Month: June 2017

The Peace Project

Name of the Training: The Peace Project

Where: Loughborough, UK

When: 16.09.2017-24.09.2017

For Whom:  Anyone who is working with youth

 

 

This 8 days training course will bring 32 youth workers and youth leader from 8 European countries- UK, Greece, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Finland, Poland, Hungary, Latvia – to Loughborough and Leicester, UK, from 16-24 September 2017. It will provide a platform for participants to explore cultural and faith diversity through the face to face dialogue. It will equip them with tools for a successful facilitation of the intercultural dialogue and bringing communities together as well as raise awareness on vulnerability of young people to be groomed towards extremism and importance of community engagement as a resilience and counter force to radicalisation.

Who Can apply: Anyone working with youth with good english language skills and are over 18 years

Participation, Accommodation and Travel: Participation, accomodation and meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner) are all provided free of charge. the maximum amount for the travel is 275 euro.

If this sounds like a good opportunity  to learn and have new experience, Send us an email telling about yourself and why you want to participate in this traing. Our email address is info@stepeurope.org.

End of Season Party @Kaarina

StepEurope is organizing End of Season Party at Kaarina on 4th-5th July.We will all spend overnight at Vuolahti camp in a beautiful area in Kuusisto.  We are organizing this event so that we along with all of our volunteers are together to plan activities for upcoming autumn. Moreover, this is a real opportunity for all of us to get to know each other even more and have fun together.  

The event will be full of fun activities like summer olympics, BBQ, sauna, singing, dancing and much more

 

Experiences from an Erasmus Programme

I stumbled on an Erasmus+ programme by accident through StepEurope ry while I was volunteering for Red Cross (StepEurope’s cooperation organization). After realising that even I at my forties could take this opportunity to develop my skills, I applied immediately to the Entrepreneurship Laboratory training in Loughborough, a little but famous university town, nearby Leicester.

Preparations and joining this programme requires a bit of work if you wish to make the most of it. Our goal was to make start-up from the initial business idea which was presented at the beginning of the programme. This EntLab is only one example of what Erasmus can offer, there are programmes for younger people with agendas like cultural awareness and for graduates who wish to enhance their skills, just to mention a couple.

For joining an Erasmus programme abroad you normally need to book your flights and travel yourself, but you will get reimbursed this money when you arrive to the location or further along in the programme depending how long it is. Our EntLab had three onsite modules and two at home for a duration of nearly a year in 2016.

After arriving to Loughborough we met our fellow 32 participants from 8 different countries. It was a brilliant mix of people between 18-45 year old individuals, and I wasn’t even the oldest. Most important thing is to be open-minded and maybe 18 at heart… My roommates were from UK and Romania, and I created lifelong friendships during the programme, also I’ll always have a place to visit in these 8 different countries!

We had an international evening to kick start the programme and getting to know each other. Every country’s participants presented some facts about their culture, shared local food, or teached a local dance. Finnish people teached the others how to do ”Letkajenkka” among other things.

The days were long, but we were offered good lunch and dinner, along with some breakfast money which we were able to use how we wanted. The red thread in the programme was creating and working around a canvas model for developing a business model. This model gives an easy glance to the ideas and may be used also to social enterprises.

 

Copy of Fill in the gap- 30 years of Erasmus (I and II)
niina blog 2
niina 10
niina 12

After saying the days were long one shouldn’t forget that there is of course always room for parties, as we were given some free time and later mornings in the schedule.

We made some interesting excursions like visiting a hindu temple and ”the Golden Mile” in Leicester, and learned a lot from different cultures within a city in the middle of UK. By learning and respecting other cultures may give a huge advantage in how you approach your customers in your market, especially if you wish to go international.

Teambuilding day took us to an adventure park/manor nearby with beautiful landscape and fun exercises.

Dragon’s Den was one of the highlights of the programme where we had the chance to present our business ideas to succesful local entrepreneurs! This was the first time I’ve ever made a promotional video, so even this was a learning experience.

All in all this was an excellent programme, and my only wish is that I would have found Erasmus years ago! I can only recommend Erasmus trainings, especially to young people; do take the opportunity to see the world and learn in an inspiring environment with great people and skillfull trainers!


This is why I’m now volunteering with StepEurope and hope to create awareness about these opportunities to others.

More information about Erasmus+ programmes: https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/erasmus-plus/individuals_en

– Niina

Superball Turnaus

Superball tournament / outdoor games 8.6 at 2-5 PM in Kupittaa the field next to the Hesburger.
Superball tournament is a playful football tournament (we have special ball for the tournament). Beside that we have other outdoor games, surprise and some snacks. The event is open for everyone!

The event is arranged in cooperation with Ehjä ry. Please sign up by adding yourself to the participants list of this event in our facebook page.

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