Cities of Learning Celebrating #ErasmusDays2020
The Network of Cities and Regions of Learning built the first version of the platform with the co-funding of the European Union Erasmus+ programme and local public grants. At the moment netwrok is running several international long-term projects. Thanks to Erasmus+ programme project partners can meet, create tangible outcomes and implement educational activities for youth and learning providers. So this year Ljubljana, Cagliari Metropolitan and Tilburg Cities of Learning wanted to emphasize the importance of this programme by celebrating #ErasmusDays. We talked with Giulia Degortes Caivano, project coordinator at Associazione Interculturale Nur in Cagliari, Italy and Sandra van de Kraak project coordinator at Breakthrough Foundation in Tilburg, The Netherlands.
So Guilia, how did it go?
In Cagliari we decided to brave the pandemic and organise an off-line event for Erasmus Days on Friday 16th, called Erasmus Days: Storie da non credere!, and even with some new Covid-19 restrictions in place, we managed to involve 20 participants!
We introduced the Erasmus+ programme together with experts from Europe Direct and CASMI, the committee of Sardinian associations for international youth mobility. We also talked about Cities and Regions of Learning and presented our platform, showing participants how to get their badge for attending.
Three youngsters who participated in some of our projects came to have a Q&A session and chat about their experiences, and then we tested the audience with an online Kahoot quiz – and learned that not many people know that Erasmus is actually an acronym! Four comedians from Stand-up Comedy Sardegna closed the show by performing some of their most intercultural jokes for our small but very engaged audience.
Sandra, how did it go in Tilburg?
In Tilburg we have had a diversity of 5 ErasmusDays events, also promoted via the Dutch National Agency. 7 Young people who took part in different Erasmus projects co-created the events. The aim was to have 3 online activities and 2 local activities. Due to Covid-19 we needed to transform the two local activities in online ones. From an interactive activity to get organisations on board for Cities of Learning, to an InstaLive with Sacha and At Jaimy, to a leadership training with Arnold and Samantha, we traveled further to Young people Talk and the Cities of Learning market. During the last activity young social entrepreneurs guided us through sport, relaxation, and a city game to support a better mindset. To be true, the quality that they delivered during the ErasmusDays activities was very high. It made me realise -again- how valuable ErasmusPlus is for young people and youth work.
Why Erasmus is important for your city development?
As many of our guests remarked, it’s very relevant for young people to learn about Erasmus+, especially now that we’re facing trying times and we can easily feel “trapped”. Gaining new skills and being open minded is becoming crucial, but living on an island can be limiting and opportunities to travel and learn from different environments are not always readily available to young people. That’s why we believe that Erasmus+, which creates such opportunities for everybody, is a very important resource.
How our cities are connected through Erasmus?
The Cities and Regions of Learning network couldn’t have been born without Erasmus+: the Metropolitan City of Cagliari is involved in two Erasmus+ projects within the network, CLYouth and Connected Cities of Learning, and cooperating for a long time with other cities, with similar goals and values, makes our partnership much stronger. Tilburg City of Learning is one of the first Cities that took part in the Network via Connected Spaces and is currently involved in Youth co-design Cities of Learning; Personal, Civic and Careerpathways.
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