CHALLENGE APPETIZER

Local impact

2010-05-16T04:43:00.000-07:00

Local impact was a particularly important issue on this project. To engage local youth workers and local youth in a very concret outcome was a goal of this project. An open day to the community was the way chosen to reach this objective. The activity itself was painting a mural in the center of Angra do Heroísmo. Supported by local youth workers the youngsters were involved in the preparation of the activity previously, presenting some ideas. Before the painting itself were, small group projects were present and got together as a final project. Juvenal and Helena, two local artists, helped us. Many thanks to them. Check out part of the process and the final result.

Fighting the Volcano

2010-05-16T04:13:00.000-07:00

It seems the name of a movie...but it was real and boring! Creatives Strategies to Approach Challenging Youth was suppose to start on the 18th of April, with participants from several countries. The project did start but only with some of the participants, due the Icelandic Volcano and it's consequences. And during they kept arriving to Terceira Island.

Although all of the problems, we managed to approach the main issus that got different organisations together. Here are some pictures of the workshops, small group work and other actvities that were developed during the project. The pictures ilustrate some acitvities on the use of games or drama with young people with fewer opportunities or the main features of EVS.

For all of those that got here and all of those who tried hard do make it too, thank you for effort.

A special thanks to Estefanía and Lily that made the first three day of the TC possible.

Nektarios Basdekis

2010-04-11T16:06:00.000-07:00

Nektarios Basdekis

My name is Nektarios Basdekis.
I'm a photographer and also IT expert, working in NGO ANTIGONE (http://www.antigone.gr/) and in Youth Centre of Stavroupoli as a volunteer.
I have a long lasting volunteeer and working experience with vulnerable groups (vocational trainings with prisoners, migrants, people with disabilities).
I work also as official trainer of chess and arbitrer, teaching in schools and libraries in the local municiaplity. I finally have a wide working experience in the field of electronics, informatics, media. Unfortunetly, my life is very busy, but I still manage to do things that I enjoy.

News from Britain

2010-03-04T06:38:00.000-08:00

Stephen Scott

Hi all, my name is Stephen Scott. I am the Community Development Co-ordinator for an organisation called Re-Entry.

Re-Entry is an educational initiative which supports local schools in their strategy to engage with children who are not-attending and/or facing barriers to learning. We undertake both formal and non-formal approaches to education.

Although a large proportion of our work is with children aged between 10-16 years of age, we have a range of successful adult programmes which include themes such as: mentoring, parental support and emotional health.

My role is very busy, with no two days being the same! At times, the job can be both challenging and frustrating but when success arrives; it is deeply rewarding.

Time for Michal

2010-02-17T11:04:00.000-08:00

Hi my name is Michal Kacprzyk and I will join you in Portugal. I'm a Law student at the Wrocklaw in Poland. I also had the chance to study in Graz, Austria, and Copenhagen, Denmark. I'm interested in international law, politics and sports. For many years I was the head of local NGO based at our Faculty of Law in Wroclaw. Because of my next year graduation I have recently resigned and become a board member. European Cooperation deals mainly with issues connected with law and EU integration. We organize conferences, workshops and study tours. We took part in many international events such as youth seminars, training courses, sport forums and conferences. Our many idea is to gather passionate people and let them share their knowledge with others.

I'm looking forward to meet you all. See you soon.

Say hello to Marina!

2010-02-16T12:08:00.000-08:00

Hi! My name is Marina and I'm from Latvia. I'm a leader in two NGO's: The Union of Polish Youth in Latvia and European Mouvement in Latvia. I used to work in advertising field and devote my free time to project management in my organizations. That was lovely crazy times. Now I'm studying Development in Denmark with the aim to go to Asia for acting in lthe local NGO.

I have plenty of hobbies and my latest passion is silk painting :)

Coming from the heart of Europe

2010-02-06T04:27:00.000-08:00

Our friend Pavel Scheer tells a bit about himself.

Pavel Scheer

My name is Pavel Scheer, married, two children. Hometown: Ruzomberok, Slovakia. I used to be a sport teacher now I work for the municipality as a project manager. I am also a leader of People to People an organisation in our town. People to People is an international organisation which has a lot of chapters in all over the world and chapter in Ruzomberok is one of them.

A partner from another portuguese island

2010-02-06T04:22:00.001-08:00

She cames from the other atlantic portuguese archipelago. Helena Marote introduces herself.

Helena Marote

Hello! My name is Helena Marote. I'm 25 years old and I'm from Portugal. I live in Madeira. I'm a social worker and I work in an association called "Crescer sem Risco" (Grow up without Risk). This association works with children and young people at risk, aged 10 to 18 years old. I Love my job.

Doina Bentu

2010-02-04T09:51:00.000-08:00

Let´s have a glimpse on what Doina Bentu has to say about herself.

Doina Bentu

Coordinator of the nonformal activities in all the Children's Palace and clubs from the district of Maramures from 1990 to present; president of the Golden Dolphin Association Baia Mare, since 2003; teacher of musique.

Some more participants...

2010-01-30T11:05:00.000-08:00

Starting to know each other is the first goal of this blog. Take a look to what Lily, Annibale and Judit have to say about themselves.

Lilyana Popgeorgieva

My full name is Lilyana Popgeorgieva and I am Bulgarian
I am 37 years old and live in a nice old town in the south part of Bulgaria. There;s also my working place
I am a chairperson of the NGO "International youth volunteering centre".
Our work is to promote young people’s active citizenship in general and their European citizenship in particular; to develop solidarity and promote tolerance among young people, in particular in order to foster social cohesion in the European Union; to foster mutual understanding between young people in different countries; to contribute to developing the quality of support systems for youth activities and the capabilities of civil society organisations in the youth field; to promote European cooperation in the youth field.
In my free time I like traveling with friends and discovering new places in Bulgaria which is a very beautiful country.
I also like music, video and books and having my private time to chose one of them
But always prefer to have a nice drink with my favorite people in a nice place then sitting alone at home.
My favorite season is Summer and most favorite place to go is the seaside.
I love green and blue and my favorite food is fish and ice-cream :)
so, that's in short about me

:)) Greetings
Lily

Annibale Morsillo

I'm the president of Solidarity Center of Third Sector a a volunteer association that promotes the participation and active citizenship at local, national and European level, especially among young people, with a particular interest in the Social Responsibility of the Territory.
I'm trainer for italian non profit organizations and I work with a local network of volunteer associations named Ce.Se.Vo.Ca.

Judit Orgoványi-Gajdos

Hi,I'm Judit from the capital of Hungary. My organization name is "Kikötő" that means harbour. It is an open platform to create educational, social and cultural activities for young people since 2002. I was the coordinator of more long-term projects as a volunteer. I'm 29 years old. I work as a schoolteacher of youth (15-18years) with less opportunity (because of their hard social background). I teach them many of the subjects, but mainly to get socialized. I would like to have more idea to help them that is why I was interested so much in the project. Currently I am doing another master degree in curriculum development. I am looking forward to meeting all of you on the Azores and starting the projects:-)

Our trainers

2010-01-05T07:03:00.000-08:00

Peter Keijzer

Michael Richardson

Training partners in the project will be U-GO, a new youth arts and youth work NGO based in Edinburgh in the United Kingdom; and the Richter Foundation, a Dutch not for profit organization based in Den Helder, which has been working in the field of international cooperation for 12 years.

U-GO’s vision is that all young people in Europe have access to quality youth work which uses the arts as a tool for informal learning. U-GO was established in 2009 to support the development of quality arts-based youth work throughout Europe, and has been invited to deliver six training courses in its first year.

The Richter Foundation is run by a team of professionals in the field of arts and cultural movement and each year organizes around 15 cultural events throughout Europe. Richter has co-operated with all the EU member states and for the last five years has been active in the Caucasus region, Belarus and Russia. At the moment Richter has 25 volunteers in the Netherlands, 60 volunteers working and living in Europe, and 50 active partner organizations in Europe. Richter is also an active partner in the Youth in Action programs European Volunteer Service.

The trainer from Richter will be Peter Keijzer, and he will work in this project alongside Michael Richardson, the Director of U-GO. Both the trainers have over twenty years of experience as youth workers and youth arts workers, and have been working as trainers for over ten years.

Marco Santos

2009-12-22T07:10:00.000-08:00

Hello,
My name is Marco Santos and I'm the project coordinator of Estonian Special Youth Work Organisation, situated in Tallinn, capital of Estonia. I'm 29 years old and I was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
I like very much a quotation that I think it suits very well for that training "Be the change that you want to see in the world" Gandhi.
I arrived in Estonia to make a European Voluntary Service and I decided to stay longer working. Before that I worked for 3 years in Montijo (Portugal) as an international project coordinator for the City Council GDAC and also trainer in non-formal education in subject as intercultural sensibility and Active Participation and Citizenship.
I hope to see you all in Azores.
Best regards

Michel Skapa

2009-12-22T06:54:00.000-08:00

I am Michel SKAPA, the president of the European and Mediterranean Youth Association ( AJEM in French) and of our network of 17 youth associations in 17 countries of Europe and the Mahgreb Mediterranean (North African) region. We have existed officially since 24 March 2004 when the Government of France registered us in their government hansard. We have about 400 young members in these countries and 20 youth leaders, all volunteers and unpaid. Corsica is the headquarters and coordinating bureau for the youth associations in our network. I myself have worked for Caritas as well as for the French Sécours Populaire, in the same fields as Francisco's association, in Europe and in the Third World (Africa, the Middle East and Asia). And of course I am one of the youth project managers, and a teacher. Our basic objective is to integrate or to include all youth into the various programmes that exist for them, such as the Actions of the Youth in Action programme. I'll give you all more information later, and I'll be happy to answer all of your questions also.

Third appetizer - you are invited

2009-12-16T11:44:00.000-08:00

It's time for some presentations. We will be waiting for a photo of yours and a brief presentation of yourself. Please, tell us someting about you and the organization you're representing.

I'll try to set a good example...My name is Francisco Simões. I'm 30 years old. Presently, I'm working as a researcher of the University of Coimbra. Until 2 months ago, I was the training coordinator of Cáritas da Ilha Terceira, the organization promoting this training course. Now, I'm still cooperating with my former organization as volunteer on international exchanges and a school mentoring programme for local youth.

Second appetizer - So how does The Azores look like?

2009-12-16T11:10:00.001-08:00

Angra do Heroísmo - Terceira Island

Capelinhos Volcano - Faial Island

If you haven't checked yet we advise you to do it. Here you have some photos of The Azores. What do you think of this as an appetizer?
You can check more on The Azores on the photos galllery of http://www.visitazores.org/

First appetizer - a warm welcome

2009-12-16T10:51:00.000-08:00

Dear friends, here we are giving birth to this space that's intended to be a useful way of exchanging some ideas before the training course "Creative Strategies to Approach Challenging Youth", in April 2010, in Angra do Heroísmo, Terceira Island, Portugal. By now, do you have any idea where that is? We truly hope so!
This blog will enable us to share some expectations and to provide you some important informations. So, please, check it and cooperate as much as you like. We can promise you in April hospitality but we do not promise that our project will fulfill all of your desires simply because we don't know enough. Although we have a programme in mind it's extremely important that you share with what you really want to learn, experiment and discuss during the 7 days we will have the chance to be together. And this blog is the right way to do it.