Proyecto Europeo

This is a summary of the Learning Partnership “Active Citizenship in Europe – ACE” supported by the European Commission.

The main aim of the project “Active Citizenship in Europe” (ACE) was to raise and improve the
level of awareness among adults of their rights as EU citizens and encourage them to exercise those
rights. This aim has been achieved through the intensive discussions at the four partner meetings
over the past two years and the methods developed in between the meetings and implemented at the
meetings. Developing and exchanging methods, workshops and different ways to approach the issue
of European Citizen Right in the four countries was a very successful way to activating different
target groups to engage more for that topic.
The four partner organizations of the project have developed several methods for this aim. One was
a survey designed by IFAID (Institut de Formation et d’Appui aux Initiatives de Development)
Aquitaine which was implemented by all of the partners to be able to assess the knowledge of EU
citizens’ rights and raise awareness of the issue. The online survey was completed in three different
languages (English, Spanish and French) at a European level, reaching the partners’ staff, their adult
learners, ex-pats and other people interested in the topic. The survey got 200 responses in total. It
did not only evaluate the level of knowledge but it also gave information about the rights of
European citizens. The survey was piloted and improved through the feedback obtained from the
participants. In the end, a technical paper was produced based on the results of the survey.
The other project partners conducted various activities to share information on the rights of EU
citizens within the framework of their organizations’ aims and objectives. The Centro del
Profesorado Bollullos-Valverde (CEP), as a teacher training centre, produced and implemented
an online course for teachers which delivers many resources to work on EU citizen rights. A
considerably high number of teachers participated and completed the 20 hours course which was
running for several weeks. Many of these learners went on to use the course in their own teaching
and learned to embed the EU citizenship in their courses/trainings. In addition, Dissens – Institute
for Education and Research re-produced two workshops whose aim was to bring the dimension of
values that work behind discrimination and how to combat these on the side of laws. Apart from
conducting the survey, IFAID embedded the European citizenship dimension in their English
language courses they offer in their institution. Furthermore Stichting voor Educatie -, Cultuuren
Migratie Onderzoek – SECMO organised four workshops at a vocational school in Eindhoven.
The vocational school, Summa College had a European day with the theme of “Borderless”.
SECMO was invited by the Summa College for a session to inform young adults about EU citizens’
rights. During the workshop, practical information was provided through a PowerPoint presentation
in addition to an informative and fun game about the rights of EU citizens. The workshops were
evaluated as very successful and beneficial by the students and teachers who took part in the
sessions.
All these outcomes have been tested during the partner meeting and the reflections of these testings
have been integrated into the final work on the products. This form of European cooperation
contributed to a nice way of making visible different perspectives on the same issue even if the final
version of the outcome was tailor made for the regional context.

The French ACE Partner IFAID Aquitaine embedded the European citizenship dimension in their English language courses they offer in their institution.

Ifaid_English_seminar

Results_report_1 Results_report_2

We performed the workshop As Real Life – Sexual and Gender Diversity in Europe in the group in our ACE-project meeting in Bordeaux. The aims of the workshop were firstly to introduce a dominance sensible approach in education on the issue of sexual and gender diversity, secondly to inform about the fact of sexual and gender diversity, and thirdly to develop first steps to empower groups of sexual and gender minorities. We prepared the workshop to deal with the question of European Union Rights from the perspective of values and norms, rather than actual rights. Sometimes living in a country with rights doesn’t guarantee that these rights apply to you. Some people also have some rights but not other. In our educational work Dissens – Institute for Education and Research try to look at the norms and values in our (different) societies in order to understand in what way people can be discriminated against, even if the rights are there, not only when the rights are lacking, and how to invent individual and political strategies to fight for the same rights for everyone on all levels.

Please use and don’t hesitate to spread the manual here: As Real Life – Sexual and Gender Diversity in Europe – Manual from Dissens e.V.

We have organized four workshops at Summa College Eindhoven on their “European Day” where the theme of this year was “Borderless”. The theme of the workshop matched perfectly with ACE project. Therefore we liked it to be there and to be part of it.

We would like thank for Peter Berkers who organized this day!

Here is our presentation which we have done…

ACE (Active Citizenship in Europe) 27 January

Here is the program of European Day at Summa College:

program summa college

presentatie 23 mei ACE project_gemeente Waalre

The project team has visited the municipality Waalre. We had meeting with Mrs. Hanneke Balk, Alderman of the city of Waalre and first vice Mayor, and Mr Kees de Zeeuw, member and vice chair of the city council of Waalre. We have shared our experiences about the European citizenship rights and we have learned the vision and the activities of the city of Waalre related to EU and EU citizenship rights…

We would like to thank to Mrs. Hanneke Balk and Mr. Kees de Zeeuw for their kind cooperation!