Nordic Day 2010

Every year, the European Social Services Conference hosts the Nordic Day, organised by the Nordic Centre for Welfare and Social Issues (NVC), a member of ESN. The theme of Nordic Day 2010 was unemployed youth – with a specific focus on vulnerable groups, immigrants, school drop-outs and people with disabilities.

Adults often see the challenges of youth through experiences from their own youth. But times have changed. The good solutions of the past are not necessarily the right ones today. To debate the effects of these alternatives, young people were invited to present their experiences of marginalisation.

NVC also presented best practices of intervention aimed at unemployed youth and opened discussion on how social services should support young people during the transition from school to the labour market. . Click to read more on this and download the programme.

Exhibition 2010

The exhibition hall in Barcelona featured 10 exhibitors from across Europe and 7 inspiring projects from Denmark, the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, Spain and Albania. During coffee breaks and lunch, participants had the opportunity to meet and talk with exhibitors and project forum participants. 

Exhibitors in Barcelona were: European Social Network (ESN), Accor Services, Dexia, Tieto, Eurofound, The Nordic Centre for Welfare and Social Issues (NVC), Youth Advocate Programs Inc. (YAP), La Caixal, DIXIT, and Barcelona Provincial Council. Click for more information on exhibitors.

Well done on another well organised and successful event. The exhibition area was ideal and it was a great idea to have screens with the agenda and key messages. - Teresa Renehan, Eurofound.

I really enjoyed Barcelona and hopefully with the level of interest expressed at the Conference we might be able to promote YAP further through Europe. Because ESN covers so many aspects of social services, an idea in the future would be to organise networking based on interests. - Seamus Mannion, Youth Advocate Programs (YAP), Ireland.

It was a great idea to have snacks available in the room so conference participants would go into the room and see exhibits. Everything was highly organized. Well done! - Dorienne Silva, Youth Advocate Programs (YAP), United States.

Project Forum 2010: Varberg, Sweden

Among the project forums, the Municipality of Varberg in Sweden used the Barcelona conference to present their project IT networking to enhance the independence and social inclusion of young people with disabilities. Through this project, Varberg aims to explore new opportunities modern technologies can provide for those with different disabilities living in sheltered accommodation. Today, young people are socialising more and more on the Internet, playing games, blogging, and chatting. Skype, a new phenomenon that connects people around the world, is used in this project to help people with disabilities to be part of the new age technology.  Download project brochure for more details. 

Ted speaking to a Barcelona delegate on Skype		A birthday party in Varberg featured live through Skype

In Barcelona, project leader Anna-Lena Gyllén used Skype to connect delegates who visited their stand with their users like Ted, a young man with learning disabilities in Varberg. Ted, who lives in sheltered accommodation in Varberg, had the opportunity to converse with a Spanish delegate through Skype. 

Being part of the conference made him so happy, and he keeps mentioning this experience every day. I think everybody who we spoke to our users enjoyed it and in return they really brought the world to them. I hope this experience will help us to find partners in other European municipalities so we can further develop the use of technology and improve lives of people with disabilities in our societies. - Anna-Lena Gyllén, Varberg.

If you want to conect with the Varberg project or feature a project forum in next month’s newsletter, please get in touch with Jeta Bejtullahu via firstname.lastname@esn-eu.org. If there is enough interest, a similar story will appear next month.