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I will break free – Estonia

By Nina Bianca Dohr 27. März 2018

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
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I like to move it, move it! Youth Exchange

By Nina Bianca Dohr 7. März 2018
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

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Elisa & Ibrahim

By Manuel Geier 20. Oktober 2017

Elisa

Hi, my name is Elisa and I am from Deutschlandsberg. I am 21 years old and I study Sustainable Food Management at the FH Joanneum in Graz. In my free time I enjoy organizing and taking part in Erasmus plus projects, doings sports like mountain biking, travelling and spending time with my friends and family. I also love being in the nature, cooking and Spanish and Italian language.

What do I like about youth projects?
My first project was the European Voluntary Service in Santiago de Compostela. It was an amazing year and the start of my “Erasmus life”. Taking part in these kind of projects gives me a lot of new perspectives of life, makes me meet amazing people, allows me to travel all over Europe and encourages me to develop myself. Organizing Youth Projects gives me the opportunity to share all that with young people and to give back what I receive.

What have I experienced by taking part in Youth Projects?
I experienced how diverse Europe is and how many things we have in common. I experienced that stepping out of my comfort zone can lead to great results and is definitely worth it. I experienced that there are a lot of people who follow their dreams and work everyday on their goals they want to reach – and that I can do that as well. I experienced that strangers become friends in a couple of days and spend an amazing time learning together.

Why am I part of wEUnite and who told me about it ?
This summer I applied for a project in which wEUnite was the Austrian partner. So I met Nina for a chat over a cup of coffee. We immediately grew sympathy for each other and were all sure that our collaboration would turn out to be successful. I hope to collaborate with wEUnite in a lot of projects in the future.

Ibrahim

Ahoi ! My name is Ibrahim. I`m 23 and I live and study in the beautiful, chill city of Klagenfurt. I`m a psychology student who likes to read in empty libraries, working out when the gym is not so crowded and to sleep when it’s snowing cats and dogs outside. For the time being, getting my bachelor and other self-improvement activities are the center of my attention.

What do I like about youth Projects?
I love the diversity of people and their Ideas and World-views. People and their stories are very interesting for me as there`s always an idea, a though or a perspective that’s new to me. I also love how relatively fast one can make life-long friendships during projects. I met amazing people and I know that there is still new and interesting people for me to meet.

What have I experienced by taking part in youth projects?
Its very hard to express what I experienced in youth projects. Shortly said, I`ve experienced self-development, meeting great people and learning from them.

Why am I part of wEUnite and who told me about it?
My amazing friend Tini introduced me to a wEUnite project that tackled a very interesting topic, which was youth leadership. The Project`s Title was “Desire to inspire” and it was the first project that I took part on with wEUnite and that proved to be a very good decision.

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Desire To Inspire – Leadership training

By Nina Bianca Dohr 16. Oktober 2017
Some week ago, from 15th until 22nd of September 23 people from Austria, Italy, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Macedonia and Malta gathered in Klagenfurt for the training course under the title “Desire To Inspire”. This training course was based on the importance of leadership in everyday life situations and even more on those appearing in youth work. The focus was put on methods and aspects for and about leading groups, but also on how to present oneself and behave in order to be respected.

In order to make this week as great as possible and a secure learning environment the first one and a half days were dedicated to the topic of getting-to-know each other and building a team out of this group of people. Having been blind-folded, for example, was part of a trust- and team building activity and from the trainer’s perspective definitely made those 20 participants an amazingly strong team for the upcoming days.

Each day had a different topic such as group dynamics, live action role play, myself as superhero and overall leadership. Aside from theory we tried to give the stage to participants and let them learn by putting into action their new knowledge and receiving feedback for further improvement. Everyone was so into the topic that even offered free time was used to keep on doing workshops and discussing topics of the sessions.

Together we all got new perspectives and a bigger understanding of leadership and its importance in youthwork. Having had the chance to discuss about and work on this topic intensively I can definitely say I’ve improved my skills and learnt from everyone of the 22 other people there.

 Besides working there was also time for cultural exchange, game nights and story telling in the evenings.


And here are some impressions about Desire To Inspire:

Aleksandra, Macedonia

„The DTI was an unforgettable experience for me. Things that I have learned there about leadership, team work, trust and friendship were surprisingly amazing. The organization was perfect, the group was like one big hearted family and I can honestly and truly say that I had the time of my life, time filled with lots of fun,crazy games, laughter and inspiration. We were many deferences connected together in one perfectly big puzzle.“ 

Kristina, Slovakia

„Desire To Inspire was the first training course I participated in but given my previous experience with youth exchanges, I kept my expectations low. The projects I’ve been to before were great but their organisation was rather disappointing. That’s why I was so amazed when I saw all the effort wEUnite made to make sure everything is prepared and on point. We had all we needed (or even more) and we got the opportunity to improve our soft skills & leadership skills. The activities we did were always innovative and enriching so I really enjoyed each one of them. Besides that, I’ve also made many new friends and got to know myself better. Thank you for everything !“

Krzysztof B., Poland

„Desire to Inspire was quite a special training. Each activity and workshop managed to help the participants in learning something new about working with groups, about being a leader as well as what happens when there is no leader. IT was an amazing privilege to take part in it.“

Manuel G., Austria

„The training gave me a lot of opportunities to practice leadership, as well as being a follower and possibilities to support others. I put my focus also on communication with people in terms of helping them to see their potentials and how they can enable it. Furthermore, I took special opportunities from the organizers to facilitate and lead workshops which gave me the confidence to be able to perform on different stages in front of people in future and to create and facilitate activities and workshops for other people to help them to improve themselves. During this training I improved my skills to be in lead by being authentic, pro-active, open-minded, team-oriented and a role-model in order to successfully achieve goals. Thanks a lot to all organizers for realizing this great training! It was a pleasure to be part of it!“

Lucy, Czech Republic

„The training course DTI influenced my personality a lot. We were busy but as I am retrospecting, I am appreciating it at the same time. Now I believe in myself much more but what is more important, I met people who are like me and they are my friends now.“

Triinu, Estonia

„I went to training course with high hopes, and I was pretty surprised at the end of the week – my expectations weren’t just fulfilled, but exceeded. I learned so much in such a short period of time and I experienced so many things and feelings. All this thanks to the team and magical group of people that we had. <3 blockquote="">




A very big, big thank you from the whole team behind this training course! It was great to work together and we hope to see you soon in one place or another 🙂
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United We Win – our follow-up :)

By Nina Bianca Dohr 3. September 2017
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