SparkYWORKERS
The Partnership
Make it Better
Make it Better (miB) is a recent organisation (private NGO, non-profit) settled in one of the most depressed regions in Europe (South Alentejo, Portugal), that capitalizes the experience of its promoters and team of more than 18 years of joint work and cooperation with public and private organizations in Portugal, Europe and as well in several other parts of the world (South America, Africa and Asia). It complies a multidisciplinary team of associates and workers that give powerful input in big umbrella areas, such as sustainable development, education, social responsibility, social economy and social entrepreneurship, in the different frames where most disadvantaged groups are settled. In its action miB intends to: create, develop, adapt and apply sustainable and responsible work models and tools, cooperating and supporting the most disadvantaged groups. Its mission is the development of human society, in all its dimensions, namely, economic, social, environmental and cultural, linked to moral duties of solidarity and justice and all the other values registered in its charter of principles. miB's vision is to become a reference as national and international platform, by its energetic role in stimulating education, empowerment and social economy, facilitating and mediating, articulating resources and promoting dynamics focused in the resolution of beneficiaries and communities’ problems and demands. In organizational strategic plan we can find, under priority 2 - Partnerships and Cooperation, strong emphasis in the promotion of education as fundamental tool for social equity, cohesion and development, but as well the promotion of co-operation and sharing of best practices and models developed, tested and validated within similar contexts, namely in the context of youth education and capacity building. Social inclusion, diversity, non-formal education, employability, initiative, creativity and innovation are equally thematically focused in the plan, being simultaneously the organization key tools and expertise for cooperation and development. Make it Better is actually a member of the General Council for Education of Cuba, which is responsible for the design and validation of the local educational policies. The organisation counts actually with 20 official members (experts in multiple and complimentary areas). Further, the organisation works in straight cooperation with local and regional agents (public and private) which comply with a large and continuous group of learners and direct beneficiaries of its activities (actually achieving more than 500 people).
Municipality of Cuba
Municipality of Cuba is a Local Public Authority that has all local governmental competences, responsibilities and attributions as set by Portuguese Public governance system (management of territory, licensing, regulating municipal activities, development and strategic planning, educational infra-structures, and many more).
The city of Cuba is also the municipality capital. Main additional attributions are, besides many other strictly connected with project goals, the communication and information systems directed to local citizens as way to promote inclusion, wide citizenship, and to amplify the access and proximity for social and technical services. Furthermore it has central obligations in school and education sectors since it shares with central government (Ministry of Education) roles in school structures, planning, financing and development of institutional activities and services.
The Municipality develops actually several activity plans and services for citizens aiming precisely their involvement in the context of the actual education trends as way to mitigate its negative impacts mainly in the groups with fewer opportunities. At community level, the municipality is being working closely with schools, youth organisations and local civil society organizations, supporting them and building with them strategic partnerships that could anticipate and solve most of the problems being faced in the territory at social and economic levels. To this extent, the new trends regarding education system, and as well the needs of young people to be prepared for the future markets and societal challenges appear as an important motivation to tackle these problems and the municipality is totally engaged in participating in wider networks that could facilitate the learning and exchange about new tools and practices, and that could allow the enrichment of its agents, community, and the development of a more inclusive city.
Group of Schools of Cuba
Group of schools of Cuba is a public comprehensive school providing education for students between the ages 3-16, thus including pre-primary school, primary school, as well as 2nd and 3rd cycles. The school is set in a rural area, and students come from different socio-economic backgrounds. There are also some students whose parents come from many different countries, such as from the eastern Europe, South-America and Africa. There are also members of ethnical minorities such as the gypsy community. There are 6 groups of pre-primary school education: 3 of them in the main school building and the other 3 in the parishes, in classes of 3 up to 5 years old (101 students). There are 10 groups of primary school, 7 of them in the main school building and the other 3 in the parishes (186 students). In 2nd grade we have 88 students and 129 in the 3rd grade (In this grade, two groups of students use tablets in their daily lessons). The school, together with the municipality, offers a variety of extracurricular activities for students aged 6-10 including English, music, arts and sports. The students come from families of low/medium income, but average level of culture. Generally, the families express interest in the educational process of their children and cooperate with the school. Every school building is fully equipped and has libraries with different kind of documents, computers, tablets and didactic games.
The school also centralizes and connects directly with all the remaining municipal schools existing in other villages, cooperating, networking, sharing resources and supporting its educational and pedagogical activities.
Ligarte
Ligarte - Cooperativa de acção cultural, crl. , is a non-governmental, non-profit organization based in Cuba, a village located in the south of Portugal. The Ligarte action is based on five vectors that we consider essential for the cultural success that are: teaching for all, social intervention, decentralization, preservation of heritage and cultural dynamization. As such, Ligarte has been developing, throughout its existence, projects that are always guided by these objectives helping, in this way, to mitigate the situation of disadvantage faced by the population of the interior of the country. Art, an particularly music, has a fundamental role for child development. The studies carried out to date prove the influence of music on the child's communicative capacities, in their self- confidence, on the relationship between students, their spatio-temporal abilities, cognitive development, verbal intelligence, executive functions, memory and learning of foreign languages. The sooner you have contact with this field, the more a person can develop talents in a given resource, hence the importance of art in education. If before many people saw art only as recreation and leisure, something dispensable for children and young people, nowadays it becomes obligatory and increasingly present in the day to day of children. In recent years, Ligarte has been focusing its intervention in the area of music education, thus providing the children and youth of this county and other bordering counties a closer and adequate alternative to family income, meeting the musical tastes of young people and always striving to maintain pedagogical and content quality. The team that is currently developing these musical education projects, is composed of professionals trained both formally and informally and associates their curriculum with years of experience in the field of music in general and musical education. Ligarte has also been working in partnership with several non-governmental organizations in the Beja district, as well as with the Municipality of Cuba, using these synergies to make the fruits of their actions better and more integrated.
Clube Cuba Aventura
Clube Cuba Adventure is an private, non-profit Association, that joins a group of practitioners and amateurs, from all ages, of sports, adventure and nature activities, who have the goal to organise and promote of physical and sporting activities, health activities, with playful, educational and social purposes. The Association takes on an increasingly strategic role within the Sports, Cultural and Youth System, since these structures, given the proximity vis-à-vis the citizens, claim either as poles of development, promoting the growing offer of activities, either as venues for promoting active citizenship habits. The sports, cultural and youth development is defined, summarily, by the rise of a set of indicators, which are based on the number of practitioners and elements, in regularity and frequency levels sports and cultural actions, on the number of hosting organisations, in the network infrastructure, the number of disciplines practised, in scope and formation of their audiences, as well as the excellence of the results achieved. In this context, the Cuba Adventure Club promotes various types of events and activities, assuming a role of animator of sport activities linked to nature. Its main objectives are:
> to promote healthy lifestyles;
> Promote outdoor activities;
> Sensitize and aware all for the importance of practice of sport;
> Organize rides/BTT marathons;
> Increase the number of members;
> Involve gender equality in the access to sports, adventure and nature activities
Polo Europeo della Conoscenza - Europole
Polo Europeo della Conoscenza - Europole is a public body and a no profit network hosted by the Istituto Comprensico B. Lorenzi of Fumane Verona - Italy. Europole is a permanent network of school made fo more than 4000 Organizations, researchers, 3 Universities, 40 adult education organizations, 2 Regional Administrations, Municipalities, 20 VET schools, 20 NGOs, 4 cooperatives, and about 4000 Educational Institutions of every order and Degree at national level working for the European social and educational integration. Its main fields of activities are to promote the European dimension and integration through European and extra - European workshops, seminars, conferences, partnerships and projects. The Europole is planning "umbrella activities" involving in the projects the greatest possible number of institutions of the consortium. Europole works in every field of education, from ITC to in-service training courses for teachers and Kindergartens sectors to adult education in prison and in rural areas. It works also on social exclusion, fighting against xenophobia and racism, helping to break stereotypes around gender among different cultures and religions, training of students and drop outs, intercultural learning and youth workers' and vocational training field. The members of the network are working with learners at risk of social and cultural exclusion: immigrants, refugees, drop-out and learners with separated parents, social psychological borderline situations, bullying, learners with disabilities and other special needs. It also works in job strategies and economical researches fields.
Fundcja Instytut Rownowagi Spoleczno Ekonomicznej
The mission of the Foundation Institute for Social-Economic Balance is to promote a society that is open for diversity and has ability to use its potential. A society in which everyone understands and is understood by the others. IRSE creates a space for dialogue, exchange of views and experiences focused on the development of social and civic activity of all social groups and institutions working in this field. Activities provide by IRSE focused on three areas: 1. Intercultural education, Anti- discrimination, Global education 2. Development of local communities 3. Human rights The main staff of the organization to allocate to project is: - Katarzyna Błasińska - Graduated in international studies and history, specialized in history of system and parliamentary. She has been working as a project coordinator, animator and trainer for many years. She prepared and lead trainings and workshops in civil and intercultural education, about rights and situation of national minorities in Poland, Europe and World, human rights, fighting prejudices and discrimination as well as on historical and politic subjects. She was a local animator in Centre of Support for Local Activity of Pomeranian Voivodeship, where she was responsible for creating areas of cooperation for local organizations involved in environmental work in the region. A former volunteer of EVS in Lviv. After her return, she was a coordinator and a mentor for volunteers from many other countries, e.g. from Turkey, France and Germany. She is experienced in working in international environment and in establishing intercultural contacts. - Łukasz Grosz - Graduated in biology, interested in global education, human rights and social innovations. Graduated in the Academy of Sustainable Development and Drama Anti-discrimination Academy. Author educational materials for students, leader of projects for youth about ecology and human rights. - Hanna Rugała - Graduated in pedagogic studies, youth worker interested in anti-discrimination and social inclusion. Participant and young trainer in international youth exchanges and training courses, involved in developing local activities e.g. Human Library and antidiscrimination activities at school, as well as in the work with immigrants and refugees.