Community Goes Europe – Kick-Off Meeting

Opora is partner to a two year-project aimed to empower local communities in 6 European countries: Germany, Spain, Portugal, Belarus, Ukraine and Russia and to strengthen a sense of European community across borders. This project includes meetings, trainings and exchange of long-term volunteers; in its framework, Opora will welcome Jan Bergmann, a German volunteer, for 12 months.

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The very first activity of the project took place in Erfurt, Germany from 31st July to 5th August with the “Kick-Off Meeting”, a meeting of about 25 coordinators and people involved in the project. The aims: get acquainted, agree on common bases for the project (communication, methodology, outcomes) and visit local organisations in Erfurt.

Opora was represented by Arthur, the local coordinator for the project, and Alexander who will mentor the volunteer during his year-project. Alexander was taking part in such a meeting for the first time, it was for him the occasion to discover the work of European project managers and to get more information on his role of mentor. As for Arthur, he got very inspired by the local initiatives in Erfurt and by the system of badges, an inovative way to evaluate the progress of the volunteers in their projects. More about the badges here.

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The next step is to welcome Jan in Yoshkar-Ola and start working on reconnecting local communities and organising activities for and with local volunteers.

Along with Opora, here are the partners of this project:

Community Goes Europe is funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Commission, and the Ministry of Education of the Land of Thuringe in Germany.