The first mobility of the long term project "European Activist Factory" started by getting to know each other and building the team that will continue working together throughout the year.
Getting to know each other and the project
The kick off day of the first international activity was about getting to know the group and the project. Participants gathered in the morning for some ice-breakers where they first found out about the coordinating team behind the activity and their roles: Nik and Pavel will be the trainers for the week in charge of directing the groups’ learning process, Olalla will be responsible for the visibility of the project, Anna will help out with all the local practicalities and Carmen will be the coordinator who will maintain communication with partners about progress of the campaigns.
Who are the participants? Each of the 7 partner organisations (part of Shokkin Group International) sent 3 participants who will learn about social campaigning this week, and who will choose a topic/country for their campaign - relevant both for the local realities and for the international group. We discovered a mixed group, with participants who are actually coordinating their organisations, participants who are newly joined members, and some who are youth leaders. After a round of names, a second round of names and country, a third round of name-country-organisation and a forth round of name-country-organisation-role in the organisation, participants had to write 3 messages on pegs and then go around, meet the other and exchange pegs. At the end, each could pick their favorite message out of 3 and we read it out loud. Interesting themes came up: diversity, trust and friendship, as well as funny messages “You are crazy. You are reading a peg.”
The walk and talk session followed and we all went to explore the snowy, forestry area around while discussing about unusual topics (for a ‘first meeting’ at least). In pairs we asked each other questions and then we exchanges pairs, so we got to know a few people in the group. It was interesting to find out what was the most amazing thing people bought, what was the weirdest compliment people received or what they would ask God if they met her.
After a refreshing session where we broke some barriers between people in the group, we had an indoors team building exercise where each participant received a piece of information and the task was to put these together in order to figure out the answer for 2 questions. It was a successful experience showing good listening skills in the group, coordination, patience and structured thinking. Participants managed to fulfill the task and find the right answers in ~half of the time given.
The afternoon sessions were about getting to know the project, participants’ expectations of the week and getting a sense of the base knowledge they have about social activism and campaigning, non-formal learning and the work plan as a whole.
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