Day 1

As we arrived at the conference hall, we were greeted by two puppets … who were around throughout the day to stimulate conversations. We met up again here, and talked to some homeless people. Or were they actors?

We interviewed some of the speakers …

Helping people into employment
Both Olwen Lyner and Hugh Cassidy are working on projects to help people get back into employment - Olwen with ex-prisoners and Hugh with people with disabilities. They found some differences in the barriers, but also many similarities.

Travelling from Greece to Lisbon to learn about a Greek project
Nikos Ghionakis presented a project about helping people who have suffered mental illness find work and live in the community. In the audience was Kiki Staikou, from the Ministry of Labour, who recommended the project for the event. When David Wilcox spoke to Kiki and Nikos afterwards they explained that it took the trip to Lisbon for Kiki to fully understand how the project started - driven by a desire to tackle real problems.

Bunker Roy - why are you here at this event?
Bunker Roy, an inspiration with the stories of his work from Barefoot College - where they bring together people in village communities who have little or no formal education to become professional architects and engineers, designing and shaping their own lives - spoke to Bev Trayner about why he is here at this event.

Forum Theatre at Powering a New Future
Diogo talks about forum theatre in Lisbon. Tomorrow they will be performing….

Urban Knowledge Network plans more interaction online
Susana Neto explains to David Wilcox the work of the Urban Knowledge Network, and says that she feels the time has come for more collaborative and interactive methods of communication.
In Portugal the network is piloting a community of practice, with help from Bev Trayner.

Using Videoboo and other communication tools
Susana Neto was impressed with Videoboo (one of the reporting tools we used) - and other online communication tools - when David Wilcox recorded an interview about more interactive communication for the Urban Knowledge Network, so he invited Susana to record a message to her colleagues in the project about how it might be used.

Treat your immigrants like you want your family living abroad to be treated..
Video in Portuguese: This is the “credo” Maria Rego uses in her work for “Migrações e Desenvolvimento” from Seixal… and this works in Portugal where every single family has loved ones living and working abroad. The principle of global citizenship is applied; and community and culture are emphasized in their work.

Dutch farm women alert! Your deserved right
Women farmers often work in the family farm without being a proper shareholder or normal compensation. The project succeeded in just 18 months to make the entire agricultural sector in the Netherlands aware of this fact, by putting this on the agenda of farm women, their families, banks and accountants. Willemien Koning Hoeve explains why it is simply a matter of “Your deserved right” for farm women to improve their position.

Every job is one: small results really matter
When working with extremely difficult groups, like homeless people, a result of getting 6 or 8 of them to paid work is very important: the small steps contribute to larger results.
This is what Sacha van den Heuvel from Office Social Affairs in the Netherlands enjoys in her work.

Feeling uneasy… being reminded of why we are here
The actors playing homeless people make us feel uneasy - which reminds us how we may behave on meeting people in the street.

Social and professional reporters
There is a mix of reporting at the event, using text, photos and video. Some is formal recording, some aims to capture conversations and insights.

See all Day 1 posts here >