ACTion in Sofia

On the 20th month of the project implementation, the partners finally gathered for a two-day partner meeting! HESED welcomed representatives of Action Sinergy from Greece, Nexus Institut from Germany, SEGA from North Macedonia, our colleagues and friends from Open Space who are developing project activities in northern Bulgaria. An important guest at the meeting was the external evaluator of the project from the UK.

On the first day the partners visited the MIR center of HESED in the Faculteta, Sofia. Our guests got acquainted with the services in the community center and took a walk around the neighborhood. In the spirit of the project, the first day of the meeting was held in hybrid with the special participation of Gabriela Ruseva from ALL Digital (Belgium) directly from Brussels.

On the second day the meeting continued in the House of Europe, with the courtesy of the Head of the European Commission Representation in Bulgaria.

Within the two meeting days we had the opportunity to discuss the piloting of the methodologies created within the project, to share the challenges we have met and the successes we have achieved.

We exchanged ideas how to activate young people from vulnerable communities in different national contexts, how to reach out different stakeholders, including politicians and youth policy experts. We became acquainted with the geography of Bulgaria while discussing all the points of piloting the methodologies of the project.

We paid special attention to the assessment of the first wave of piloting and planning the next steps in this process.

We were glad to learn that the OPIN online platform is almost ready to accept the first youth activists from our country with functionality in Bulgarian.

The mobile app F. I. R. E is in final stage of development and will soon present attractive digital training for young people on the topic of “Active Citizenship”.

Working with young people is very challenging, but it also brings a lot of fun and above all satisfaction with the results achieved!

We look forward to the next partner meeting in Athens in April 2023!