Around the Networks: Partnership Building Activity in Madeira

From 22nd to 26th November, Arianna Perry Moore, the current ESC volunteer of GEN Europe, attended the Partnership Building Activity in Madeira, representing GEN Europe, Yes to Sustainability, and NextGEN. Dive into her report on the fruitful days spent on a sunny island!

For this Partnership Buidling Activity of organisations, 14 people gathered together to represent NGOs from Hungary, Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Italy, Lithuania, Portugal and Spain.

Already on the first evening, conversations were lively and friendly – among partners who had worked together before and those were welcoming to new faces. We were hosted by Teatro Metaphora, an organisation developing cultural, educational, and environmental activities for the benefit of the local community’s development. The group was small and intimate enough that it became easy to find comfort and ease fast and conversations could drop deeper.

On the first day, we mainly spent time getting to know each other and collected data & statistics about project-related topics through playfully interviewing each other. We presented ourselves and our organisations. The topics of work covered an impressive and inspiring range: work with youth who face obstacles and those from migrant backgrounds, entrepreneurship and social inclusion, global citizenship education, sustainability, human rights, gender issues, community building, advocacy, sex education, and more. To prepare ourselves best for entering into project work together, we shared discussions on a meta-level about our best and worst experiences in project partnerships, and created a list of tips for entering into thriving, symbiotic relationships!

Our second day became more targeted. We dove into a thorough presentation of the Erasmus+ funding streams to gain clarity and vision for the kind of support we can get for our projects and partnerships. This led directly into brainstorming topics and project ideas. We began to find commonalities among our interests, and divided ourselves based on our most burning excitements into working groups to begin drafting and developing project ideas. At the end of the first day, there was a creation of 4 new project structures, with at least 3 project seeds waiting in the background for another time.

On the third day, we presented our project ideas to each other and exchanged feedback and questions. Still, we made time for a second round of new working groups to develop ideas on a second topic. Again, another 5 projects were drafted and then presented to the group for feedback.

In general, the group was focused, goal-oriented, open, welcoming, collaborative, and engaged. The various amounts of experience present within the group gave richness to the experience, bringing both fresh perspectives and valuable knowledge. We were extremely effective given the short period of 3 days, and there remains a lot of potential and shared interests within the group to work on future projects for coming deadlines in 2025!

Organizer of the PBA: Andreea-Loredana Tudorache, A.R.T. Fusion Association

NGOs present: 
Teatro Metaphora (Portugal, hosting organisation)
A.R.T. Fusion (Romania)
Zarika, Sustainable for the Future Foundation (Bulgaria)
Stebèk Teises (Observe Rights) (Lithuania)
anthropolis.hu (Hungary)
Two Plus Two (Italy)
Giosef Torino (Italy)
Youth Bridges Budapest (Hungary)
Wieliczka Consortium (Poland)