Day 7 - Wednesday 27. March - ACT review, evaluate and think of the future

The last day of the project started with a short energizer “Story of My Pony”. After that we went straight to work on our group projects, which we decided to create the previous day and after the lunch we presented them to the others. Some groups focused just on local level and some groups on the other hand developed international projects. They all had in common improving education of youngsters, raising awareness about fake news and spreading a word about Erasmus+ projects and European Citizenship.
We know, that it is easier to achieve a lot of smaller goals than just a big one, and that is why we made exact schedule, where we took in consider what are we able to achieve in specific periods of time. We will see after six months, how did our plans go and how many projects actually applied for a grant in October and succeeded. 

Then we went straight to Youthpass presentation and became clear about what Youthpass means, what is it good for and how can we use it. We also received the first part of the Youthpass and some of us were ready to get the second part right after arriving home.
Since this was our last day, it was the right time for final evaluation. We travelled through time and went back to the arrival day. We refreshed all the memories we had - teambuilding activities, finding out what active citizenship is, exploring differences between naturalization processes in different countries, preparing a TV show, evening parties. All the moments and all the laughs that we will never forget.
Of course we didn’t take home just memories. All of us achieved some goals we set to ourselves in the beginning of the project. During the project we also faced obstacles, that we were afraid of, but we successfully overcame them.
It was also the right time for revealing our secret friends, who took care about us during the whole project. Lots of hugs and few tears as well.
After the dinner we shared our last deep talks, learned some national dances and said goodbye. The departure and leaving is one of the hardest parts of every project and saying goodbye is always too hard. But the Erasmus+ youth exchanges taught me one important thing: "goodbye" is too depressing and "see you soon" works better. So, see you soon, Lednice and wonderful people!

Monika

Day 6 - Tuesday 26. March - Working on citizenship

From early morning, we were continuing in working hard on our videos for the European Youth TV show, finalising last details. After the trainers collected all our outputs and changed the seminar room to a small cinema auditorium, the show could finally begin.
The European Youth TV show’s programme was varied, including a wide range of TV genres:

• Fairy-tale ‘European Union of Smurfs’
• Morning News
• Commercials 1
• Soap opera
• Documentary
• Talk show
• Commercials 2
• Evening News

The trainers acted as TV show hosts, presenting the videos and asking viewers / video authors questions about the videos as well as their topics. Also, we have special guests, Ms Schuman and Mr Schengen, who came from the European Commission to share their opinions about the videos with us. 

In the afternoon we finally became active citizens, starting to work on our own projects to improve our communities. First, we however needed to learn more about the Erasmus+ programme, its key actions and activities. Apart from a presentation, we also discussed more about respective types of activities (youth exchanges, training courses and KA2, EVS/ESC and project applications) with the trainers and organising team. An interactive session about how to develop a project from understanding needs and problems to setting up project aim, objectives, target group, designing activities and evaluating impact followed.
Then we formed groups according to what we wanted to change in our local (or even international) realities and started developing our project ideas (to be continued tomorrow…).
The day finished with a tradition of group reflection, this time with a series of interesting questions such as: What do I feel more comfortable about now? What do I feel more confident about? What progress did I make today? What I am able to do? etc.

Jakub

 

Day 5 - Monday 25. March - ACT on Europe

On Monday morning we started with definition of the word „Europe“. We tried to draw its boundaries in maps, discussed and shared our opinions. Then we had lecture by Marco, who tried his best to explain and discuss with us the difference between European Citizenship and E. U. Citizenship. Also connected to this topic Marco explained us more in detail what European Union and what Council of Europe is.

In the afternoon we travelled in our minds to the future and shared our ideas, opinions what we think is going to happen with European Union in 20 years. We gained some very useful knowledge and had options to share our opinions, ideas and to express ourselves. After lunch we started with preparation of short movies in small groups and continued till evening. Some people were so into the creation of a good movie, so they decided to continue after dinner as well. I think we all enjoyed this day and I am convinced it was beneficial for us as well.

Vojtěch

 

Day 4 - Sunday 24. March - ACT on the European city

Sunday was a very special day as in the morning the local key actors came to tell us their stories of active citizenship. Our guests were Mr Jakub Těšitel from the local branch of nation-wide environmental protection group Brontosaurus and Mr Jakub Matuška; the current deputy mayor of Břeclav. They spoke about the progress they have made in involving youths in local politics, local environmental protection and they also spoke about active citizenship more generally. The guests then invited the participants for a Q&A session which led to very interesting and enriching discussions.
After this the participants were given a glimpse into Lednice’s rich UNESCO heritage with a guided tour of the Lednice château.
After lunch the participants were given free time to roam around Lednice, the region or just soak up the spring sun on lavish lawns of Lednice spa colonnade.

Jana

Day 3 - Saturday 23. March - ACT and the national view

Today was the third day of the project; we are dealing more with the main themes and with the concept of citizenship and today the focus was citizenship at national state level . After breakfast we went to the Spa and we had a brainstorm trying to find out the difference of nation and state and explain what they are. For the second activity we had a silent debate and then we analyzed two different models of naturalization tests.

After lunch we started the afternoon session with the first activity with was called “human library”: we formed small groups and some of us talked of their experiences as member of an NGO . After the break we did a strange game ; we didn’t know the rules and some of us got “nervous” trying to figure out how it worked. The sense of this game was reflecting on how we feel when we aren’t empowered, when we don’t have the instruments or the knowledge to deal with something.

After the reflection groups and the dinner we came back to Farma Penzion and now we are getting ready for the NGO night!

Alice

 

 

 

Day 2 - Friday 22. March - ACT in their cities

We came from a night with a lot of movement but with incredible activities, sunny weather and everyone's attitude being positive.
In the morning, we began explaining the roots of the concept of citizenship according to different countries and I found that in countries near to Spain the roots are similar. After we have represented different periods of citizenship as ancient, middle, modern times and nowadays.
In the evening, we started with a energizing activities outside and we found a solution to a problem of a small town with €7500. We formed teams with different roles to discuss democratically how to solve the damage of young people in the city.
Finally, we pointed problems of citizenship out and we finished the day with self-evaluation.

Alejandro

Day 1 - Thursday 21. March - ACT

26 participants and 4 members of the organizational-training team started making the ACT project in the best mood. After a comfy rest and a rich breakfast, we were all on time to start with some icebreaking games. We collected our energies to move onto the sunny garden and learn each other names. Running, watching in the eyes, speed dates, moving on a rope, the paper app were some of the funny games the smart trainers prepared for us to let us getting to know each other. 

We then had the healthiest break ever: fresh and dried fruits, herbs brews, and coffee of course, in a fancy eco-friendly cup, with the logo of the event printed on it, that everyone has to keep clean and reuse for all the ACT days and can take home 💝
Training intro was like a brainstorming focusing on what we would like to get from and share with the other participants. We reflected on what obstacles we’ll try to overcome and what duties each one of us will take the responsibility to respect in order to enjoy ACT to the best.
We had a delicious lunch made of salad, soup and local typical food. We had nice conversations eating together and going around for a walk in Lednice.

The first afternoon activity was our first task as a group. We grew up so fast as a team, even if with some initial difficulties. We learned how to communicate efficiently to achieve our objective, being inclusive with all of us. Everyone has got some useful abilities for the cooperation and the success. We had the time to reflect on the activity just done back in our meeting room and during the afternoon coffee break.
The second activity part was a kind of formal lesson on non-formal education. We had the chance to discuss on and learn how to get and spread knowledge. Before to leave our meeting building, the Perla Spa in Lednice, we reflected in small groups on what we’ve done in the day, how we felt, suggestions and opinions.
After dinner and back to our B&B Penzion Farma, we prepared food, drinks and info from our own countries to share with the others in the Intercultural evening. It was an explosion of tastes, sounds, chats, dances and lot of fun.
We enjoyed so much our first day together, we’re ready to continue sharing and learning next days coming.

Camilla

The 'ACT' training course will start in just one month

The ERASMUS+ Mobility of youth workers "ACT - Active Citizens of Today!" is going to start exactly in 1 month. The training course will be organised by European Youth Centre Břeclav and MTÜ Noored Ühiskonna Heaks 20.-28. March in Lednice, Czech Republic.

And what is the training about?
ACT is a training course that aims to support the professional development of young leaders/trainers and to raise the quality of their projects concerning active citizenship. We will approach the idea of citizenship on three different levels: locally, nationally and in the European context. The training course uses methods of experiential learning as role plays, simulations and drama methods and group sharing methods as small and large group discussions. Together, we will be working out and improving 'method toolkit' on how to motivate youngsters for participation in their community and beyond. All over mission of the training course is to find the ways how to make the issue of citizenship attractive to the youth.

Main aim:
ACT is a training course that aims to support the professional development of young trainers and to raise the quality of their projects concerning (European) citizenship.

Objectives:

• pointing out the connection between citizenship, responsibility for one’s immediate environment and society and active participation;
• experiencing, discussing and sharing historical and recent understandings of citizenship and its implications for participation;
• approaching different levels of citizenship (local – national – international/European) in practice by simulations, cases and methods development;
• sharing different visions and understandings of citizenship;
• reflecting on the notion of European identity and its underlying values (democracy, tolerance, plurality, human rights);
• raising the quality of projects dealing with youth participation and citizenship.

Look forward to more news about the training course's programme!