From 1th to 4th of June 2023 we held our joint-staff-meeting in Potsdam (Germany) in the frame of our project „Emerging communities“
Our fifth (and the last)joint-staff-meeting within the framework of this project we held in Potsdam at the beginning of June 2023. Meeting was hosted by our association INWOLE, which is also coordinating organization of the whole project.
Project „Emerging Communities: Empowerment for social engagement, self-organization and development of local solutions“ gathers 8 partners from 6 European countries: INWOLE (Potsdam, Germany), Im Wandel (Berlin, Germany), Ethos NGO (Odensee, Denmark), Communitism (Athens, Greece), GKP (Novi Sad, Serbia), Italia che Cambia (Torino, Italy), Open cultural center (Barcelona, Spain) and Ethos – Thessaloniki (Thessaloniki, Greece).
At the core of our project is empowerment for social engagement and citizens participation in relation to the development of sustainable communities, neighborhood initiatives and local spaces and networks. This includes the ability to take active roles in the political, social and urban-development processes relevant for the local community, develop cooperative models of social welfare and housing and solidary economy designs that generate income and financial sustainability, as well as to find solutions relevant in the sense of ecological sustainability.
Within 4 days of programme in Potsdam, participants have had an opportunity to be introduced with the work of INWOLE– our topics, goals and problems we are dealing with, target groups and methods, as well as solutions we have developed in the course of the years, some of ourlocal partnerships and networks.
The best part of the joint-staff-meeting was possibility for participants to take part in the „Day of the open door“ of INWOLE, our (already traditional) annual manifestation, where we open our door for the public and present the whole variety of workshops and other activities we´re conducting in our facility. There was no better way to experience the whole scale of educational projects, and in the same time to enjoy in a good food and lounge music in our garden!
Especially appreciated were many opportunities to discuss everything in detail with other participants and members of the host organization, compare experiences and good practices, and possibilities for further development of our concepts and their impact on other stakeholders, both in civil society and beyond.
We used this meeting as an opportunity to brainstorm further possibilities for our cooperation, especially in the digital realm by contemplating what could be called digital communities!
Our project activities continued right after, with all of the participants traveling together to our final evaluation meeting in Denmark!
Photos: Clara Florensa, Lorena di Maria, Branka Curcic, Petar Atanackovic
Project „Emerging communities“ is co-funded through Erasmus+ Program for adult education of European Union.