LLP HEARTS

HERITAGE EMPOWERING AFFECTIVITY, REVALUING TRADITIONS AND SOLIDARITY

HEARTS project is one that belongs to the Grundtvig program. The main objective of this project is to remember and transfer to new generations of European heritage diversity, highlighting affectivity and solidarity traditions, by seniors to other citizens at risk, throughout a self collaborative learning. Also we want to improve competencies: ICT basics and teaching; mother language; intercultural and inter-generational communication; arts and crafts.

We are four organizations from Romania, Italy, Turkey and Greece which want to take a step to a better knowledge of the culture and the heritage of each of these countries by perpetuating them from generation to generation. During a period of two years we will act as a team, we will work together in order to fulfill the aims of this project and finally, to bring more unity in Europe. This is the aim of the European countries. This is our aim!

The partner from Romania: Bucovina Guides Association
The partner from Italy: AIM Network
The partner from Turkey: The Association of Developing and Supporting Public Education
The partner from Greece: Computer House

The main subject is to promote the cultural diversity revaluing the heritage from partner, focused at affectivity and solidarity traditions, to empower persons and communities identity and enhance their social inclusion and development.

Main problems are seniors isolation, demotivation and low recognition as society enriching citizens, lack of learning opportunities supporting more active and creative live, namely to overcome the digital impairment and improve European belonging relationship; the same time younger citizens will have a real chance to deep their own cultural identity and reinforce as well the European diversity belonging, improving traditions sapience skills, strengthening also their social inclusion pathways.

Participants selection aims to gather senior people from a range of backgrounds, to maximize groups and EU inter-groups diversity. This includes ensuring a gender balance; age balance (up from 50 years old), belonging to social groups at exclusion risk in majority, wiliness to learn, change life style and social commitment; also the selection of sharing group takes in account proximity, peers learning, motivation to improve social and heritage related competencies, positive interaction with seniors and intercultural groups.

After organizing the learning system the project start with the learning community of practice integration by the seniors and sharing groups outlined activities. The focus of the learning process will be on the learners group, processing their self learning active aging practices, with a focus on specific methodologies, objectives and tasks planned as an itinerary to support their progress in acquiring and incorporating personal, group and social key competencies and implementing the solidarity initiatives. Success means their involvement by participation, feelings, social commitment and proactive behavior. The sharing group peer to peer learning involvement is a key aspect of the project, and the mobilization of social resources from involved organizations, because they bring inter generational mutual understanding and cooperation, as well as community cohesion. The roles of facilitators of these sharing groups as role models is also exceptionally important to the overall individuals and group learning process, complementing the continuous self-assessment and – observation, reflection and debate. This will enable the facilitators to understand better the learners? situations, needs and interests, fill the gaps in their knowledge and reinforce awareness. Another challenge is to ensure learners intercommunication and exchanges across the EU partnership groups, that is another big challenge to prove their successful involvement. The learner groups are expected to take the reins and guide the implementation of the activities, both locally and through mobility.

The project is taking in account expertise partners could transfer for each planned activity, making it available for the all partners? teams, to be experienced by the project and reincorporated into their own activities by all participating individuals and organizations. The ultimate gains would be to prevent the marginalization and discrimination of seniors community.

The first meeting of Hearts ? Heritage Empowering Affectivity, revaluing Traditions and Solidarity, project have took in Ferrara Italy from 13th till 16th December 2012. At this meeting were present the partners from Turkey, Romania, Italy and Greece. We were aqa number of 20 persons, more exactly: six from Turkey, seven from Romania, one from Greece and six from Italy.

The partner associations are:
Italy: AimNetwork, Ferrara
Greece: Computer House, Tripolis
Romania: Bucovina Guides Association, Suceava
Turkey: Bolu Halkin Egitimini Gelistirme ve Destekleme Dernegi, Bolu

THE AGENDA OF THIS MEETING:

Thursday 13.12.2012
In the first evening, we had the arrival of the groups from Turkey and Romania and the mutual presentation of the participants.
During the workind dinner, participants talked to each other about their groups and about the project;in particular, they examined the proposals and possibilities about the second meeting, not yet assigned. Everyone agreed with the proposal to hold the meeting in Romania, preferaly in second week of May, to avoid the costly periods of Easter.

Friday 14.12.2012
The whole day?s work took place at the Elderly Social Center ?Il Melo?.
The project partners presented their country and their activities, using short videos and PowerPoint presentations. Lavinia Prosciuc presented
After the lunch, the participants had a guided tour of the center and Gianni Bonaccorsi, the responsible for the gardens showed us the vegetables gardens of the old people. Later on, in the meeting room, Luciano Federici, the president of the Social Center ?Il Melo?, talked about the history of the Center, the number of the associates, the activities and the participants to the different activities (gardening, dancing, pool, cultural travelling, health groups and others), highlighting the need for an intergenerational collaboration; with him, Michele and Edmo, members of the centre, illustrated the respective areas.

The coordinator of the project, Nicoleta Robiuc, explained the objectives that need to be achieved as a result of the first meeting, and the various tasks to be assigned. The logo of the project was approved; the participants discussed the BlogSpot, prepared by the Romanian association. A webs.com page is preferred to a website, for the lower cost and for the persistence and availability of the documents on web. All the products of the project will be available on the http://hearts2012.webs.com.

Assessment is one of the tasks of this phase of the project; Ms Maria Cristina Turola, from the Italian partner presented a preliminary semi-structured questionnaire, aimed to collect information on the potential aged learners. Furthermore, the Italian partner will be soon prepare a similar questionnaire for youngster by Valentina Muceli and Ilaria Bimbo in their quality of psychologists. The coordinator proposed that all groups should work on this schedule, suggesting changes or additions peculiar to their situation/culture. The agreed deadline is 31st of January 2013.

In the case of the evaluation of the quality of life, the Italian group suggested the use of a standardized instrument, the WHOQol – bref (26 items), a free, self-administered questionnaire of World Health Organization , cross-culturally comparable.

Saturday 15.12.2012
The venue of the meeting is the Music Room of the Municipality of Ferrara. Maria Cristina Turola addressed to the participants and introduced Deputy Mayor, Dr. Massimo Maisto. He welcomed the participants and highlighted the importance of the theme of old age and aging, especially in an area like Ferrara, where the percentage of elderly people is very high : ?It is essential to enhance the role of the elderly, and not marginalize them?. Moreover, he pointed out the interest of the institutions for this type of project, and asks to be kept informed of the initiatives linked to it.

Maria Kavouri introduced Dr. Laura Lepore from Municipality of Ferrara, coordinator of Foreign Area office and counselor of Intercultural Education. Dr. Lepore evidenced the need to define the concepts of young, elder, old, oldest and their background and assures their cooperation.
Introduction of Professor Tiziano Telleschi (University of Pisa) and his lecture: Intergenerational transmission of values and abilities: the mediation?s role of Associationism.

In the end, the coordinator of the project, Nicoleta Robiuc, summarized the results of the meeting, recalling the need to be simple and concrete, to define the respective tasks; she will send to the associations a proposal for the tasks, to report all activities and especially to communicate each over: the communication is the most important task in this project. At the end, the certificates ceremony took place. Fuat Sunay in his quality of student of University of Turin in the faculty of communication and media, from the Italian partner, realized videos and took photos from the whole the event in order to realize a trailer and a short film. Aim network addressed a big thank you to all, who cooperate for the realization of this meeting.

Between 17 and 20 May 2013, Bucovina Guides Association was the host for the HEARTS project second meeting, in Suceava. With this occasion, the working agenda regarding the important future aspects of the project was set and also, this was the perfect moment to introduce the guests to the culture and the traditions of Bucovina. Therefore, there were 3 partners that came to Romania: Italy, Greece and Turkey and a number of 14 people: 3 from Italy, 4 from Turkey and 7 from Greece. The Romanian team had 5 participants.

The partner associations are:
Italy: AimNetwork, Ferrara
Greece: Computer House, Tripolis
Romania: Bucovina Guides Association, Suceava
Turkey: Bolu Halkin Egitimini Gelistirme ve Destekleme Dernegi, Bolu

THE AGENDA OF THIS MEETING:

Friday night 17.05.2013
The participants arrived in Sueava by different means of transport. Together with Turkey, we had dinner at a central restaurant in Suceava, where we welcomed the guests, got to know each other and the plans for the following days were presented.

Saturday 18.05.2013
Saturday started with the welcoming speech of the president of the Bucovina Guides Association, Ciprian Constantineanu, the project coordinator, Nicoleta Loghin and our special guest Nicoleta Robciuc. Also, the members of the teams that will work together during the 2 days of activities were presented.
Next, is was discussed about the implementation of the project and the stage at which it is now, and also, about the finished and future final product.

Maria Cristina Turola and Maria Kavouri from AIM Network, Italy, explained to us the importance of a good implementation of the project and how can this be made. Also, AIM Network, presented the structure of the questionnaire, the importance of some good questions, the problems that can occur during the implementation and during the creation of the final report of the questionnaire. A very important aspect that was highlighted by the Italy team is about the interpretation of the questionnaire which must be realized based on the received answers and how we can do this, especially in the case of the open questions.

At the invitation of Nicoleta Robciu, we tried to define the term ?old age person?. The participants presented their opinion regarding the age at which a man can be called an: old aged person? and the age at which a person can be called ?young?. As a result, it was decided that we refer to old when the person is above 60 and to young when the person is under 30.
Moreover, we talked about the number of questionnaires that should be implemented. The Italy and turkey members suggested a number of 50 questionnaires for each age group, meaning 100 in total. For the implementation and the interpretation it was set a deadline, 15th of June. The Italian team will be responsible of the final report of the questionnaires. The final results and the comparisons between the 4 countries will be presented in September, during the meeting form Turkey. As a result, it was decided that the next meeting will take place in Bolu, Turkey.

An attractive point of the meeting was the presentation about the quality of life questionnaire (contents and results) by Mesut Arabaciglu from Turkey and Maria Cristina Turola from Italy. They talked about the differences of the principles, activities and passions between the two generations.
This meeting was organized in the meeting room of the Sport and Teenagers center, Suceava.

According to the agenda, the next activities took place at the Promotion of the traditions from Bucovina center, where the participants visit the workshops accommodated here: traditional New Year masks, Easter egg painting, traditional clothing, leather and wood crafts, clay pottery, icon painting. This was a good occasion for our guests to see demonstrations in working with the wood and ceramics and to see traditional tools. The participants could see the steps needed in the creation of a ceramic object, until the burning step, could observe the composition of the materials, the instruments used and then, the final form. This was a good opportunity to find more about the importance of perpetuating these traditions. The activities at the center were coordinated by Nicoleta Robciuc and Nicoleta Loghin.

After the visit to the center was over, we continued the activities in the meeting room in order to give new tasks and set deadlines. Therefore, it was decided that the Greek team will be responsible for the E-portofolio and the digital literacy, the Turkey team will realize the report for the dissemination of the project, the Italian team will do the analysis of the result of the questionnaires and will do the comparison between the results from the 4 countries and the Romanian team will centralize the result of the evaluations made after each meeting. All these will be accomplished step by step, regarding the number of the meetings, the results of each team being presented in the next meeting in Turkey.

Sunday 19.05.2013
This day was reserved for social and cultural visit. So, together we was visiting the most important social and cultural monuments around Suceava County.

Monday 20.05.2013
Departure day

Between 22 and 24 JUNE 2013, Bucovina Guides Association was the host for the HEARTS project third meeting, in Bucharest. During the two days of the meeting, Bucovina Guides Association was the guest for 4 Greeks, from Computer House, Tripolis.

The present partners were:
Greece: Computer House, Tripolis
Romania: Bucovina Guides Association, Suceava

THE AGENDA OF THIS MEETING:

Friday 21.06.2013
The participants arrived in Bucharest by the plane.

Saturday 22.06.2013
The first day of the meeting started at the hotel where our guests were accommodated. We got to know each other and there we went to the National Museum ?Dimitri Gusti?, Bucharest, the meeting place. In the museum, the meeting had an informal style, being held outdoor, in the garden of a traditional Romanian house. Here the aspects of the meeting agenda were discussed.We started with the welcoming wishes, after this, the project manager, Nicoleta Loghin, resumed the most important aspect of the meeting from May: tasks, deadlines, future meetings, etc.)

On this occasion, we set the tasks for the Greek partner, which should be finished until a date due to be decided on the yahoo group later. The main discussion was based on the dissemination of the HEARTS project, the realization of an workshop and the creation of the digital literacy guide.
Before the lunch break we had a presentation of the history and the connotations of each symbol of the old traditional house architecture. Also, the guide explained out guests the usage and also the meaning of each object and instrument from the house.
After that, Eleni Tzani, from Greece, talked about the implementation of the questionnaire in Greece, which were the issues met during the realization of the report and also about the importance of the documentation for the creation of this report for her team.

In the second part of the day, after 5 p.m. , we visited the ?Traditional Romanian IA fair? at the ?Alchemia Contemporan Arts Centre?, organized by IIANA in Bucharest. There we were welcomed by the IIANA staff and Alchemia. After this, the manager of Alchimia, Dragos Farmazon, made a brief presentation of our project and partners and then, we talked about the objectives, the aims of our project and the importance of perpetuating the traditions from generation to generation.

Lately, Ms. Anca Tatomir, from the Alchimia team, presented us different models of traditional ?IA?, from different parts of the country. She explained the connotations and the meanings of the old , handmade symbols found on the shirts. This fair aimed to promote and perpetuate the traditional outfits and also to encourage people to still wear them. At the end, we were answered to the questions, all this in a jovial atmosphere with traditional Romanian music in the background.

Sunday 23.06.2013
This day was reserved for social and cultural visit to important social and cultural monuments from Bucharest.

Monday 24.06.2013
Departure day

Bolu Halk?n Egitimini Gelistirme ve Destekleme Dernegi was the host for the fourth meeting of The Hearts Project between the dates 18th and 21st October, 2013. There were 2 partners that came to Turkey: Italy and Romania. Romania attended with 9 participants in its team whereas Italy was in Bolu with 3 participants.

The partner associations are:
Italy: AimNetwork, Ferrara
Greece: Computer House, Tripolis
Romania: Bucovina Guides Association, Suceava
Turkey: Bolu Halkin Egitimini Gelistirme ve Destekleme Dernegi, Bolu

THE AGENDA OF THIS MEETING:

Friday 18 October 2013
The participants arrived in Bolu. After welcoming all the guests we all had dinner to talk about the plans for the following presentation and meeting days.

Saturday 19 October 2013
The meeting started with the welcoming speech to Bolu and the presentation of the programme by Mesut Arabac?oglu. The Romanian project coordinator, Nicoleta Loghin gave a speech about what have been done so far and what will be done. It was decided to leave the repetitions in the Project by using shortcuts and omitting the same tasks. The Greek partner wasn?t able to come to the meeting because of a sudden health problem of a close that is why the ?Greek Good Practices, Computer Training For Older Students? by Eleni Tzani was read and discussed between the other partners in the meeting.

In the coffee break, while the quests were having a rest by eating and drinking they also had the chance to look on the traditional handcraft products made by the old people in the association. Two different television channels from Bolu was also there to make an investigation and interview about the Project.
After the break Mesut Arabac?oglu gave a presentation about dissemination activities organized by Bolu and portfolio. Then the Romanian coordinator Nicoleta Loghin presented their workshop with the ceramics. We could observe all the steps needed in the creation of a ceramic object and its final form with colourful paintings with the help of photos. After that, The photos taken by the director of the Public Education Center Mr. Kemal Yaman were showed and discussed. These photos were about different people living in different places of Turkey and working in various kinds of jobs according to Turkish traditions and customs. Also we got the partners watch the video of ?How to Make Turkish Tea? as a workshop and talked about the importance of Turkish tea in terms of the Turkish traditions and customs. At last it was the Italian partner?s turn to present their workshop on Traditional Italian Values. It was called ?Pasta Making, Art & Craft?. First Maria Kavauri and Maria Chiara Turola gave the recipe of how to make a pasta with fresh egg by showing their workshop with photos and later they told about another workshop in Metal works. They gave some information about why iron has been so significant and valuable for Ferrara. They said that thay believed the name of the city came from the iron and most of the surnames are Fabbri in Ferrara.

After that it was time to go for lunch in the city centre. All the partners had a great time while tasting some traditional food. After lunch a visit to a centre for disabled people was held and all the partners told about the organizations and activities for people with disabilities in their own countries. Another visit to the Almshouse of the Bolu Municipality was held and it was observed in details what kind of opportunities were offered to old, sick, homeless and poor people by the municipality.

For the next stop, the quests were taken to Lake G?lc?k for photo Safari. After the return to city centre it was free time to walk around the town or buying for some souvenirs. In the evening the Project group met again to enjoy eating and drinking in company with some traditional folk music.

Sunday 20 October 2013
In the second day of the meeting it was discussed about the future activities and deadlines. The place and time for the next meeting was decided around 5th of April 2014 as well as a deadline to come with proposals and ideas. First of all it was decided the new structure of our manual of Digital Literacy.
For the second item it was discussed about the Brochure.
It was also decided that the deadline for the first draft is 15th December.

In the second part of the day after the meeting, it was time to go for a walk to the Bolu Museum to see the ancient and historical valuable pieces of products. There were also a series of traditional clothes and handcrafts to attract the attention of the quests. Then a trip to historical Mudurnu district was held to see the town, historical buildings and good practices of handcrafts there. After lunch with delicious traditional meals in the garden of an old mansion, the Project group left from Mudurnu to see Abant Lake with its beautiful natural scene on the return way to Bolu city centre. At dinner time in a cafe&restaurant all the participants who attended the 4th meeting took their certificates from the president of our association ,Fatma Isn?k, after the speech of Mesut Arabac?oglu.

Monday 21 October 2013
Departure of participants taking part in the optional activitiy.

HEARTS Questionnaire Report

Questionnaire content

Graphics Quality of life Results

1st Meeting – Ferrara, Italy

2nd Meeting – Suceava, Romania

3rd Meeting – Bucharest, Romania

4th meeting – Bolu, Turky

HEARTS Project Official Page
HEARTS Project FACEBOOK Page
Agentia Nationala pentru Programe Comunitare in Domeniul Educatiei si Formarii Profesionale