From February 23rd to 26th, we had the pleasure of hosting a group of 13 individuals in Barcelona, whose are responsible for the various facilities of the CEMEA organization in the Occitanie region, traveled from Nîmes, Montpellier, Perpignan, and Frontignan to learn about the Catalan associative and community network and its long history.
The practical training experience in Barcelona took place in the Poblesec and Eixample neighbours, where we organized visits and meetings with the Fundació Catalunya Voluntaria and two other organizations: the Mescladís Foundation and the Nexes Intercultural Cooperative. Their founders shared details of their personal and organizational journeys and the current state of their various programs, fostering a dialogue with the group of educators and experts in children’s and youth sociocultural activities.
On Tuesday, we spent the morning at the Casa del Mar presenting the Fundació Catalunya Voluntaria and its international mobility programs, sharing ideas for potential new collaborations. Led by its president and the activity coordinator, we proposed a simple yet original activity: participants had to choose 5 tools and resources from a list of 20 used by the FCV and briefly present them (such as the volunteer plan, the ‘ECOrasmus’ guidebook, or the ‘active listening’ game, for example). After it, we walked to the Mescladís Borrell Restaurant, where we enjoyed a presentation by its director, who shared his passion and experience in helping migrants, before savoring the daily menu (as proof of this, the following day the group decided to have lunch at the Mescladís restaurant at the Teatre Lliure in Montjuïc.)
On Wednesday morning, we spent the day at the El Sortidor Civic Center exploring different civic participation structures, analyzing the associative and corporate models, guided by the training manager from Torre Jussana. In the afternoon, we enjoyed the hospitality of the Nexes management team, who briefly presented their mobility, global justice, and peace culture programs, the Migrant Tour, and the game “The Change,” the result of a European initiative.
On the last day, before taking the train back to Montpellier, we had time to meet at the Casa del Mar to hand out the learning certificates and exchange details.
We take this opportunity to sincerely thank Mescladís, Torre Jussana, Nexes, and the ‘El Sortidor’ Civic Center for their collaboration and for opening their doors to us.
The visit, despite its short duration, served to strengthen the collaborative ties between FCV and CEMEA-Occitaine (an organization with which we have collaborated on two previous occasions), and to advance the preparation of new joint initiatives, which will take place very soon.
For more information about these types of activities, made possible thanks to the support of the European Commission’s Erasmus+ program, please email us at projectes@catalunyavoluntaria.cat