Yes We Can Erasmus Project

Project Title

Yes We Can

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for adult education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Inclusion – equity

Project Summary

We expected 8 organizations to learn and implement at least 1-2 new approaches to the inclusion of people at risk of social exclusion from partner organizations, suitable for implementation in their daily work and for the benefit of their beneficiaries.

We have written a “Good Practice Guide” according to our project achievements and shared the results of the project. Where possible, due to the pandemic situation, we made a short film to present implementation stories. We also created photos of the implementation sessions via ZOOM and recorded the, Yes We Can project coordinator meetings there. The videos and photos were posted on the DOM Foundation’s YouTube channel as well as the project website and the websites of individual partners. The project involved 84 repeated individuals.
The result of the project is the active cooperation of the participating organizations after the end of the project.
The products of the project are reports, all the materials collected for the “Good Practice Guide”, videos of the events and videos of our classes.
Going back to the memories of the TPMs during the project, we recall all the knowledge we gained. In Cagliari, it was the laughter yoga classes, even though this doesn’t seem like a common way to interact with vulnerable people it was a lesson that changed our theories as we observed how much it made people feel better and how it opens them up to the world. In the Nuoro area, when we saw how local women make bread in a small village because they didn’t know how else to make a living and then send it to the rest of Sardinia to have something to live on was also very inspiring and made us think about how you can turn your limitations into an advantage. In Poland, we were educated in a craft that helped people over 70 to keep their minds active. In Cyprus, we learned about single parents who make a living by expressing themselves, writing articles in local media, painting, playing football, practising Aqua aerobic. Back in Luxembourg, we attended the annual Festival of Cultures, which was a very interesting, inspiring experience for us that all the immigrants living in Luxembourg can use their culture to create great festivals that attract the whole world. In Bucharest we took part in culinary workshops – we worked in international groups cooking dishes from our countries. We learned how to make fine pasta or curry. We learned about the methods used by an organization from Romania to preserve the culture, art and language of the Arumun people and how to adapt music and art to bring people together and stay active. In Sardinia, we were also able to visit our partners’ workplace, a prison for long-lived inmates who, as you might expect, are less accepted in society, but we were lucky enough to see how they teach them so many different skills, such as computers, languages, math, and even how to produce milk from animals, care for them, and then make cheese. That way, when they eventually return to freedom, they will have the skills to take on legal work. London coordinators working with African women who have been victims of violence have taught us that digital or language lessons are also great tools in today’s world. These are just a few of the many skills we discovered through this challenging but wonderful program. Its multicultural experience proved to be a great asset for people who are on the brink of exclusion to take on challenges and show flexibility and readiness for new situations in challenging circumstances. This is what our work was about, to find ways to educate, create or find their skills to create opportunities for them to be part of society.
This was not only educational for the excluded people, but also for all of us, as it gave us international adaptability and intercultural sensitivity and developed our ability to maintain effective relationships with people from different national backgrounds while remaining impartial and demonstrating cultural awareness and excellent communication skills.
Learning to share our ideas, doubts, concerns and ways of education was very inspiring and a unique contribution to building an effective team. We tested our skills, ideas and abilities in a multinational work environment that proved more effective than distant theories.
It was not an easy program and did not go as we had originally hoped due to Covid 19 and the year-long hiatus from meetings. The technology age was a gift to the coordinators because if they needed to communicate with each other on some urgent matter, we had Whatsapp, messenger and emails and Zoom as a substitute for real-world meetings

Project Website

http://yes-we-can.com.pl

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 105675 Eur

Project Coordinator

FUNDACJA DOM & Country: PL

Project Partners

• Agape Social Cooperative Onlus
• Towarzystwo Wolnej Wszechnicy Polskiej Oddzial w Lublinie
• MAISON D’AFRIQUE
• Pancyprian Association of Single Parent Families & Friends
• CENTRO PROVINCIALE DI ISTRUZIONE PER ADULTI NUORO
• Women’s Association For African Networking and Development
• Comunitatea Armana din Romania – filiala Bucuresti