Minutes of the second project meeting, Verona, Italy

Minutes of the 2^nd Project Meeting

Participants, 57 people representing the 11 partner institutions:

1. Info Project SRL  RO- 9
2. EUROCULTURE CY – 5
3. Diocesan Caritas ostraviensis– opaviensis CZ- 2
4. Telek 23 KFT (SITE 23 LTD) HU- 2
5. Polo Europeo della Conoscenza- IC LORENZI IT-3 people +3 guests
6. STOWARZYSZENIE NA RZECZ ROZWOJU GMINY ZYCHLIN PL- 4
7. Junta de Freguesia da Vila de S. Tomé de Negrelos PT- 6
8. Znanstveno raziskovalno združenje za umetnost, kulturno-izobraževalne programe in tehnologijo EPeKa SL- 9
9. FONS FORMACIÓ ZONA MEDITERRÀNIA, S.L.L. ES -1
10. Viksjoforsbaletten  SE- 13  
11. Upperby Community Development Centre UK-3

Location: Verona – Italy, Centro Carraro

Date: 7^th-11^th March 2012

 The host organization was Polo Europeo della Conoscenza- IC LORENZI represented by Ivo Zambello, Salvatore Filella and Marina Mecarelli.

All participants were accommodated and had most of the meals and activities at Centro Carraro, Verona. That offered the participants the opportunity to spend most  of the  time together  and  organize common  activities from  morning till evening.

The participants formed a group perfect for our project, aged from 18 up to 70.

One of the participants even pointed out that the  words “generation gap” do not  suit  to our  most cosmopolitan group. The atmosphere was  very  friendly  and productive.

 The teams arrived in Verona on the 7^th of  March. From the very beginning there  was  much interaction  and people got to know  one  another.

In the  evening the organizers  had a  meeting with the international coordinator related  to the  programme of the meeting discussing all the  details of the reunion.

 The first working session started  on the 8^th of March with the welcoming speech and with Europe’s  Anthem. The organizers provided  the English version offering all participants the opportunity  to  sing it  together.

Then the Romanian team offered  the project coordinators  amulets of love and  good luck at the beginning of   spring as it happened in Romania.

As March 8^th is the International Women’s Day the gentlemen present congratulated the women participating in the reunion. This  moment  was  further completed  on Saturday  with the  visit  to the  exhibition dedicated  to  this  even open in Verona  Art Museum.

After these festive  moments  the international coordinator  presented the  contents  of the Blog  and  of the Site  of the project

 (http://youngandadultsforabetterlife.blogspot.com,  

   http://young-and-adults.info-project.ro) together with the  e-group

 intergenerational_solidarity@yahoogroups.com  that contributes  a lot  to fostering the team spirit of the partnership.

We took the decision to create  a new  group  just  for  coordinators  to better manage  the number  of  e-mails. (The new  group has  just been created:

inter_solidarity_project_team@yahoogroups.com ).

We reviewed the materials  that are  to be  added  to  the site  and we decided  that all project  coordinators  should  contribute  to the  Blog with articles related  to the project.

 We also checked  the data  of the next meetings  and  all agreed  that the data  are OK.

 Before the  presentations  of the surveys the main objectives  of the project  were taken into  account  followed  with a presentation of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale pointing out  the reason  for  which it  was  chosen  (validated  all over  the  world).

9 teams managed  to deliver  their presentations in the morning  and  two in the  afternoon. The diversity of the presentations  kept the interest of the participants alive throughout the  whole  day. All teams  proved  to have done a great  job. The satisfaction  of the  good  work  was general.

 In the  afternoon 3 representatives  of the organizations “Tante Tinte”  and “Caritas” presented  to the  audience their voluntary  activities. During the break the participants  continued  the  discuss  with the guests  about the possibility of  future  collaboration.

 In the  evening we had  our  first interactive  workshop  under the guidance  of the Swedish team. It was  a Dance Lesson. All participants, irrespective of  age,  joined  the dance. It was  a most  successful activity which  put a smile  on the faces  of  all the people present.

The teams  exchanged gifts going  from sweets  to national drinks (wine  or palinca).

 The second day of the reunion , March 9^th, started  with another interactive  moment: an energizing  exercise. All participants were invited, under  the coordination of a young Swedish  young girl,   to do some gymnastics movements accompanied  by music.

 After  referring  again  to the  tasks  of the project , we pointed  out the educational priorities of the European Union; we mentioned  the necessity of developing the 8 key competences  among which the  entrepreneurship  competences are strongly  emphasized  by our  project by working on raising the self-esteem of the target groups. Even the participation in the  survey contributed  to raising the awareness on this  issue, many of the participants realizing that they  either had  not paid  attention to  it before or had  a quite low self-esteem.

 The participants were then organized in 10 international teams  and were invited  to elaborate a questionnaire on the generation gap. When they finished, each  group chose  a speaker  who presented  the results  of their  work. The questionnaires were  collected  and a common questionnaire  will be  produced by the coordinating team. After  all teams approve it will be used  for a new  survey on the target  group.

 The next activity was a discussion   on  the methods for its  processing  and  analysing pointing  out the fact  that there should  be  elaborated  a common methodology next  time  to  avoid  varied approach  from the part of the teams.

 We also discussed  about the grid  of  a successful project  to be  added at the  brochure  with examples  of  good practice.

 A first oral feedback took place and  all participants expressed  their  satisfaction of  what they have managed  to  do in the  first  two days in the project  praising very much the interactive  activities  that  took place.

The coordinators  elaborated a grid  to be  filled  in by the participants  in which they were supposed  to  work  again in groups  and  fill in  the following  grid:

 CULTURAL AND SOCIAL ENCOUNTER WITH THE INHABITATS OF VERONA AND VENICE

You are kindly requested to come back from your visit to Venice/Verona with the answers to the following questions:

1. While walking in the streets of the city try to find out the proportion  of the two generations ( young people  and elderly people) represented in the means  of public  transport and other public places ( like bars, restaurants, shops etc.)
2. As you are a tourist you can find out whether more young or elderly people work in tourism and try to think over why?
3. Try to find out how many people speak English and whether more young people speak English than to the elderly? Why/
4. When looking around in the streets of the city can you find signs that Italy belongs to the EU? How? (Flags, slogans, posters)?
5. Do you think that the Italians are an optimistic or pessimistic people? What makes you think so?

 These visits were meant  to help the participants  cooperate in groups formed  of young  an  elder people to see  how  they can produce common essays on the  topic related  to the population of the  visited places. It was  not only  an exercise of  developing  cultural competences  but  mostly  of  developing civic  and  interpersonal competences in multi aged  groups.

 The first visit was two villages on the board  of Garda Lake, a good opportunity  for  a Group Photo. In these  villages they noticed that  almost all old buildings had been replaced  by new  villas  and  the region turned  into a very important touristic  site. They visited small family shops  in which  young  and  old members  of the family worked  together. The  same thing happened in the vineyards, so famous in Italy. The lake, used in the past  just  for fishing,   for feeding, now it is used   for  fishing as  a hobby and  for nautical sports.

 In the  evening  all participants  were invited  to write  a feedback on the  first two days of the meeting answering the following questions:

 1.    “How do you feel about the meeting?

2.    What did you like best?

3.    What memory will you take away with you?

4.    What improvements can you make?

5.    What new things did you learn out of this meeting?”

 The answers were collected  and discussed with the project  coordinators on the last day, during the final evaluation activity.

All  respondents pointed  out  the satisfaction of  having been  together  and  spending a fruitful  time participating in interesting  and attractive activities.

They came  with constructive  suggestions  for  the future meetings  so as  to keep organizing interactive  activities which they enjoyed  very much. Learning by  doing  proved  to be  the most successful  characteristic of this meeting.

 On the last  day the teams divided  in several groups  and were supposed  to fill in the  grid meant to notice  relevant things  connected  to our project issues ( See the grid  above.)

 In the evening, during the final  evaluation activity,  all participants expressed  their satisfaction  and  gratefulness  for the way  the meeting was organized  by the Italian hosts.

The  coordinator pointed  out  that, besides the good  organization, the success  of the meeting was  also due  to the active  involvement and seriousness  of all teams.

 In this atmosphere the Italian team handed  the Participation Certificates  to all the participants.

 The next meeting will be in Cyprus, at the end of  June 2012.

 Mariana Gabriela Hudrea                                                      Verona, March 11^th 2012

Project coordinator