Location: Cristuru Secuiesc/Romanya
Host: Youth Association from Transylvania (ATA)
Date: 04.11.2022-10.11.2022
The main objectives of this project are to bring together different organizations working in the same field, to create intercultural interaction and to enrich future cooperation. Throughout this activity, which was carried out by the participation of 15 partner organizations and 23 participants from 11 different countries, to create a partner pool for youth exchanges, long-term ESC volunteering projects and ESC team volunteering projects that were approved to be implemented in 2023 and 2024, and also to evaluate the project calls that can be applied in the future and to plan partnerships between organizations as well as offering a new synergistic environment.
About Sighisoara
Cristuru Secuiesc is a town in Romania, thirty minutes away from Sighisoara. For centuries, Sighisoara has played a crucial role on the edges of Central Europe, both strategically and commercially. In addition, the Romanian voivode Vlad Țepeș/Vlad Dracul, who is known as the father of “Vald the Impaler”, Dracula or a knight under the order of the Dragons, lived in this city during the Turkish invasion between 1431 and 1435. The house where Vlad Țepeş lived, which is the origin of the Dracula legend, has also become one of the touristic structures that attract the attention of many people.
My Project Experience
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In the early part of our networking meeting, we had the opportunity to get to know each participant and potential partners by playing inclusive and fun get to know games. At the same time, we discovered the small town called Cristuru Secuiesc.
Since the main purpose of the activity we participated in was to bein a bridge for establishing new connections, we discussed capacity building issues by sharing good practice examples in organizational management, defining the correct synergy, what and which institutions can be synergized with, the roles that organizations should acquire in synergies and the general distribution of tasks. We have seen adaptation forms in which each organization has the opportunity to present itself and its history, and it was good to see concrete examples on similar factors in the same work program can be adapted differently in different countries and locales in line with the needs of the organizations.
Apart from these, we have visited the local stakeholders of the hosting organization A.T.A. We visited the local sustainability activities in one of the greenhouse agriculture center, we met with high school manager and received many answers to our questions, we also visited the local disability center and we experienced the local environment as well as the realitiy of the working conditions so that when we are planning any future projects collaboration we can include the real image of the town and the local people’s needs.
In the following days of our program, the participating coordinator organizations that have youth accreditation in Erasmus+ projects and that have Quality Label in ESC projects have presented their projects which were approved by their national agency to be implemented in 2023-2024. Through this presentation, potential coordinating organizations emphasized the aims of the project and the correct target audiences and gave their potential partners the necessary expectation management. Meanwhile, organizations who were planning to become partners also had the opportunity to evaluate which projects they had the capacity to support organizationally at this stage, and had the opportunity to shape their agendas for the next years.