Our organization is proud to have organized and hosted this training course in Pesaro. And do you know what is the most beautiful thing? We were back in presence! Even with all the sanitary cautions given by the Italian government we have felt again what it is like to be part of a big group.
We can definitely say that it has been a really intense week, sun kissed at least.
The training course has developed during a whole week from the 7th to the 14th of September 2021 and with our colleagues from all over Europe, in this occasion we explored the city, had meetings with the municipal administration, well, we took our contagious enthusiasm everywhere!
The goals of our training were lots, but every each of them was included into the words “social transformation”. Our trainers, Laura and Sebastian indeed, have started from a very simple principle, better to say a shape: a triangle. It is the symbol of some key points of our course, like social behaviour, context and social attitudes. It is needed to be really attentive to each of these three aspects in order to have a real change in the society where we live.
Another fundamental concept for us was the analysis of context of our local communities. If we stop observing what our social environment needs it will be even easier to think about a campaign for a project directly related to the needs of the collective. A concrete example of that it was the meeting with the council member for Solidarity, Sara Mengucci from Pesaro city that has showed us all the various activities and collaborations to which the city is trying to encounter the citizens needs. Between the numerous collaborations there was one of great success with the activists Camilla Murgia and Lorenzo Guccini, who then showed us their past projects and between them the project “Aradia” that was focused on the redevelopment of an area of the Miralfiore Park of Pesaro. From their vision they built a group with the same goals, through a defined strategy to give new life to an abandoned public space. A perfect example for each of us on how each of us can start a change.
And that is what we as part of the training group, through sessions of non formal education, concrete project planning, and above all sharing ideas and future goals, tried to make, training us to be able to create change into our communities.
At the end of the seven days we became a group, other key word. We achieved to have the same goal, such as trying to take with us to our countries all over Europe something new, little things, little gestures that put together can become a tsnunami of ideas that we hope can inspire more people to make the change an unstoppable wave, linked to the present needs of our times.
To conclude and make you better understand how much this training course has changed us, I leave you here some thoughts from some of our participants:
“The training was great. I learned a lot about social transformation, change making and volunteering. I am interested in refugee integration in the local community, and this training provided me with some thoughts on how to move forward. That change is not easy to make, but we can do it. It requires strategy, persistence and awareness of the society in which we work.”
(Kanishka Wahidi- Head of Research Unit for National Solidarity Programme NSP)
“The training course was such a beautiful experience and a clear example of non formal education typical of the Erasmus+ program. We did some team working through some dynamics about the topic of the training such as social transformation, analyzing the core meaning and then the key factors to be put into action. We have met the council member of solidarity and then we met some activists, that gave us the best example of how people with the same goal can make good to their local community. At the end of the course we have been encouraged to find some more ideas and then to make them happen.”
(Fernando Gonzalez- mentor of Vicolocorto Association)
“The seminar was really important for me. On the one hand it was my first experience as a participant with so many people from so many different countries after Covid. I think somehow we were all eager to socialize and exchange ideas with the others. On the other hand, I was very interested in learning about community change and that part has been especially interesting from my perspective. Sebastian had the perfect balance between theory and non formal tools, and I took many outcomes from the work we made. Being in this moment also allowed me to think to the future and ask myself what kind of job I want to develop. Last but not least, the group became a learning community. We were really united in this experience and this made it become even richer, if possible!”
(Rebeca De Soignie – Oviedo)
Thanks again to all those who have participated and contributed to make this week so productive. We go back home with our luggage full of new ideas, new enthusiasm and want to do. And a huge and proper thank you to our two phenomenal trainers Laura and Sebastian for having taught us and inspired us to believe in the future.
Giulia
Vicolocortini 