YEU InterActiveTrain

Local colourfull, ecological workshops and action in Poznań!!!

2010-08-03T10:59:00.008+01:00

Local Actions in Poznan InteractiveTrain project consisted of two weeks of recycling-drumm and recycling-costumeworkshops(from 14 to 27 May), and participation in the Parade Łazarska(May 27).
The workshop was attended children and young people from the club"Za Kręgiem" and Boredom Slayer.
Workshops were conducted in two blocks, twice a week for three hours at the Hall of College of Social Skills and on playgrounds and in the office of Horyzonty in old district of Poznań - Łazarz.
Classes formed in "The Days of Łazarz".
On taking classes and playing the drums, young participants learn how to waste, plastic bottles, old bowls, boxes do Brazilian drums. Then the coordinator of the workshop - Kamila - she learned to play rhythms.

These rhythms expressed ecological message. Also showed children how to actively express their attitude and care for the environment. The workshop also talked about separating waste and caring for the environment in our district.

Workshops make costumes from garbage coordinate Sabina. There was great colorful Chinese dragon - Mascot Parade Łazarska. It was a crazy end of our workshops and street fiesta entire neighborhood.

During the parade the participants, our old and new volunteers, representatives of local authorities and residents of Łazarz promote active citizenship.

Our volunteers also promote ecology and preservation of the environment. Merrily playing rhythms and delighted all the inhabitants!

Train started its journey

2010-08-02T11:16:00.003+01:00

The InterActiveTrain has reached its biggest phase - the journey through Europe. Yesterday, August 1st we started with the preparatory meeting of the train in Ostia (Rome), Italy. The participants are all here, safe and sound.

Yesterday we dedicated the day to getting to know each other and team building, today we work on promotion and start finalising the street acts for the journey.

Stay with us through our blog or Facebook account!

Sneak peak at our final destination!

2010-07-27T16:09:00.015+01:00

Time goes by... and the anticipation in the air can be felt all around Europe!

Today we're giving you a little sneak peak at the final stop of our journey: Faro and Tavira.

Faro is the southernmost point in Portugal. Although it's a fast growing city it's has been kept near its roots, which means there are plenty of historical spots and monuments to see and enjoy. It is quite near the beach so lots of Portuguese people as well as foreigners come here every summer to spend some wonderful moments near the sea. We'll be spending the 17th of August there and there are still some surprises to unfold about what we'll do in Faro.

Tavira is where it will all end (hopefully not all). It's a lovely town next to Faro and it well know by the beautiful Island in which we can find some awesome beaches! Prepare to get wet! Apart from that, the city has lots of wide open spaces outdoors so we'll have a great time doing some spectacular stuff (and I won't add much... surprise!).

I hope you liked this mini-tour and it made you all even more anxious than before (if that's possible). So be prepared for some HOT moments in the most beautiful cities of south Portugal! (literally, in a good day we can have 35º C!)

Plus, Laimingas has its own facebook page now. Feel free to pay him a visit ;)

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Laimingas-Drambliukas/101281813249189

Portuguese Workshops!

2010-07-27T00:23:00.008+01:00

Hi guys!

It's the Portuguese team checking in!

We decided from the beginning that our local actions would have to consist in some kind of street performance, but as the time gone by and the help grew thinner we had to re-think our local actions. So we used our knowledge to come up with something that would work well with our local peers and at the same time it would be interesting for us.

We called it "Workshop de Iniciação à Expressão Dramática e à Animação de Rua" which translates to "Initiation to Drama Arts and Street Animation Workshop". Facebook was our main advertisement tool to spread the word in our city and surroundings. So we managed to do some sessions consisting in two-days workshop.

Each session would always begging with a bit of theory and the background of our local activities - we told them about YEU as well as it's aims and the purposes of the Get in and Gain InterActive Train Project. We shared some photos of Amarante and let the participants ask questions and so on.

As the introduction ended we would start the warm up section. From segmentation of each body part to cannon vocal exercises everyone should be ready to move on to the next part.

So the group-trust exercises would develop through the rest of the session until the break.

After that more acting/improvisation-focused exercises.

We tried to differentiate the two segments of the workshop so the 1st could be more self-expression and body-consciousness focused and the 2nd would be mostly related to group-awareness and acting/improvising techniques.

Each session was finished by doing some relaxation and body-awareness exercises.

We had a core exercise that was developed in the two parts of each workshop - the Animals.

We cannot give away too much about this exercise/techniques for obvious reasons but we can say that it was success!

From the beginning we made it clear that none of us was a professional trainer so the whole workshop was held in a non-formal education perspective.

Overall it was a much enriching experience and we couldn't be happier about the results. Not only did we act as multipliers on our local communities and did our best to provide new experiences and sensations to the participants but we did learn a lot from them as well.

See you guys soon!

Our local acttions :D

2010-07-12T19:06:00.006+01:00

Some local actions:

Cooking some new dishes and the traditional one:

Theatre workshops:

Getting better know the United Europe:

Leszno one of the place where trian stops :)

2010-07-12T17:54:00.006+01:00

LESZNO- where is it?

Situated in the southern part of the Greater Poland Voiwodeship :)

Leszno isn't a big city however very nice and peaceful. Our market place is so beautiful that then you'll come here you won't to leave this place. I try to show you that city however photos don't show how really beautiful it is.

In this city we have our organization called "Centre for Creative Activity".

Who are we?

We are a group of young people full of energy. Although our organization is relatively new, it has gained considerable expirience in local and international area. We aren't araid of challenges. Our organization strives to increase local activity and our main goal is to support the development of children and young people as well as to promote culture. We strive to create a society engaged in local affairs.
Our goals are realized by means of various workshops, trainings, conferences, happenings, concerts and festivals. Our current activities are addresed mainly to young people as we belive in the potential of the young.

Some of our activities in Leszno:

Our route in August

2010-06-14T23:31:00.003+01:00

Here's our route in August - Italy-Romania-Lithuania-Poland and Portugal. Soon we'll have exact details available.

1st of June in Resita, Romania

2010-06-07T13:51:00.020+01:00

For the 1st of June, the Children's Day, we organised in our town some events for children involving workshops of face-painting, baloon modeling, creative use of all kinds of recycled materials and interactive games. We managed to involve the local community as well, a kindergarden, a school and also the Municipality.
We wanted to have it outside but unfortunately the bad weather didn't allow it. However this didn't keep the volunteers from participating and the children from showing up.

Here are some images.. enjoy!

The volunteers

The animators

Baloon modelling

Face painting

The clowns

Face painting

Workshop

Games with the kids

Baloons

Workshop

Twister

Face painting

Games for kids

The volunteers at the baloon modelling workshop

Games for kids

The team of volunteers

Lithuanians 1st action during Vilnius Street Music Day

2010-06-07T10:38:00.004+01:00

On May 1st our partners from Vilnius, Lithuania had their first local action connected with street animation. 1st of May was the Street Music Day in Vilnius and as our partners just had come back from Amarante with their new street animation skills, they decided to join the music day and implement one of their activities.
Our Lithuanian youngsters created a "flat" in the middle of the street with a sofa, a carpet and everything else that is typical to a normal apartment + put on some tunes. During their performance the participants of the Lithuania Academy of Music and Theatre made some short sketches and improvisational acts combined with street animation tools. Their act was that popular that it even captured the attention of mass media - a picture in the newspaper and short broadcast in local TV.

Triin

Implementing local activities

2010-06-07T10:13:00.003+01:00

As you all might now then at the moment we're in the phase of implementing local actions in all our partner communities in Poland, Romania, Lithuania, Italy and Portugal. The local activities are implemented during the months of May, June and July!
The local activities are very different and soon you will here more about them here!

Triin

Interactive Train in Poland

2010-05-29T11:10:00.003+01:00

At the beginning we have spread the news about the Interactive Train among youth in Leszno in Poland and the results were amasing! Many youngsters have decided to join to us. They are willingly to help with all animations, they are aslo willing to meet other people from other countries. I think that they are also very glad that so many people from freign countries will come here. However not only the youngsters are interesting in it. Many adults, city council and volunteers are ready to work. Most of the people who decided to help us are of the opinion that it will be great action which will force our society to live activly in a democracy. Even though there is lots of things to do, Interactive Train is a great undertaking which makes our society more awarness of democracy, and also causes that in our small city many people organize many actions on the street. Such actions are open for everybody and very intersting so people feel like they are invited to participate in such actions.

Though it's over it's just a beginning

2010-05-06T20:31:00.004+01:00

the last day was intense. we started the morning with the evaluation session – personal and group evaluation of the training. the participants took it really seriously and gave us some good feedback. in addition, starting from the morning the participants were quite emotional – crying and tissues were a part of our final day! this shows how well the participants got along and how much they fell in love with each other! honestly, it has been one of the best groups i’ve met as there were no problems between the participants, everyone got along and took care of each other! they even managed to share the outdoor key when they went out – one of them always came and let those in who wanted to go back to the hostel earlier! and the free time or breaks they had, they spent together singing and playing the guitar! it was absolutely amazing. it seemed like they’re a real family already….

after lunch started brainstorming. we asked the participants to divide themselves into national groups and go over their local activities which should take place between May-July in all our partner countries. they had planned some draft activities before the training, now it was the time to make adjustments adding street animation elements if they wanted to and share their ideas. the session was connected with project management session as they had to plan their activities by answering the most basic and important questions – what are they planning, what is the aim, when and where the activities take place, who is the target group, who is gonna carry out the activities, what they need to carry them out, how they’re gonna promote, where they’re gonna promote, what kind of impact they see, etc.

i’m glad that the participants are excited to carry out their ideas and that we have so many different ones though the activities have some joint features. there are many partners who would like to organise something connected with environment and recycling. as it seems it’s one of the nowadays most important activity – how to use all that stuff we have in our homes in an useful way? some of the participants are preparing some workshops about street animation in their local communities, some of them are making performances in a cube, some of them are attending cycling event to promote the train and public transport, etc. when we have the finals of the local activities I’m gonna let you know exactly what you can see, where you can attend and when!

the session was continued with the follow up – some practicalities I needed to go through before the participants departure. and last but not least – the final activity and closure in the yard where the participants wrote their wishes into flowers and put them to the fountain so that they could open over there….

the participants got more sad, more tears, more tissues as the training was about to find an end….but it’s just the beginning of an endless friendship and an awesome project!

Barbeque - the key to happiness!

2010-05-06T20:24:00.004+01:00

the following day was dedicated to acting – a session of the theatre oppressed where the participants had to act and improvise without any words at all. as the previous days had been really rough they needed some amusement. the participants were divided into groups. two groups at a time were asked to come to the stage. next our fabulous moderator brais gave them some topics and they had to improvise. loads of fun. after they short performance the jury – other participants and trainers – gave points!

after that we had a barbeque in the park. why? i tell you. the casa de juventud de amarante serves only vegetarian food on the concept of fair trade. that means that every day everyone got only dishes without any meat or fish. although i was extremely satisfied with the food (i felt like in heaven as everything was absolutely delicious and i seriously believe i gained a couple of kilos) the participants started complaining after few days. so that’s the reason why miguel, our incredible host, decided to organise us a lovely barbeque in a park. and you should have seen the faces of the participants – they were so happy and excited. especially my dear italian stefano!

in the evening the participants had a chance to attend two workshops – space acoustic and visuals. space acoustics was given bt rui with a meaning. during their performances the participants started to make too much noise on the streets. so there had to be something done – a workshop was the quickest solution. rui took the participants and went to discover amarante. finally they made a performance next to the cathedral when the bells started ringing. it was awesome. the visuals workshop was lead by monika with the idea to teach the participants to use visual materials in a proper way. the result of it was some interesting notes all around the hostel and city.

Key to improvement - another trail

2010-05-06T20:17:00.005+01:00

as the experience of animating the streets in porto and on the way was tough, the trainers decided to give the participants another chance. the following morning we started with the reflection of what happened in porto. and that point we consider one of the key points of the training course. the participants brought themselves out everything that went wrong and what could have been done differently. the trainers even didn’t have to interfere with their remarks, just to guide the discussions and make conclusions. everything that happened on that morning was extremely powerful and helped a lot in group growing.

after lunch time we gave them another trial to make animation on the streets, this time in amarante. they divided each other into groups. though the experience was a lot better this time, it was still not good enough. but we were in the learning process and it’s always useful to have those not that good experiences on the training course not during the local activities or on the train. the amarante animation was better in that sense that they had a clear idea of what was happening. the only problem was that at one point it wasn’t street animation anymore but just loads of noise. the idea of the afternoon performance was to promote the happening in casa de juventud in the evening. the best performance of the training course took place during their march to the old town. they transformed miguel (portuguese participant) into “the box head”, it meant they made a box with smiling faces and ads and but it into his head. he couldn’t see anything, was guided by other participants. unfortunately as it turned out afterwards he couldn’t hear basically anything and that’s why he ended up crashing into cars and bushes.
in the evening we had adina’s birthday. we asked the house to bake a cake for her and made a lovely birthday surprise by singing happy birthday in all languages. she was happy as one birthday kid can be. as it got late and dark started the happening in the center. the participants did different activities with local youngsters. that was probably a very strong moment for the participants as the locals took actively part in their activities.
as a conclusion it must be noticed that giving a second chance is good and useful. life long learning – people are constantly in the learning process…..and from my point of view it’s good that the participants acknowledged what they did wrong and how to improve!

The Porto experience

2010-05-06T20:02:00.005+01:00

on wednesday morning we started our journey to porto. the house was full of excitement, everyone ready to go, but what to take and what to leave behind? this was the trickiest question. the participants had prepared some promotional material + all the equipment for their performance. we as trainers and support team didn’t have a clue what they were planning. our only concern was to get everyone on the bus and leave the right time.

the trip to porto started by a 40 minute bus drive from amarante to regua. regua is a small city where you can take the train to porto. of course we could have taken the bus straight to porto, but as the overall project contains traveling through europe for three weeks, we decided to give the participants (and ourselves as well) the chance to experience traveling all together and performing on the train. the train performance of course wasn’t as it was supposed to be. we sent a letter to the portuguese train company that we would like to do some activities on the train from regua to porto, but got an answer soon that we should give them a plan in more detail and notice then a couple of weeks in advance. so there we were.
we arrived in regua 15 minutes before the arrival, took our lunch boxes and material. i bought the tickets and it was already time to go on board. as the train departed the participants started singing, playing guitar and chatting with complete strangers. although they were quite exhausted, they managed to keep up the mood….till a string of a guitar broke. i personally had a bad experience in train – lended my camera to someone to take pictures and afterwards there were no pictures at all! what a joy!
when we arrived in porto then the participants had their big moment coming. first they had to perform in the station. they had a quick meeting all together to make a plan. as it turned out than the plans they had made before were quite unuseful as the string broke. so here’s the first point – always have a plan b! after tight discussions and some fierce arguing they started their performance making loads of noise…..till the security guy came and it was suddenly over…..afterwards a man from the train company came to talk to us that we should talk to them in advance, gave his business card and asked to contact him if we need a group discount or any permissions. then we went to one plaza in porto. we, trainers and i, advised them to go to the riverside in the beginning and have some lunch first as it was already lunch time and we were pretty hungry. but as it was the day of the participants then they had to decide what are we gonna do, when and where. the trainers decided to step out of the process as it was time to learn to manage themselves as they have to do in august when we’re on the train rushing through italy, romania, lithuania, poland and portugal.
their idea was to do mime’s in the corner of the square next to the post box. in the beginning, telmo went to stand there with a sign, next people started sitting in front of them to see what is going on. unfortunately this was a mistake as they closed the route where people where going through. in addition they ran to the middle of the square to do “zip-zap”, a game which they had practiced here so many times and spiced up with typical elements of the training. still they were enjoying what they were doing though they had planned something else and everything didn’t turned out like supposed to.
after a break in the square we went to the main street to do some activities over there. though they managed to do what they wanted, then there was still something missing – the message! they had stayed up half the night before to do some promotional material – a sign saying street animation and active participation! this should have been one of the messages to spread, but they left the signs outside of their activities and it rather looked like someone playing some games on the street. couldn’t see the purpose of their activities.there was clearly no leadership nor moderation. people were having discussions and no one stood up to say: guys, this is what we’re going to do. they were still speaking in the tense “i” not “we” as it should have been. although after a couple of days it seemed that they have a good group feeling, there was missing the ability to work as a team which unfortunately spoilt many things.
after the activities on the main street – santa catarina – we took our way to the riverside to have a break. i must say that it’s quite difficult to move with such a big group but we managed. after a nice break in a cafe the group split up – the youngsters went their way, some of the trainers went their way. so basically we went sightseeing on our own and with some guidelines given by brais and just chatted and enjoyed porto! later we met brais next to the cathedral, met some of the participants and it was already time for dinner. we asked the participants to meet us 19.30 in the square where we were in the morning. and can you believe that all of them were on time? absolutely amazing. after a dinner, we catched the bus back to amarante.

Laimingas - a true friend from Africa!

2010-04-18T12:34:00.015+01:00

One day we had the “use of materials” session where the participants built some instruments for themselves. As there was excess of materials, will and inspiration, an elephant was built out of plastic bottles and newspapers and painted blue! An real African elephant was born in amarante!

The elephant was the new dearest friend of Greta, a lLthuanian girl, who named the elephant Laimingas. He became a dear dear friend to all of the participants and he was taken along to everywhere. In the beginning he was really weak – like a real baby elephant! But we took him to Porto where he opened his eyes for the first time! It was amazing! The elephant got stronger and stronger by every step he took. Soon he was already having some coffee and beer, listening to some music and eating sandwishes! He discovered Porto with the participants, took part in the performances on the streets, went for a walk on riverside, sang along while others were singing and playing some tunes…..and finally he even got his first restaurant dinner!

As we saw how fabulous elephant is and how dear to the participants we decided to take pictures of his first “everything” and make a movie. It’s unbelievable how the participants took care of him! He was always everywhere, treated as one of us! And when the participants lost (forgot) some promotional material to porto streets, then no one forgot about Laimingas!

During the last days in Amarante, our elephant who had grown, learnt and experienced a lot meanwhile, had his first surgery – the participants decided to make him even stronger and more beautiful!

At the end of the training course we, trainers and i, decided that laimingas will stay in Amarante till august. Oh yeah, did i already mention that he will come on the train with us? Yes, that’s true. Don’t laugh. He’s one of us now and ready for the adventure! But you know what happened when no one was in Amarante anymore? Laimingas travelled to Faro itself! He’s already so independent that is able to travel himself (ok, the Portuguese participants took him along to Faro) and meet new people – 30 portuguese youngsters with whom he already performed as well!

I’m already looking forward what Laimingas will do next….

Taking action - improvisation, image theatre, use of materials

2010-04-16T15:39:00.004+01:00

The third day was perfect to start taking action. As the participants already had an idea what is street animation, it was the final time to get into action. First the workshops "working with body" - improvisation and image theatre! Later "use of materials" - performing and transforming!The participants built their own performing materials - juggling balls, hats, etc. Basically they transformed all the material available into something that can be used on the streets!

After dinner we had the video night where everyone could present some short videos they know about street animation to give examples, show their organisation's and it's activities videos and a lot more. The day finished with the activity "discoverying Amarante by night..."

What is street animation?

2010-04-16T15:03:00.003+01:00

Sunday started with a session about active participation / citizenship. One one of our aims is to promote active citizenship and show the youngsters that even the smallest step matters. The morning session was full of different activities. The afternoon was dedicated to street animation - what it is, what are its elements, what is its aim and how can it be used for active participation. As usual the concept of street animation is quite broad and was varied amongst the participants Who thought it was music on the street, who thought it was juggling and circus, who thought it was graffiti, who thought it was whatever one can do one the streets. In reality basically everything can be street animation. The end result of animation should be social change – an impact on the community where the animation is implemented!The evening was filled with an activity called "The dark side of Animation". Our trainers team made a show in the park. They created a story about animation performing themselves in the woods and involving the participants into the story. there were story telling, sounds, fire, legends and a lot more. finally crazy Brais, one of the trainers, jumped into the freezing river and vanished....

Let's get into....

2010-04-16T14:26:00.007+01:00

The following day (day 1st) was dedicated to introduction. In the morning we started with a brief intro of YEU, the Youth in Action (YiA) programme, the training and overall project of the train, the trainers team and the programme. After that we moved on to the expectations, fears and contributions activity where the participants had to put down what they expect from the training course, what are their fears and what kind of contribution they can make to the organisation of the training course.
After that started the City Discovery which aim was to get to know Amarante and get to know each other through teamwork. The participants were divided into different groups, each one of them with a different task. Of course, it was like the law of Murphy - it started raining....although we equiped the participants with umbrellas, soon the sun came out again and all our problems solved.

The idea of city discovery was to send the participants into the town to find answers to different questions and solutions to various tasks. For example they had to take a picture with the policemen and taste some typical food / drinks of Portugal.After the lunch break begun the funniest part of the day. The participants had to present their results of their discoveries - a short presentation of their group members, show visuals of their findings and explain their task. We laughed a lot because one presentation was more crazy than other. One of them was even a complete non sense video where the participants did an interview with the river. Who wouldn't laugh at a question - are you planning to get married? Of course the river answered......yes (complete silence is considered to be yes!).

Our host Miguel attended the session and he had a good laugh as well. He was amaged how everyone went to the police office to have a picture with some police officers. He was quite sure that the following days the policemen will come to ask him what was going on. Amarante is a small city so everyone knows everyone.After that we had the train session which aim was to explain the participants the overall flow of the project "InterActiveTrain - Get in and Gain". We splited the participants into groups and gave them some slips with short sentences which they had to put into chronical order. After that I made some corrections where necessary and we had a modified action plan! Later on some group building and other minor activities.

After lunch we had Anima-NGOs session in order to introduce the countries and organisations! Had loads of fun though most of the participants were quite tired...

Arrivals, arrivals, arrivals

2010-04-15T00:47:00.003+01:00

The trainers and support members arrived in Amarante already a few days before the start of the training in order to make the final decisions about the TC. We had 5 trainers and 2 support members working on the training.

The first participants, Italians, arrived in the evening of April 1^st. Such a lovely group. Although they met for the first time all together in the airport they seemed like a punch of friends. When arriving their first questions was obviously – when are others arriving? Unfortunately I had to disappoint them while saying that tomorrow evening. Still they found something to do for them – first discovering Amarante by night and the next day making the advertisement for the window of Casa de Juventud. It’s a custom of CJ to put an enormous poster on the main window so that everyone else could see what’s happening. The Italians took their job extremely seriously – put on some tunes and started painting, cutting, inventing. At one point the trainers went in and came back with a saying – we should be motivating and inspiring them, not the other way around! But it was true – the deep commitment and feeling was incredible!

Late at night arrived others. First the Lithuanians who were exhausted after their day in Lisbon and almost a 5 hour trip from Lisbon to Amarante. And then started the confusion. First called the Romanians from the airport of Porto saying that their luggage is lost and the are not able to catch the last bus. I advised them to push the airport personnel as much as possible so that maybe they still have a chance to catch the bus. Unfortunately not. Finally they reached Amarante around midnight and without any luggage. They were concerned, upset and tired as one can be after such a journey. And then called the Polish who also were not able to catch the last bus. They were in Porto without any clue how to get to Amarante. Finally we managed to order them a taxi and they arrived a bit after midnight. Only the two Portuguese managed to arrive without any confusion. But nevertheless, we were happy that they arrived safe and sound, some complications are more than normal while taking the routes they had to.

From Amarante with love

2010-04-09T22:59:00.005+01:00

Amar is the portuguese verb to love, and it is perhaps fitting that it should be the first part of the name of this attractive town. A settlement since the 4th century BC, Amarante is situated in the rich agricultural lands of the Minho region, the northern section of the country which is responsible for the grapes of the vinho verde, the young semi-sparkling ‘green’ wine unique to portugal. The River Tâmega runs through the town and crossing this waterway is a striking arched bridge, the Ponte São Gonçalo. it is reputed to have helped local heroes fend off a french attack in the early 19th century. Nowadays cafes and restaurants make the most of their riverside location.

Buried in the chapel of a church and monastery now bearing his name, São Gonçalo is the saint most strongly attached to the town. born here in the 1100s, his ability to heal the sick earned him his special status. The granite used to build these religious edifices in the 16th century is of an unusual hue, and it glows a warm ochre in the light of the setting sun, the cloister of the church being particularly pretty. Indeed the whole town has a magical fairytale feel to it, with elegant turreted buildings and trees drooping into the river. the annual festivities which take place in early June are known as the festas de são gonçalo, and perhaps similarly connected to the romantic-sounding name, one of the traditions of this local celebration is to give a phallus-shaped cake to the one you desire!
In my opinion Amarante is a lovely small city with its 61 000 inhabitants. Love that they have here mountains, river, fresh air, city full of culture and beautiful architecture, you can go everywhere on foot if you're up to going up and down the hills, etc. the city is surrounded by mountains and vineyards.

Training course on street animation launched

2010-04-05T17:53:00.001+01:00

On Saturday, April 2nd started the training course "Street Animation as a tool for local actions" which is a part of the overall project "InterActiveTrain - Get in and Gain".

The training course will take place in Portugal, Amarante from April 3rd till April 10th (excluding travel days). During this week 25 youngsters from Poland, Portugal, Lithuania, Italy and Romania will gather together in order to learn animation techniques, exchange ideas and experience, get to know each other cultures, traditions and tabus and a lot more.
Focusing on street animation as a tool for local actions, the training course intends to provide the participants with the necessary competencies to plan, implement and evaluate activities that use street animation as a tool of creative participation in civil society. Based on non-formal education methodology it will put the participants in contact with creative and dynamic methods of performative arts and street animation in order to explore it as a tool for social intervention and by providing an attractive and creative approach to increase the active participation. We believe that after the training course the participants will be able to run street actions in their communities, that will allow other youngsters to get involved in the civil society representing more efective democratic participation.
The training course will be supported by 5 trainers with lots of experience and knowledge on the field and organizers.

Stay up to date with the training course and it's process here...

Triin

Casa de Juventud de Amarante

2010-04-05T17:33:00.004+01:00

The training course on street animation in Amarante is hosted by the Casa de Juventud de Amarante - a lovely hostel with amazing personnel and facilities!

Aventura Marão Clube (AMC) is an associative organization created in 1993 by a group of young people of amarante and by now it has around 240 members. Te main objective is to promote healthy lifestyles among the population (especially youth). This organization is divided in three sections: mountain biking, canoeing and fair trade. since 1998, we participate in actions of promotion and training at national and international youth programs. In 2000, we started to promote international work camps about different themes such as environmental preservation, archaeology or fair trade and upholding the values of solidarity, cooperation, sustainable development, youth participation, etc.
In 2008, AMC presented a project to the municipality to run and coordinate the youth center of amarante, accepting the huge challenge of leading a public space. the vocation and experience in working with young people (particularly in mobility and active participation), together with the chance that the space offered and the vision of an integrated project were the key factors to make this initiative a reality.
This marriage between AMC, a local youth association, and the youth center of amarante, a space of public ownership, is already bearing much fruit and remains open to all people with ideas, projects and interesting proposals. so we let the challenge for a serious commitment: ready to join us?!

The project has 3 main actions:
- local youth initiatives – to promote the articulation between local youth programs/projects and approach them to young people.
- active youth participation – to encourage the active participation in actions and activities related to youth associations, mobility, intercultural learning, etc.
- support for the activities of the youth centre – accommodation for participants (and other groups) with the possibility of a complement of formation and workshops.

InterActiveTrain route Agreed!

2010-04-01T17:21:00.004+01:00

You have all already heard about the YEU project InterActiveTrain – Get in and Gain which implementation has already started. We had a preparatory meeting in Faro in the beginning of February and soon we will have a training course on street animation in Portugal which is an important part of the overall project.
The train will start in Italy in the beginning of August, 1st and 2nd, with a preparatory meeting. Following that meeting the train activities will start in Oseta, Rome. After that we will travel to Romania, Resita. August 5th and 6th we are going to spend in Resita doing some activities and motivating and supporting the local Street Animation activities held by our two partners in Romania. After that we will go to Lithuania which will take a couple of days. August 9th and 10th the train participants will be visiting Lithuania’s capital Vilnius in order to meet their local reality and support the Street Animation activities there. After Lithuania the next step of the train is Poland where you can find us on August 12th and 13th. After that we are going to take our longest journey from Poland to Portugal, Faro. The last two days of our trip, August 18th and 19th are all for sunny Faro.
Even though we know that the trip is long and probably exhausting, we are looking forward to it as it will be full of joy and fun meeting and interacting with lots of diverse groups of young people along the way!
So if you already know that you are in some of the mentioned places during the given dates, or somewhere else along the route or you are planning your summer vacations and thinking about doing something extraordinary, please come and join us – hop on the train, get in and gain!

More news about the train coming soon....till that enjoy the ride!

Triin Rebane

The journey has begun...

2010-04-01T17:16:00.001+01:00

The preparation meeting of YEU project “InterActiveTrain – Get in and Gain” was held in Faro on the 6th and 7th of February.
The aim of the project is to promote active citizenship through street animation. A team of 25 Street Animators, some of them having been trained on our Street Animation Training Course in April 2010, will travel together by train aroundEurope. The Project is a Youth in Action 1.3 Democracy Project and involves 10 partner organisations from five countries – Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal and Romania.
The InterActiveTrain is a complex long-term project which contains several phases. The first phase of it was the preparation meeting with the objective to gather together all our partners, get to know each other better and go in detail through the steps we have to make in order to succeed in our project. At the moment we have to note that implementing the project is quite a challenge as the co-funding needed to supplement the Youth in Action grant is quite high. Nevertheless we believe we can do it – obstacles are just meant to overcome!
The next phase is local activities. All our partners have to do at least 1 workshop and 1 activity in their community. They can be any kind of activities but must meet the objectives of the overall project to motivate young people to be active citizens and participate in and promote local democracy. The local activities are held between May and June. Till that we have time to prepare them – plan the exact activities, think whom to involve, how to reach our target group the best, what kind of impact and result it has etc. In order to help the participants in the process we have a training course on using Street Animation coming in April in Portugal.
The InterActive train is combined with a training course “Street Animation as a tool for local actions”. During the training course the young participants will have the chance to learn street animation with the aim to stimulate active participation and citizenship using street arts. A week in Amarante (Portugal) will teach the necessary competencies to plan, implement and evaluate activities that use street animation as a tool of creative participation in civil society. At the same time with the train preparation meeting, the street animation trainers team had their feasibility meeting in Faro in order to get acquainted, build team and plan all the foreseen activities for the training. We arranged to have the two meeting together as the trainers can get the background of the organizations and their leaders, observe the atmosphere, note all the similarities, differences, expectations and fears in order to adjust the programme of the training to the actual needs.
The phase after implementing the local activities is the train journey through all the participating countries. 30 youngsters will spend three weeks in August travelling with Interrail in order to promote our project all around Europe, do several activities on the way, meet with our partners, give visibility to international youth work and active youth participation, Youth in Action programme, YEU and get as many people as possible on board with us! The train team will involve 25 youngsters and 5 support members. Our train team will meet for two days before the departure of the train in order to start feeling the good vibes and. At the moment we have not decided the exact route, will let you know as soon as possible so that you can plan your summer vacations and hop on the train. Promise it will be an unforgettable adventure!
And last but not least we will have an evaluation meeting in October to evaluate the project, reflect on the outcomes and prepare the follow up activities!
So the journey has begun....stay up to date with our journey through www.yeuinteractivetrain2010.blogspot.com!

Triin Rebane
Project coordinator of the InterActiveTrain

Propousal 2

2010-03-29T18:51:00.003+01:00

Better later than never!

Hope all of you are ok and in a great mood since spring is here and nature is bringing also us to life.
Terribly sorry for been late, but finally here is my second proposal....hope y'all like it and we can adopt it as the official logo.

CENTRE FOR YOUTH INITIATIVES HORYZONTY

2010-03-03T11:57:00.001Z

Something about Horyzonty from Poland

We are a group of young, dedicated, crazy people who cooperate with other young people from Europe and not only…
We believe that every, even the least initiative can make the world better, bring more colours and smiles…

OUR main AIMS:

developing international youth cooperation
promoting openness towards different cultures
youth activisation and empowerment
promoting and organizing Voluntary Work

WE ACHIEVE OUR AIMS mainly THROUGH:

youth exchanges
workcamps
long-term educational projects
training courses

Horyzonty broaden our Horizons!

First Logo

2010-02-24T20:00:00.005Z

After a huge software crush down and lost of all most all my work i managed to redo 1 Logo, here it is. Since i am in quite a stress with my job i will try to come at the beginning of the next week with another proposal...till than feel free to comment upon the first one, any constructive critics are welcomed:)
Otherwise i hope y'all are OK, and full of energy.

Enjoy the ending winter:)

Claudiu

PS: I hope to post some things about the organization by the end of this week.

2010-02-20T13:42:00.002Z

The Volunteer Center of Resita is an NGO that started in 2004 as a project for a public-private partnership between local NGOs and the municipality of Resita, a small industrial town located in the South-West region of Romania. It came to answer the needs of participation, cultural and leisure activities and non-formal education opportunities that were registered in the local community.

The Volunteer Center plays an intermediary role between the volunteer needs of organizations in Resita and youth’s desire and availability for volunteering in the community. At the same time, the centre is supporting and promoting the recognition of the value of volunteering within the community. Thus, our objectives are the promotion of nonformal youth education through volunteer work and supporting the NGOs capacity to offer volunteer services in the community.

Our projects include training volunteers as youth animators, participating in international youth exchanges, the celebration of the European Car Free Day on September 22nd, photography contests, ecological projects, creative workshops, information campaigns, all involving youth that come from a geographically and economically disadvantaged area.

We also conducted a research on volunteerism, locally, nationally and internationally. This activity developed within the framework of the volunteer training part of our activity, but had a precise focus on developing material for a book on volunteerism. The fruit of the research we conducted was a book called Carte despre Voluntariat (Book about volunteering), a book that it is one of the very few books written in Romanian about volunteerism, which makes our work even more pioneering-like.

The Centre is fully managed and functions by the volunteer work of its coordinating team.

The Project

2009-12-08T14:45:00.000Z

Youth for Exchange and Understanding (YEU) is an International Non-Governmental Youth Organisation. As part of our Programme of Activities 2009/2010 we are co-ordinating with our partners a international youth activity “Interactive Train Get in and Gain” comprising:
Projects and activities in five different European Countries (Portugal, Lithuania, Poland, Italy and Romania) using Street Animation as a tool for promoting democratic participation.

When will it be?
Local actions organized by the organizations involved in the project will be between May and July 2010.
The International travelling train of street animators will then visit each participating organization in their local context in August 2010.

More about the project: Objectives
To develop competences and to encourage young people to use creative and innovative approaches for promotion of active democratic participation of young people on local and international level
To promote the values of active democratic participation and volunteering of young people in society, intercultural dialogue, peace, human rights, mobility, social inclusion, equal opportunities (the values YEU stands for) on local and international level
To promote, empower and involve young people to volunteer on local and international level
To foster cooperation between youth organizations and public bodies and decision makers on local level
To strengthen cooperation of youth organizations on both local and international levels
To promote non-formal (NFE) and peer education youth organization are doing in wider public, raise the visibility of YiA programme as supporter of NFE.

Who is involved?
Italy: Affubalazione dealing with youth from disadvanteg neigborhoud; Social group Lo Spazio focusing on community activities covering human rights, democracy.

Romania: Centrul de Voluntariat Resita promoting youth participation through voluntary activities and non formal education; Asociatia Bike Attack Resita dealing with promotion of the development of community combining environmental and outdoor education.

Portugal: ARCA dealing with active youth participation using socio- cultural animation, YEU aiming at promotion at peace and understanding amog young people from all over the world.

Lithuania: JMB promoting peace, understanding and cooperation; Free Learning Centre promoting youth non formal education and youth participation.

Poland: CIM Horizons dealing with social exclusion; Centre of creative activity “action reaction” is promoting participation of the local community by providing and enlightining the existing opportunities.