On February 14th and 15th, the COPE Interim Stakeholder Conference took place in Zagreb, hosted by Project Partner European Foundation for Philanthropy and Society Development. Alice Moreira, project manager on SHINE went to Croatia to participate in this Conference focused on debating three major challenges that COPE project will face in the near future:
- NEET engagement strategies: success experiences of NEET engagement and how can they be replicated;
- Intervention implementation strategies: develop partnerships between community assets and local health, social care, and employment services to create a network of support for NEETs;
- Sustainability strategies: address challenges related to funding, human resources and measurement.
During these two days, the COPE project involved a group of stakeholders from different institutions and countries, that actively contributed to achieving the objectives of this event and to its success.
On the first day, after the Project and Consortium Overview and the Relational Proximity Community Network Development presentation, the invited stakeholders were given the floor and moved on to professional presentations, their realities and their contributions to the COPE project in each of the three themes in focus – NEET Engagement Strategies, Intervention Implementation Strategies and Sustainability Strategies.
The group of stakeholders present – Massimo Pellegrini (Educator), Andrea Largaiolli (Educator/ Youth Trainer), Maddalena Recla (Project Manager), Michele Rossi (Educator/ Youth Trainer & COPE Link Worker), Mónica Sousa (Psychologist & Researcher), Elena Colbacchin (Psychologist & Labour Market Operator), Jana Eckert (Co-director and Project Manager) and Ilaria Simonelli (Health Sociologist, PhD) – participated in a Group Session to develop action strategies regarding the themes in focus introduced above, followed by plenary feedback and an open discussion.
After a day rich in sharing and learning, the COPE project partners and stakeholders gathered for a convivial dinner!
On the second day of the Stakeholders Conference, after the contributions gathered the previous day, the group of participating stakeholders was invited to elaborate an “action plan”, with a proposal of concrete actions for the development of the three themes in focus: NEET engagement strategies, intervention implementation strategies and sustainability strategies.
To conclude the morning’s work, the COPE Project Coordinator (PAT) thanked all participants for their contributions and sharing, resulting in excellent for the project!
To end the day and close the Stakeholders’ Conference, COPE project partners and stakeholders visited Health IT Academy Krapina in Zagreb, an institution that is developing a programme to help the unemployed and the health industry that cannot find profiles to employ, including, in an IT Centre, unemployed people in the academy to develop activities in the areas of Java programming and IT analysis for medical informatics. They also develop the “Youth can do it all” project, with different activities in the NEET Centre, including a street campaign, soft skills workshops, a job club and social mentoring and job shadowing.
In the end, with the new perspectives, learning and sharing of experiences, the C.O.P.E. project came out richer and with results that will certainly contribute to the creation of the best solutions for NEETs!