Programme: ERASMUS+, Key Action 1: multi-phase: 2nd part: training course
Venues and dates:
- part (seminar): Korce, Albania, 29 May—5 June 2022. You can learn more about the 1st part here.
- part (training course): Thessaloniki, Greece, 11—18 September 2022
Czech team:: Adéla Poledníčková, Nikola Procházková, Martin Neufuss, Magdalena Fajkus
Hosting organisation: Social Innovation and Cohesion Institute
Project report:
Greece, Thessaloniki – port city, with abundant history.
The beautiful city of Thessaloniki has an array of architecture and arts of Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman history. The city which was rebuilt on the 20th century has a modern European layout with an immense feel of culture and etiquettes.
The City boasts some amazing cafes restaurants and bars. Greek culture is to splurge on coffees and food! Greeks never rush anywhere, first coffee and the rest can wait, a quality which is scarce in the current city I live in, London.
Καλή μέρα – Kalimera! Greek greeting that you hear from every corner. The friendly and welcoming faces of relaxed Greek actually made me ponder about pace in which I have been living my current life.
Project Power out was taking place on the 11th to 18th September. This program intended to be focused on the issue of youth exclusion and how outdoor activities allow youth to actively participate and to learn involvement with others. The idea was to help youth to change theoretical knowledge into practice when engaging in physical activities and sports.
We found out that due to some unknown circumstances, our program were merged with other program called Gemini. Program focusing on youth women in business. Although this did seem quite frantic and unorganised it did allow me to gain a variety of experiences regarding women in business. As a budding entrepreneur I considered this to be a very welcoming plus point.
First few days were about getting to know all the participants. Most of us were from eastern Europe including Slovenia, Serbia and Albania. There were also few participants were from Portugal. This really made it interesting to gather thoughts and ideas from people from different cultures and allowed me to compare and contrast different ideologies from different parts of the
world.
After few days of getting to know each other with all participants, we went to the beach. Where we relaxed and played volleyball, the first of many physical activities to engage the youth in the programme.
There was a powerpoint presentation about women in business on one of the days. During the presentations we were having very interesting conversations because participants are from different countries, we could hear their opinion on each topic and see how it differentiates or mimics our social bubble.
Next day we had presentation from Dr. Dhimitri which was focused on marketing. We were trying to come up with items which were the most innovative and effective when it came to marketing strategies.
We had really great time and most of our participants came outs of their comfort zone which allowed me to understand that engagement can happen on many levels and not just physical participation.
The course allowed me to understand that how changes of culture and ideology does not nessecrily change the outcome of participation. The programme allowed some free time at the end the trip which made it humbling to understand from different viewpoints in an informal manner rather than a classroom or a presentation setting.
The 2 hour boat ride to an amazing beach allowed me to further bond with participants and understand perspective of individuals.
Adéla Poledníčková
