Local dissemination conference in Sfântu Gheorghe

The event was organised in partnership with the Suppedito Ltd., the professional partner from Romania in the UPLIFT project and under the patronage of the Municipality of Sfântu Gheorghe and the Covasna County School Inspectorate.

The main objective of the meeting was to inform the local educational experts about the findings of the UPLIFT project in Sfântu Gheorghe and to invite them to a co-creation process regarding the sustainability of the project and the implementation of the action plan designed in the Reflexive Policy Agenda.

Participants were teachers, headmasters, school councillors, psychologists from five local high-schools, together with the representatives of the institutional and of the youth group, co-creator partners of the Sfântu Gheorghe Reflexive Policy Agenda.

The first half of the conference was dedicated to the presentation of the European and local context of the project with special emphasis on the findings of the research and on the priorities of the RPA that define some of the development principles in education in Sfântu Gheorghe.

The conference was opened by the Chief Inspector of the Covasna County School Inspectorate, followed by the Vice Mayor of the city of Sfântu Gheorghe who talked from a double perspective: as representative of the main decision making authority from the city and as participant in the Uplift project on behalf of the institutional group. The colleagues of the Sepsi LAG continued the presentation with the research in the framework of the WP3 and the priorities of the RPA in the framework of the WP4.

The second half of the conference was dedicated to the co-creation process of the participants. Based upon their registration forms, six working groups were created: one for each priority, except for priority number 1 and two groups for priority number 3. Each working group received an action planning form with a few questions and in the next one and half hour they worked on some very concrete ideas that they would implement in their schools or in several schools regarding the given priority.

The last session before lunch break was similar to a pitch where all the groups presented to the public their ideas, underlining the relevance of the proposed activity to the given priority and to the principle of co-creation in decision making. The most beautiful moment of this session was that in two cases the presenting members from the working group were two youngsters from the vulnerable youth board formed during the UPLIFT project.

The final session of the conference was a feedback round where all participants could offer their opinion about the project, the process and about their work in the small groups. Most of the feed-backs offered by educational experts who hadn’t been part of the Uplift project were that they felt empowered and full of energy, they had their hope given back and that they were grateful that they understood that pupils, youngsters can be involved in planning and implementing and the act of teaching and learning is full of possibilities that they intend to explore in the future.