From 7th to 14th of November 2023, youth workers, activists and leaders from Lithuania, Italy, Spain, Romania, Poland and Estonia gathered at Rende, South Italy, in the association Entropia, to share their practices on inclusion in the European programmes for youth.
As in every Erasmus training course, the activities started with getting to know each other, organization fair and cultural evening where participants had a chance to bond, explore each others cultures and start making useful contacts for the future.
Later in the week the project focused more and more on the specific topics, like profiles of Coaches, Trainers and Youthworkers and their roles in the Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps, giving participants a chance to practice and share their knowledge in role play and case study activities. The participants had a moment to put in practice and share their own specific tools useful in work with youth with the others.
To summarize the week and the knowledge gained, the group worked on developing their project ideas and a coaching plan that they could use in their future work.
A big focus during the project was given to the inclusion of the local community. The organizers actively promoted participation in local initiatives allowing the participants to experience not only the typical student life in Rende, but also the activities organized by the Entropia organization, like language classes, participating in podcast registrations, jam sessions, local students parties ecc.
Overall this project had an innovative approach of the use of digital tools and traditional non formal education methodologies and thanks to the organizers had a unique touch of inclusion into the local activities that allowed the participants to feel extremely welcome in Calabria. Most importantly, new partnerships were made and not even a month after, some of them are working on developing new and impactful projects all over Europe, which, for me, is the real scope of the Solidarity projects.
