EDDILI European coordination meeting

It was the CJD organisation that was our host for the second European meeting in Frechen, near Cologne / Köln, one of the partners in the EDDILI multilateral Grundtvig project.
CJD, which stands for Christliches Jugenddorfwerk Deutschlands, is Germany’s nationwide organisation for youth, education and social work. They have 8,000 employees at more than 150 sites all over Germany. We were lucky to get a guided tour around the small village (!) and saw many young people at work under supervision in the many various workshops and buildings belonging to the organisation. CJD’s mission is to ensure that every young person is nurtured in line with their particular capabilities and is given a chance. (CJD defines itself in Germany as the “die Chancen-geber”.) Even though we had a full meeting programme (and then I mean really full), we took the time during our lunch break to familiarise ourselves with the organisation and saw how they had created a peaceful and secure environment for the young in which they could develop themselves and prepare for their vocational qualifications at their own pace.
The goal of our get-together was to coordinate our activities and actions for the EDDILI project. Misunderstandings and confusion can easily take over when one works together at a distance on such a complex European project as the EDDILI project. And indeed all participants felt it had been a smart move to organise an extra mid- term meeting to get an overview of what everyone had been working on since the kick off meeting in Palermo in January. Many of our 80 ! deliverables were reviewed and discussed in order to see what had been achieved and to come to a common understanding. And indeed, it’s always surprising to see that one can interpret texts from different perspectives, with the best of intentions.
Finally, at 7.15 pm we closed the door of the seminar room after a long day of talking and going over many details and consequences of the project application. At the end, looking back on what we had accomplished during the day, all of us expressed that although it had been hard work we had worked down to the last item on the agenda in a good and positive atmosphere.
Looking ahead, coming up next is our EDDILI training course and seminar meeting in Rotterdam, end of September, where all the partners together with their adult learning staff will attend a 2-day seminar with a strong European dimension.

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This blog post reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained herein.