Category Archive : synergy training

United We Win – our follow-up :)

Hi, I am Matthias and I will tell you about our follow-up:

This week we completed the final part of the „United We Win“ Synergy Basic youth exchange and training (link). We organized our follow-up activity in Vienna in order to apply and share some of the countless things we learned in Cortemilia. 

The event was based on was a board-game night. We hosted the evening at Catalysts in Vienna (link), the company I (Matthias) and Manuel work at. Manuel, Pato and me were joined by many colleagues from Catalyst and young people from all over Vienna. We also give a big thanks to Catalysts for providing some snacks and drinks!

Personally, I find games to be a powerful tool for learning, teaching and integration. The rules of games determine the interactions between participants. During the game, they supersede our general societal rules of interaction – which are often divergent – and make us all speak a common language. Games are an important part of the Basic Synergy training we were part of in Cortemilia. I am happy with how we replicated our learning. 

 

The first game we played was Magic Maze. True to the spirit of „United We Win“ all players have to cooperate and coordinate as a team to beat the game itself. All while not communicating with each other. The game requires trust in others while demanding responsibility from every team member. I was often reminded of experiences from the youth exchange. 

 

We concluded the evening playing „2 rooms 1 boom“, a social deception game. Again trust, communication and seizing opportunities were the center of the game. We interrupted the game for a bit to tell our guests about Erasmus+ projects and shared some of our experiences. Some people stayed even longer and continued the evening by playing some rounds „Werewolf“.

 

To summarise, we had a great evening, applied and shared some of our experience and learnings with others and spread the word about Erasmus+ and wEUnite.

Yours, Magda, Manuel G., Matthias, Nina, Pato

United We Win – Youth Exchange & Synergy Basic Program

United We Win – Time to play

wEUnite had the great pleasure to join the Synergy Basic training for the first time. The project called “United We Win – Time to play” gathered 30 participants from 5 different countries: Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania, Italy and Austria. From the 17th to the 27th of June, we learned about ourselves, group dynamics and the so called “WE”. Even though the project duration was just 11 days, wEUnite managed to create close friendships with people from around Europe.

See below personal statements by our participants about this project. 🙂

During the first part of the project we learned a lot about ourselves. Not only did we get input to different kind of methods on how to treat yourself well in everyday life, but also getting to know the rest of the participants was part within the first days.

Challenge after challenge our group started to become a unity. Different activities, so called processes, taught us how to work together. Building trust and train our communication skills and our perceptions was part of many activities on slacklines and in solving tricky challenges being blindfolded. Also dancing to the limit and watching our own movements and other movements excited every single participant.

Besides these activities, the project also focused a lot on self-development, on how to become an even better version of yourself and how to overcome the limits you set on for yourself. To do that we used techniques like visualization to face our fears, did performances on stage and did a lot of other tasks to get out of our comfort zone. We also used different kind of meditation methods to focus our mind, get clear visions and to get calm. Many processes were supported by music and motion.

Thank you L’Arca del blues and the Synergy network to let something so unique, beautiful and unbelievable happen! In the end, even with many doubts in between, we all had an amazing learning experience!

Finally, these are personal statements by our participants about the project and their experiences and learnings:

Magda:

Well, I’m honest: this project was quiet a challenge for me. I struggled with the trainers, the project and myself. The hardest part: having to trust in people I’ve never seen before. However this also became my biggest learning: sometimes you just have to let go & don’t think for a moment. I’m still not completely able to do that, but I’m a step further.   Apart from that: this was an amazing Adventure, with ups & downs, with tears & laughters, with foreigners becoming friends ❤

Manuel:

Coming back feels unreal. The world is still the same, but I am not. In terms of self-development, the activities during these 10 days brought a lot to me. I experienced a new level of trust and care, faced many fears and took inside-out approaches to connect to people in a quick and honest way. I have a new perspective on people now in general and my communication, understanding, listening and speaking abilities are renewed and improved. With that, I am able to better connect with (new) people and my beloved ones. I see people now as opportunities. I also learned to be more honest to myself and to others and to see my needs and wants in life. With a clear vision in mind I am going to make my own way. I see fears as friends of mine, I accept them to be with me and still take the next step to go where I wanna be. Big thanks to Fabiano, the co-trainers and all participants for making this project so successful for me and for teaching me things I can not learn in school or university! This project brought more joy to my life! I will share the light of joyfulness with the world!

Matthias:

This training taught me many things about myself and let me see my own priorities in life more clearly. I learned how to deal with the unknown, be it people or situations, and I believe I am more able to recognize opportunities because of it. It was important for me that I didn’t only learn these things intellectually but to have actually gained experiences that helped to internalize these learnings. 

Nina:

United We Win – what a beautiful title for an Erasmus+ project. When I first read it, it didn’t sound any different than my previous projects, but it turned out to be a completely new, unexpected and incredible experience. Having been in Italy for 10 days I had the chance to explore and be part of a Synergy basic training. Every now and then I had my doubts about the program and whether I can take something out for my own learning. Being back home for some days already I can honestly say that this project was one of the best ones I participated in. It changed my perception and empowered my self-confidence. United We Win also taught me that alone you will dream, but together, being united, you can make your dreams become reality. If any of you, my beloved readers of this blog, ever have the opportunity to take part in a Synergy basic training – please, please take the chance and go for it 🙂 I promise, you won’t regret it! 

Pato:

This project was unique in every kind of way. Normally I’d say that friendship and intercultural exchange is the the best part about Erasmus+ Projects. But this time was different. I learned so much about me through others. Sometimes there was no dialogue needed. Sometimes you had to look at things from a completely other point of view in order to deal with it properly. So friendship was still made, but in a completely new and different way. I learned to accept every single participant as he/she is and I would definitely host them in Vienna any time they can come for a visit. They changed me. Thank you synchro for this incredible and undescribable experience.

– Pato, Manuel, Nina, Matthias, Magda