yource blog: "Stepwise to lead on": Social Inclusion and Non Formal Education

Feedback on the back :) just a few words from the other participants, trainers, many "goodbye", and let's see what happens!! How many projects will come true, how can we use our "train of learning", youthpass in our everyday life and work..cross our fingers, and keep in touch!!

The participants were quite curious and anxious to the project development part. For some organizations, expectations were really high and demanding, so people were very enthusiastic of finding partners and going slowly step by step, with the help of trainers and specially each other's help.

After identifying which should be the order of steps to approach a project, things got clearer with a progressive introduction to each of the steps. The space was very open to all kind of projects, partnerships and type of activities, which alow the participants to explore motivations, needs and personal expectations for the project.

The idea was to find partners (after matching each one's ideas for projects), brainstorm ideas, come to a common agreement and settle a project, as much as the team was up to.

The results were: many projects, many competences developed and more confidence on writing a project on an intercultural environment.

So the final project was presented at a big company (simulation game), which had to be convinced to co-fund the project. Great to see all the creativity and marketing style of the participants! We wish you the same success when you try to find co-funders for the real projects... ;)

In the free evening we went to visit the hosting organisation's office, the CHERRY youth information point. Great, two in one: the centre is located in a kind of bar, it's an old house with a nice design, we not only had a look into Cherry but we also had a drink, haha!

Stepwise participants are set FREE in the city of Budapest...many things to see, many pictures to make, many smiles to give, many shops to do, and Budapest seems so big for just one day!The weather was rainy but that didn't stop us from walking the beautiful streets of Budapest, going to the Castel, the famous Bridge and Parliament, and all other obligatory places:)
All the shops were done when we met again in a wonderful place to have dinner and...look at greek football team!The dinner was very special, with lots of paprika (very usual in Hungary) and so the night ended at the place of the Cherry Organization for drinking, dancing and making some jokes and games to warm up. After all the fun, we went up the hill to our challet with a great sightseeing of Budapest (seems a movie but it was real:))

The new generation of fashion was born in Stepwise! Dolce & Gabbana, Gucci, Versace, Escada, Chanel?! These (ancient) dictators of fashion could hide behinde of this intercultural experts.

All the dress what they create is inestimable and unique. Why?

The design of the perfect paper clothes is come from seven different part of the World. Each costumes design made up of information about youth organizations, and opportunities in Portugal, Estonia, France, Greece, Poland and Hungary. Some models were princess, some were swimmers.

After the fashion show, we made an exhibition for everyone where can read all the information.

French wine, Greek salad, Portuguese cheese, Estonian chocolate, Polish Zubrovka :) All the groups are sooooo prepared, incredible!! :) Portugese San Antonio's day special dance with lots of colorful decoration, and we could not miss the famous and delicious "Christmas cake" what Sandra asked to the bakery to do just for us...Brousse, brousse j'aime la brousse, j'aime la brousse et la jolie savane! - crazy french people, few days later this short song was the top on the list, everyone know the lyrics, and the tune, sometimes suddenly someone started to dance the "choreography".

After the program review and some icebreaker, concentration, and cooperation games we started the "serious" work. Serious, because we really work, but at the same time we had a lot of fun :). Puzzle to discover the differences and similarities between informal, non formal and formal education - seems easy but it was not - and we gave the first big task to the trainers: how to work with participants on so many different level?! It was quite interesting to see how the traditions of non formal learning are different in the european countries... anyway, we could share realities and hear about good practices. As we saw that for some people the topic is completely new, we had a look on two action 1 projects, short movies about a youth exchange and a youth initiative. Did you know how big tradition of non formal education exist in France?? ;)

Hi all, after some problems with uploading, here comes really the contact list we made for you! Hope all of you is doing well :) Have a good and sunny summer, and write us about your projects you will do!! ciao zora

Hello dear Participants! Here comes some infos and comments about our project, I will upload the thing you've asked me for, useful websites, some photos, etc. Please post your comments and opinion, keep in touch, see you!!! z :)