepnces to be more vivid and interesting and this part we present them to basic small videos about the hole idea of Erasmus plus projects. In the end we gave the opportunity to the audience to ask any question and help them with any difficulties.

       It was quite a unique and different expirience for us because it was our first type presentation, the good part is  that there was a lot of people and it went really well.

                       Greek Team Participants: Nikolaos Markovitis, Vasiliki Ventouli, Eirini Dragoumanou

Portuguese dissemination - Workshop after project

After more than one month since the training course, we finally implemented the project/Erasmus program dissemination through a workshop/presentation in an official Portuguese entity with the following name "Secretaria Regional da Educação" in Madeira.

Our strategy was to set one-hour dissemination session, among the people from this institution.

Where we have shown 2 videos about the Erasmus program and one powerpoint presentation. Moreover, we spoke about the training course (ABC of inclusion) and other past experiences we have had before.

The participants showed a big interest and curiosity about taking part in a training course, in a near future. They were really open-minded about what is happening in this kind of projects, how they could participate, what kind of topics were reached, conditions to apply for the projects, etc.

For sure these Erasmus projects are really important for the ones who are living far from Europe (mainland), giving to them the opportunity to broaden the horizons and also to let the other European citizens know: Europe just ends in middle of the Atlantic ocean (Canaria islands, Madeira and Azores archipelago), sharing the culture, life habits,  climate differences, historical facts and so on.

To finalise we would like to thank everyone who took part on it. 

We make a very positive balance of all the project, that we are closing now with the dissemination session.

IT tools used for this dissemination: MS Office; Skype; WhatsApp; Youtube; Prezi; 

Portuguese team: Luís Silva; Marisa Fernandes; Pedro Morgado; Ricardo Rodrigues; Sara Calafatinho;

Workshop Erasmus + Spain:
Whom: Teenager "Embarriados"
When: In the afternoon at 16-17 h in Tamaraceite (13/12/18) and Jinámar (10/12/18)

Support: Mojo de caña (Embárriate) in Centro cívico (group Jinámar) and in College Alfredo Kraus (group Tamaraceite)
General action plan
- Energizer song
- Introduccion about youth exchallenges
- Map world: locate the countries of the European Union on the map
-Step in my shoes
- Video about Eramus +
Who: Carlos Mahugo, Beatriz Vema y Ainara Mendaño

FIRST PART:

On 12/10/2018 Bea, Ainara and Me taught the first Erasmus + workshop in Jinámar neighborhood, which is one of the places where we work on "Embarriate" Project. The group was formed of 16 youths, We realized that very few of them knew what Erasmus + was.

After a short introduction, Ainara began with the screening of some videos about Erasmus +


Some of these girls and boys have never left the Canary Islands and they felt very curious and excited about the information we were giving them.







Jinámar is the neighborhood where Ainara lives, we proposed to her that she comes to solving the doubts that her classmates had.                                                                                                       

The participants were quite motivated by asking Ainara questions. Seeing that one of her classmates had participated in Erasmus + made them feel that they could do it themselves.

After the screening of videos we told them about our experience in Estonia in the ABC project of inclusion. http://www.seiklejad.org

SECOND PART:

On 12/13/2018 we repeated the experience of sharing information about Erasmus +. This time we chose Tamaraceite neighborhood. Another place in Gran Canaria where families with few opportunities live. The group was more numerous than that of Jinámar and 21 young people participated. The age of these boys and girls is between 13 and 19 years old.

In this picture we can see a moment in which the boys and girls participated in energicer dynamics to focus all their

attention.

Through roll-playing games the participants became for a moment in citizens of different countries.

With this activity we work with them another way of communication.

Erasmus + Workshop in Rome by Margherita D'Andrea
part. 2

The 15 of December I did the second part of my workshop about Erasmus + with another group of students from Roma 3 University in Rome.
This time I explained to the students how Erasmus + works, as in my first workshop, and gave them all the links and informations about how to partecipate and how to reach informations for the upcoming projects. I talked about my experience in Estonia with Seiklejate Vennaskond, and I used some non-formal education methods that I have larned in my Erasmus + experience.
I had one hour and a half, with 20 students, so I decided to use some energizer learned in Estonia, and some games (I created papers with sentences, and the students had to decide which one was true and false). Then I asked them to create groups and talk about the place they would like to visit and the project they would be interested in. Each group did a presentations of what they talked about and what new ideas they came up with.

Here is a picture of a group while they were discussing.

The students were really interested and loved the Erasmus + opportunities.

Good evening,
After learning how to work with people with fewer opportunities back in Estonia, me, (Iulia Dumuta)and Paul Iordache implemented some strategies and talked about our dear Erasmus+ with some 30 students with fewer opportunities and their professor, from "Ion Luca" Theoretical Highschool in Vatra Dornei, Suceava. We explained the students what opportunities they have, how can they travel and learn at the same time and how to be better citizens, being aware of  other people with FO and to know how to treat them. They were really excited, it was the first time they heard about this programme and they had a lot of questions. Even their professor was interested in the opportunities given by Erasmus+. The workshop lasted around 1 hour and a half, during the time we had some energizers, QA session, pictures from our amazing experience in Estonia( we miss it everyday of our lives and we think it changed our way we look at YFO), and we explained them how they can access the information needed when they want to apply. It was an amazing experience, both for us and them, and we would like to say thank you to the organiers of ABC of Inclusion: it contributed to a better world, and we promise to do the same.

Workshop: Erasmus+ Hungary

           Workshop: Erasmus+ Hungary                        by Javad Khalilli and Giorgi

     I would like to kindly inform you that our group was representing Hungary. Our group members were: Javad Khalilli,Giorgi and Szabolcs Subert. As Szabolcs informed you, he is in Croatia with EVS. So, I did this workshop with Giorgi. Szabolcs, planning to do it in Croatia.

    Content of our workshop was Erasmus+ Hungary. Our target groups were youth, especially university students and youth who were interested with Erasmus+ projects. I did the workshop on 15 November at 15:00 in the GTK which is the building of my faculty. Giorgi did it on 16 November at the Main building. In the beginning, we were focused on what is Erasmus+, what can you achieve by participating on this projects. We have introduced that there are EVS, training courses and youth exchange. Also gave an information about the duration of the projects. We explained to youth that there is an opportunity to travel and get accomondation with free of charge. We have mentioned that Erasmus+ provides it for you to get experiences, share your ideas and of course meet with new people. In each workshop we provided video about Erasmus+ to give more clear understanding for youngsters. The important part was that we gave information about Youthpass and 8 key competences which they can gain. Also we played some games and did reflections together. The workshop was very interesting and got the huge attention of youth. Thank you for reading.

Erasmus + Workshop in Roma, ITALY by Margherita D'Andrea

Today, 29/11/2018, I did the first part of the workshop about Erasmus + in a class of Roma 3 University in Rome. It was a class of 10 students, most of them never heard about Erasmus + before.
In this workshop I have explained to the students how Erasmus + works and how you can apply.
I have invited them to the Italian Facebook Group for Erasmus +, talk about my experience in Estonia in the project ABC of Inclusion, and shared the link of the Estonian Association I did the project with, http://www.seiklejad.org.
I used some non-formal education strategies that I have learn during the Training Course. For example, after my explanation I asked them to write/draw something about Erasmus + with colours on papers, and they took them home after the workshop.
They were extremely interested, loved the Erasmus + opportunities, and I really think they will apply soon for the upcoming Erasmus + projects.

Here some pictures of the day:

Margherita D'Andrea (Roma, Italy)

The very last day of the great project was too emotional for all participants and that day they tried their best to use properly the last minutes by sharing their thoughts, emotions and feelings. Let’s see step-by-step how it passed.

We started morning session with energizers, as always. Then participants were told to have the last reflections with our buddy. During the project, participants were divided into small so-called feedback groups and on that day the last duty was not only evaluation/feedback, but also sharing our feelings, findings, opinions etc. and at the same time we had to discuss and indicate similarities and differences of our personality with feedback group members. No doubt, it was last goodbye with full of emotion, tears, sadness and happiness as well, because people from across the world gathered in one place and shared love, culture and life experience.  Usually, it took a long time. After we have decided to have a huge break to fill in our own Youthpass which participants have done proper way.

Then there were evaluation, evaluation, and evaluation of well-respected volunteers: Nastja, Romet and Karolina who played the significant role in the project, were marked by us with our speech and also individual and group hugs. Either this activity did not go without tears.

Additionally, one of the remarkable parts of the day was ‘envelope activity’ in which participants were allowed to send the last secret texts to whoever he/she wanted. Later those closed envelope shall be opened in the plane/bus, when participant stay alone with himself/herself.

Moreover, we said goodbye to Rico, Dorota and Basia, because they were in rush to reach airport in time. Rest of us stayed on the same location and started to find our secret friends who made those days much more desirable, nicer, and funnier.  

Lastly, we played ‘clown game’ offered by Carlos and then again the last evaluation about what we took from the project.

After we had a party.

Ainara, Giorgi

For the morning activities we went to the schools to do a workshops.

We talked about erasmus+ and inclusion of the YPWFO (Young People With Fewer Opportunities) by doing non - formal methods.












We also talked about estonian organization and how can they apply and be part of it.

After lunch we analysed with the whole group our feedback / experience and reflected about the workshop.

After coffe break we gathered in our groups to discuss about our topic (environmental awerness) step by step by writing a document file.





Beatriz, Luís

Day 6

We started the activities at 10am with a daily morning reflection in couples.

After the morning reflection, a set back made us to rethink the initial plan and we watched a movie related to people with special needs, in this case in particular autistic people.

Before the lunch break we still had time for a short reflection about the movie.

We started the activities at 3pm with the group workshops, led by participants from the project. We were splitted in 4 groups and each group took part in each workshop one by one (we had selected the day before 4 differents topics by voting among more than 20 options we gathered among the participants).

The topics sellected were the following ones:

1. Dance/Movement therapy by Margherita

2. Bodybalance (low intensity exercises, balancing, streching) by Romet

3. Life almost zero waste by Sandrine

4. Plastic Recycle (make you own reycle accessory) (wallet bag etc...) - by Luis

At 4pm we spent 2 hours to work for one of the most important task of this training course, which is to make a workshop about Erasmus+ program in different schools. For this huge and important task there were 4 distinct groups with the 4 target groups .

In the end of the day we had a final reflection about what are our plans and how we are going to drive the school workshops (real situation) that were proposed to us yesterday afternoon.

Before dinner we met in groups to collect the feedback to bring to our trainers about today.

Thanks to all for this day.

Pedro, Alberto, Szabolcs

Day 5:
The day started with a delicious and healthy breakfast as usual. Arterwards the activities started with some reflection. Everyone went to their reflection groups and reflected on the learning outcomes of previous day and discussed the weaknesses overcomed to achieve those objectives. This activity was followed by a workshop in which we divided into groups of four people each and pondered on the problems faced by the youth with fewer opportunities in our respective countries. Every group made a summary of those problems and then solutions to those problems were provided by the other groups. Afterwards every group selected two problems and made a case study on them. The problems were now reality based and step by step strategies were sorted out to tackle the problems. Then a brief presentation of the problems and respective strategies were prepared by the groups. This activity was followed by a scrumptious lunch.

Afterwards an expert youth worker introduced the problems of youth in Estonia along with the strategies followed by them to help youth get out of those problems. Necessary guidelines were presented related to this sort of youth work. Then after a coffee break we were split into group of three people and each group was given a class of students to which they have to give a workshop on Erasmus+ to develop their interest in the topic. Students were either from basic school or from technical school with different age groups. Each group figured out the requirements of their subjects and their backgrounds.
In the end of the day we went to our feedback groups and to present feedback on the previous two days. The day continued with a mouthwatering dinner. After fulfilling the appetite, everyone presented their sending organizations and gave a brief description of their history, values and milestones.












Rao, Ricardo, Basia.

Day 4

The day we started with talking about Erasmus +. We divided into 5 groups and the most informed of the group, with experience about Erasmus + projects, had to explain to the others what is Erasmus + and what if offers.

After that we had a quiz on the subject (without experts) and checked our knowledge about the topic.

Then we had a trip to Tartu and we had lunch.

And then we went to a local Youth Center. We met there a manager, who told us how the center works and how they help youngsters. It was a really interesting and moving experience.

Then we went to the old Town in Tartu and we had free time, we enjoyed the city. Some of us had famous sparta short in the local bar, we had a really great time there. After that we went to Taverna Resturant were we had dinner. Around 9 pm we took the bus to come back to our place. To sum up, we had a great time with many experiences and we got to know each other a little bit better.











Margherita, Carlos and Dorota

Day 3. Getting to the topic.

We started our day with the morning reflection, where we talked about the things that happened the day before. Then we went to the "World Coffee" workshop where we were divided in four groups and we had to talk about different realities in our countries.

We were always switching and in the end the group that we stayed in had to do a little presentation to the rest of the group.

After lunch we played a game called "Step in my shoes" :

5 people choosed to be themselves and the rest of the group took a paper and they had to imagine they are this person on a paper. 

We went outside and played a game. We started in a line holding each other's hands.

The facilitator were saying a statement and if our character which we imagined was in this situation we had to move. There were 3 options: to move back, forward or stay.

In the end we saw that some people were standing somewhere in the middle, some people went forward and were standing far away from the people who were in the back.

We came back inside and talked about what we were feeling about being in other person's shoes.

Then we had another workshop, we had to imagine that we were organisators of the project. We had a list of 19 people with fewer opportunities who wanted to participate in this project.

We had to choose 3 people who we would like to have in our project and 3 people who we wouldn't like to participate in our project.

We started to choose alone, after we found a pair and started to share our thoughts, then two pairs gathered together so we made small groups where we also shared our thoughts and after that we made two big groups.

We had a long discussions about the topic.

We had a dinner and after that we had the second international evening. Countries who represented themselves were: Spain, Poland, Azerbaidjan, Hungary, Georgia, Martinique.


Vicki, Sara, Sandrine.

Big day, big emotions!

Day 2

The day started early with a trip to Viljandi, nearby our accommodation.

The point of this visit was to work as teams and complete at least 9 tasks. We got to talk with the local people and to see the beautiful city.

In the afternoon  we started with an outdoor activity to activate our bodies and then we continued our trainning course and talked about formal education, non-formal education and informal

education. There was still time to talk about Youthpass and it’s 8 key competences.

Yet the best was still to come, as the surprise night provided us with a guided meditation, a very powerful moment of peace, conection and relaxation!

Eirini, Paul and Marisa

Day 1
Arriving in Vardi and meeting new people. 

After our arrival in the location where the project is going to take place, we had the opportunity closing our day to know each other better after lunch while playing some games. 

All started in Friday morning when we firstly after some name games have been briefly introduced to the topic of the project. For starters, what was the main point of the seminars that day was the fact that we had the opportunity to express ourselves through games and some workshops about inclusion and the fewer opportunities of the young people. Specifically, we approached this issue through a more creative way, making small presentations of each case given, with a small sketch. 

In general the day rolled quite well, we had a very productive day, doing such interesting and fun stuff. 

In the night, we had the chance to party, because it happened to be the intercultural night where some participant countries, such as Italy, Estonia, Romania, Greece and Portugal demonstrated  some things about their country.  

Nikos, Javad, Iulia