Can & Do , a TC in retrospect

Last July Palermo was the venue for a European Training Course that brought together 32 youth workers, youth leaders, youth advisors & peer educators, staff of intermediary organizations and social activists working with young people. Participants from 12 different European countries took part in an 8-day training course that was based on the themes of entrepreneurship, innovation, culture, creativity and the development of a “can-do” attitude.

The basic rationale behind the Training Course was that young human and social capital can be enhanced by unfolding essential aspects of an entrepreneurial and innovative culture, by developing a “can-do” attitude and applying creative methods to attain this.

All TC activities were carried out through non-formal and informal methodologies, such as the Reciprocal Maieutic Approach (RMA) as well as creative thinking and learning approaches through art. Apart from this, some theoretical sessions were integrated, in an interactive mode. The main outcome can be described as an enhanced understanding of European themes like youth unemployment in our knowledge-based society and economy, human and social capital, sustainability and inclusion.  But also a better understanding of how to apply non-formal education methods with youngsters in developing a more creative, innovative and entrepreneurial spirit leading to self-confidence and a can-do attitude.

Apart from this, it must be said that participation in European training courses like these generally tend to lead to a better understanding of how other European countries struggle with similar issues and tackle, in this case, youth unemployment. Acquiring  broader perspectives on common European issues is an important step towards more solidarity and inclusion in times like these where Europe is faced with a number of difficult issues and has to conquer numerous challenges.

Once again we saw two participants (Amina and Nicky) returning home to our university of applied sciences with fresh ideas and an enriching experience due to the CAN & DO training course. For this we’d like to express our thanks here to the TC coordinator, Centro per lo Sviluppo Creativo “Danilo Dolci” (Italy) as well as the other participants from Azerbaijan, Georgia , Greece, Moldavia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Turkey and Ukraine.

This TC was made possible with funds from Erasmus+, KA1 : Learning Mobility of Individuals, more specifically mobility of youth workers.

Here are some photos of the session where our 2 participants shared their experiences in the course and disseminated what they’d learned during the TC in Palermo. 

EDDILI drawing to a close

Cyprus was the venue for the fifth and final meeting of the EDDILI project, a European project co-funded under the Grundtvig Multilateral Projects programme.
Following the dissemination and exploitation seminars over the past months and the launching of the R M A manual, the EDDILI consortium discussed ongoing issues and the final report, to round off with an overall evaluation of the outcomes and working process.

Over the course of the two-day meeting, there were also workshops and presentations exploring once more the many facets of R M A and creating a broad survey of RMA applications within diverse European settings. Moreover, work was also done on a valorisation product in the group of adult learning professionals.
The event took place at the University of Nicosia and aimed (among other things) to help the further development of relationships among adult learning professionals at a European level and lay the foundations of a sustainable (virtual) network.
As part of the final get-together of the consortium, an international seminar open to the general public took place on Friday afternoon, October 7th. It was organized in order to reach a wide audience of academics, practitioners and enthusiasts of adult education, both local and international. This seminar created a platform for showcasing how R M A can be applied in a diversity of settings and stimulating the exchange of ideas with other (European) adult learning professionals, besides evoking further interest in the R M A method.

As in all (EU) projects drawing to a close, the time had come to say the final goodbyes and travel back home with some unique mementos and ... a clear overview of the final tasks yet to completed.

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.

Open publication - Free publishing - More adults

Here's the manual, without the front and back cover pages.

An R M A dissemination seminar

How wonderful to see everyone really opening up to others and telling them about their personal hopes and dreams ! Just one of the many positive comments following a recent RMA seminar in Gent. This seminar was held last June as a channel of dissemination within the framework of a project in which 6 European countries are involved. The project focuses on applying the Reciprocal Maieutic Approach (RMA) as a specific method and starting point in educational and/or training activities and goes under the title of
"To EDucate is to make possible the DIscovery of LIfe".
And a discovery tour it became ! Attending a taster session, organised as part of a dissemination seminar of the RMA approach, the participants collectively explored views and dreams under the watchful eye of the RMA coordinator / trainer Hans Donders.
The seminar kicked off with a solid introduction to the principles of the RMA methodology and its founder Danilo Dolci. This proved to lay the basis for a friendly, open-minded and non-judgmental atmosphere in the group. After that, while sitting in a circle (symbolic for the sharing of power and feeling equal), participants needed little encouragement to start sharing their views. After all, the strength of a maieutic session is that people can freely express themselves, knowing (and feeling) that empathy has been established in the group, the key cornerstone in genuine human relationships. In such a mutually supportive atmosphere there was ample room for spontaneous and natural tuning into the other person's thoughts and feelings, whatever these were.

All in all, the RMA dissemination seminar provided interesting and useful information about the potential of the RMA methodology. But most of all, the seminar had a positive as well as empowering impact on the participants, a stimulating by-product.
(This project is co-funded by the European Commission through the Lifelong Learning Programme under the action Grundtvig Multilateral projects.)

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.

R M A , reciprocal maieutic approach in a nutshell

The Recriprocal Maieutic Approach (RMA) is a “…process of collective exploration that takes as a departure point the experience and the intuition of individuals.” (Dolci, 1996). This way RMA promotes group processes and the plurality of experiences and points of view.
RMA is intended to create a safe learning environment for people to express themselves, to discover themselves, to be creative, to learn relational and communicational competencies, to feel valued as a human being, among other things.
The Reciprocal Maieutic Approach is most of all a learner centred approach.
Here's a visualisation of the method, using the well-known wordle website:

Soon a concise description of the RMA method will follow here.
The prototype as well as the RMA manual are on their way. A definitive version is anticipated to be ready for distribution at the beginning of July 2011.

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.

A kick off meeting in Palermo

Sitting in the sun, overlooking Mondello bay, with the murmuring water nearby, I’m (pen) writing the first draft of this blog post. A day of relaxation, dearly needed to “recuperate” after yesterday’s full meeting day. "Full" meaning first of all, full of information to absorb and process, and secondly, a full day's work, ending at 5.30 pm.
A new European project brought me to Palermo, Italy for the kick off meeting together with two of my CMV colleagues Hans and Eveline.
On Saturday January 23rd, at the Centre for Creative Development (CSC), Centro Danilo Dolci (where we were actually offered the real Italian “dolci” !) all the European partner organisations convened. We were also joined by two delegates from the Swiss Adult Learning Information Centre and later on by our external evaluator from the University of Palermo. We gathered to walk through all the details of the work ahead of us for the coming 24 months’ run of the project. Actually a little less, as we have lost some time over being accepted by the EU commission as a replacement for a Greek partner who dropped out, just when the project was about to start.
To educate is to make possible the discovery of life, EDDILI for short, is a multilateral Grundtvig project within the Lifelong Learning Programme framework of the EU. Some of the project objectives are: to share the reciprocal maieutic approach, a methodology developed by Danilo Dolci), to support adult learning staff to learn transversal knowledge, skills and attitudes through the use of the methodology and to increase the quality of adult learning.
Looking back on the first day, my head is full of impressions. Of the trainers and other coordinators involved, of the potential of the reciprocal maieutic approach method, of the opportunities to train adult learning staff, of the possible results and impact on our own CMV study programme and our students. But also of the positive working atmosphere with all the people of CSC and CESIE, the two Italian organizations that organised this kick off meeting, and the other project partners from Cyprus, Germany, Spain and Switzerland. And not to be forgotten our external evaluator who interestingly pointed out to us that Facebook could also be a good medium of collaboration and dissemination, especially when creating a network for the adult learning staff.
All in all, a wonderful starting day to the project !
Back home in the cold, minus 5 degrees, I'm uploading my pictures to flickr.com to add a visual dimension to this post.

EDDILI Project Description

View more presentations from Anja S.

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.