Category Archive : wEUnite

We still like to move it, move it! – Our Follow-ups

“BE A BETTER EXPLORER THAN DORA”

During our Youth Exchange in Vienna we experienced what a great impact sports and movement and spending time with others had on our wellbeing. So, we (Marion and Elisa) decided to spread the energy we gained from that project. We created an event on Facebook and invited everybody to a treasure hunt with the motto “Be a better explorer than Dora”. The treasure hunt aimed to combine being active, exploring the city of Graz, having fun together and of course making Erasmus+ projects more visible in our surroundings.

We decided on 22 tasks for the participants to fulfil within two hours. The tasks were a mixture of fun-facts such as “Which international popstar went to school in Graz?” (Conchita Wurst, by the way) , exercise “How many steps lead up to Schlossberg?” (260) and specific Graz knowledge like “Find the snowman that is there all year round”. We asked the participants to take pictures and videos as proof of them having completed each task. One we even completed with the participants after the treasure hunt: we sang the song “Hulapalu” together.

We gathered on Saturday 25th of March at the main square. In order for potential participants to recognise us and to gain attention among other people, we had poster of Dora with us. We didn’t even have to wait for a minute and we had a group of people around us who couldn’t wait to start the treasure hunt. We formed smaller groups to enable competition for a very special prize.

After two hours, which were flying by, we checked the completed tasks of each group. All the groups did an excellent job and completed almost all the given tasks. Due to that fact we decided that it would only be fair to have a prize for everyone: Chocolate! 🙂

All in all, we were more than satisfied with the results of our follow-up. Everyone seemed very interested in the Erasmus+ programme, and some people stayed a bit longer afterwards for a chat and to get more information. One participant also showed up on Nina’s workshop, which was a very pleasant surprise.

Yours Marion & Elisa

„HOW THE HELL DOES MY FRIEND TRAVEL SO MUCH?“

Coming back from the youth exchange in Vienna, we knew that we should think of a follow-up activity that has to do with sports -like the youth exchange- and should promote Erasmus+. As Marion and Elisa already focused on the moving part, Martin and me (Nina) decided to reach out and get people to know about Erasmus+ and all its great opportunities.

While brainstorming how to best do this, we agreed together with the whole Austrian team, that the fact that we all travel quite a lot by participating in projects, we should definitely use it for a catchy title. Said, done. On 29th of March we implemented our little workshop on Erasmus+ in Logo Youth center in Graz.

What we did not think through was that there are already Easter holidays… which is why we ended up being a small – but very productive – group of people. (as you can see – working hard!)
While it rained outside we got to know each other, exchanged our experience in the world of E+ and thought about why it is so hard to get people to try out something new.

After lots of snacks, laughs and funny stories we came up with the idea to try to make a workshop in some schools. There we could explain the ideas behind E+ and reach students plus teachers (who need to excuse their missing classes later
on…)

Although our workshop did not go as planned, as everybody knew lots about E+ already, we managed to quickly change our plans and work with what is there. It has been a great afternoon and we are looking forward to putting our idea into action!

Yours Nina & Martin

I will break free – Estonia

The topic of the youth exchange that we took part in, in Estonia from the 1st to 10th of March was ‘Cyberbullying’. The four participating countries were Austria, Estonia, Italy and Portugal. The main aim of the project was not only to educate ourselves on and spread awareness about cyberbullying, but also to make new friends, collect new experiences and – of course – to get away from our daily lives and learn in a different surrounding while enjoying the time abroad.

At the beginning of the project we got 
to know each others names and played some team building games to work together even better. Then after that, we started to get familiar with the topic through workshops, presentations and games. We learned a lot about cyberbullying and the activities showed us how serious and emotional the topic can be.  Creativity also played a big part during the workshops! We made a lot of posters, postcards, some videos, and we even wrote our own song! 

But workshops and games were not all that we did, of course. On the fourth day we started to prepare ourselves for a visit to a local school where we went the next day. We talked and discussed with the students about cyberbullying, their thoughts on it and how present it is in their lives. What we also did was to share our cultures and most importantly: we got them involved in little activities which we had prepared before!

The next thing that we had planned was a flashmob. We had many ideas on what we could do and how to make people aware of the issue of cyberbullying. And I am more than happy to say that it has been a total success! It really surprised all of us how well it worked out in the end. But see for yourself 🙂  Flashmob in Estonia (click to watch)


Just as said before, the project was also about enjoying ourselves and learning in a different environment! After visiting the school we went to Narva, a city close to the Russian border, where we had some hours to explore the city and spend some free time together. During our breaks at the project venue we had the opportunity to get active and go cross-country skiing, or to enjoy the beautiful landscapes by having a walk. In the evenings we even got to jump into Estonian culture and go to the sauna 🙂
Yours, Chiara

I like to move it, move it! Youth Exchange

This time wEUnite itself organized a project which took place in Vienna from the 15th until the 22nd of February 2018.

The main topic due to the title „I like to move it, move it“, was the impact of sports in personal daily life. A perfect fitting number of 25 participants from five countries (group of five per country) attended in the project. Besides of Austria with some German influence, also Poland, Italy, Lithuania and Estonia were on board.

Already before we met each other in person, a Facebook group was created along with assignments to get to know the other participants and an idea about the project as well as receiving information about the schedule and other essential stuff.




Move it, move.
I am going to start with our daily sport activities which began every mornging at 10:00 am after breakfast. Each day had another topic and they were built on each other. (01) The first day we did sports without movement and by ourselves. Jumping, stretching and sweating, all together but still alone. (02) The following day was about others and we had to choose a partner with whom we performed the given tasks. It was a lot of fun and together the exercises didn’t feel that hard. (03) The third day was about music. Up to now our sports activities were just accompanied by cheering and moaning, but that day our DJ (Antonio) provided good sounds. (04) On this day we were separated into five groups and had to fulfil several competitions – let the games begin. (05) Despite the forecast (snow and freezingly cold) we had a great walk to the city centre, like schoolkids divided into teams of two. Then we got an intense topic, like talking about love or what makes one happy/sad and after five minutes we had to switch partners. Thereby we again got to know other people better and we had great and meaningful conversations. (06) Again divided into groups we did a circle training with 6 stations. I cannot tell you how long three minutes can feel and how exhausting they can be. Just give it a try 😉 (07) The last day of the project was quite intense. Already before breakfast there were rumours about a hard workout. One and a half our later everyone broke down on the floor. Satisfied and filled with pure happiness. We all did a good job.

    

Hey buddy, hey what’s up.
On the very first day we had to choose a buddy who was from now on always by our side to support and help one another. During the program every participant set a personal goal and without my buddy I am not sure if I would have succeeded, but like that I did! I appreciated this concept very much and within days we became closer and closer. Additionally, there were five reflexion groups, each led by a team member, to talk about the daily experiences, problems and requests.

Yes, we can, yes I can!
I do not have enough time, I cannot do this, I am not good enough, et cetera…. There are so many excuses why we are hiding our light under a bushel. Throughout several aspects we learned to identify our excuses which stop us from doing what we want, reaching our goals and how to deal with them or even end them. Analysing your habits and excuses was quite intense and I will keep up doing it regularly and throwing them away. We are better than this. We can do anything we want. Just believe in you and put effort into reaching your dreams. 
Let’s just kill someone and grab a beer!
During our free-time we gathered together and played the well-known mafia game in the children area of the hostel lobby, went to grab some beers in a cozy bar around the corner, had funny as well as deep conversations, awesome live-music in the staircase and so much more. All in all, these intense days together brought a strong bondage in our group and to say goodbye at day 8 ways really hard. I cannot mention everything we did or describe the feeling you are going to have in such a project, or the impact it will have on you. Just one thing: DO IT, you will love it!

Yours, Anna

Basic Training for Trainers – our follow-ups :)

After coming home from „Basic Training for Trainers“ two events were organized to put into practice what we have learnt in Lecce and also to spread the spirit of and idea behind Erasmus+:

  • Happy thoughts! Workshop on happiness in daily life“ by Elisa and Nina, in Graz
  • High Performance Workshop: Gain Focus“ by Manuel, in Vienna

Happy thoughts!

On the 19th October both of us, Elisa and Nina, implemented our workshop under the title „Happy thoughts! Positiv denken im Alltag“ (=think positively on daily basis) in Graz. The workshop aimed to give an understanding how positive thinking can change the daily life and to provide tools which help to “get caught” in an upward spiral. The participants were encouraged to brainstorm about what makes them happy and what keeps them in positive mood and to share it with other people. With the help of visualization the participants got an idea of the upward and downward spiral. Moreover they got an theoretical input on “the happy chemicals” oxytocin, dopamine, serotonin and endorphin. It was explained what they are needed for and what provokes their production in the body. Afterwards the participants could experience some easy tools which can boost their mood in daily life. In the end it was showed how they can have an impact on themselves but also on the people around them and in their society.

In order to have this workshop take place we needed participants to join our event. We did not have much time actually as we were pretty spontaneous with the idea and date which is why we were more than happy to have a local youth center (Logo Jugendzentrum Graz) as support. In order to inform people about our event and invite them we created an open event on Facebook and told everyone we knew about it. Both of us met a week before to plan the programme of the workshop session, to prepare the materials needed and to distribute further planning and responsibilities. On the day of the workshop we met early to go through the schedule again, talk last things through and to prepare our location. We were a bit nervous before our workshop as none of the participants had experience with non-formal learning before – but everything worked out amazingly well! Everybody participated fully 🙂 We got lovely feedback right after the session but also some days later – and we definitely got our participants to be curious about Erasmus+ !

Selfie in the end! 

High Performance Workshop: Gain Focus

… „Use Meditation, master Transitions and take Power-Breaks to direct your spotlight!“. This was the title of my (Manuel’s) workshop, I (Manuel) that took place on 21st of November 2017 in the Catalysts office in Vienna. For this workshop I used formal and non-formal learning methods to give the participants information as well as hands-on practice on different methods and techniques to keep their focus on their doings during the day. 13 participants joined my workshop to reach their next level. The workshop took around 1h 15 min and started with an introduction of myself, why I chose this topic and a little energizer to activate the body and the mind of the participants, followed by the three topics to gain focus: Meditation 101, Master Transitions and Power-Breaks. Check out the slides here.

In general, I also talked about my experiences from the past (on how to improve myself and become a High Performer), why I chose the topic (I found lot of great information on my journey that helped me a lot, and I want to share it with others, such that they can improve their life too) and why I do this now (I did some trainings (e.g. Basic Training for Trainers) and I feel ready to do this kind of things and also the necessity to share the things I know… I want to make a transition from being a student to becoming a teacher).

I got a lot of great feedback from the participants and from some already know, that they used some methods I taught, to improve their performance and life. Big thanks to all participants for the active involvement in my workshop. I enjoyed it a lot! If you want to have more background information about my workshop and tips&tricks, read the Behind the Scenes here!

– Elisa, Manuel, Nina

Basic Training for Trainers – Lecce

From the 1st until 7th October wEUnite had the pleasure to prolong summer period by taking part in a training course entitled „B.T.T. – basic training for trainers“ in Lecce, Italy
Elisa, Manuel and Nina decided that this is their chance to start their career as trainers in the field of youth work and especially Erasmus+ projects. Having had a journey of approximately 24 hours all of them were happy when they finally arrived at the sunny venue and met the organizers and already some other participants.

Elisa, Manuel, Nina

Within those days we had around 60 hours of workshops, discussions, presentations and activities dealing with individual and group learning processes, needs assessment, learning styles, group dynamics, planning and implementing various activities and methods of non-formal education. 



Thinking back now, Elisa said that before coming to Lecce she was excited to learn what should be considered when designing a training and which are the concepts behind. Furthermore, she expected to find out about the tasks of a trainer and to get to know useful tools for being a trainer. And of course she was also looking forward to meeting a lot of interesting people. A tool that Elisa found very useful was working in the co-trainer support groups. It helped her to stay focused during the whole week and motivated her each day to work on her personal learning goals. In the evenings they met for reflection and talked about what has worked for everyone throughout the day and in which field they still want to improve. Having had this support system definitely boosted her motivation a lot.

What Manuel has learnt most from BTT is that imperfect action is better than perfect

inaction, especially when it comes to trying out something new or to step out of the comfort zone. One can’t plan everything, but it is good to be well prepared and to have a plan B in case things don’t work out as expected. Being good in improvising is a necessary skill for a trainer as well as letting participants decide by themselves how much they want to challenge themselves (challenge by choice). What he found surprising was that is it not as hard as it seems to facilitate a workshop because many things are repetitive and if one knows the basic concepts and methods the rest will just fall in place. But one shouldn’t forget that there is always more than meets the eye of a participant. There is a lot of work and preparation necessary in order to be successful in implementing activities.

After this week Elisa, Manuel and Nina know how to set SMART goals in order to be successful, how the circle of learning works and can be used, which phases groups usually go through, how to give and take feedback and how to implement activities by themselves, to mention a few.

Having taken a first step towards trainership (no it is not a ship with trainers on it), the Austrian participants also got valuable feedback on their own workshop sessions from other participants that they want to share here:


What makes Elisa a great trainer is that she always gives her best and can easily adapt to

Last evening – cheers to new trainers!

different situations. She is able to quickly find her place in a team, puts effort in setting goals and is a well-organized person that still stays flexible if needed. Her positive and supportive attitude are also appreciated qualities.

What makes Manuel a great trainer is that he is curious, creative and has a positive mindset. He asks whenever he isn’t sure about understanding things, creates a great atmosphere in a group and works hard in order to achieve goals. Manuel is also good in motivating people to give their best while giving everyone space to be part of a team.

What makes Nina a great trainer is that she explains things in a peaceful way, is good in accomplishing goals, knows how to organize herself and sessions and is supportive in every way. When leading a session she doesn’t lose control over it, she is consistent and combines learnings in a good way.


Thank you very much to L´Arca del Blues for organizing such an amazing project!  Your obviously tired and exhausted team Austria 🙂