Dear All,
I’m glad to see how we reached the last issue for this year. A lot of effort has been put in, together and continuously, despite this pandemic which has overwhelmed our work and, in general, our daily life. It is useless to repeat how many new challenges have arisen: we would like, on the contrary, to stay focused on our successes.
In this difficult year, we have managed to conclude and publish each planned issue on time; while we have had to remind some of you about our MAG, we are satisfied with most of you and we would like to thank those who have always contributed with interesting materials.
We are approaching the end of this year together and in my mind, I’m retracing the steps, or rather milestones, which have accompanied our Family. In the past months, we have expanded our network; it is also true that we are still waiting to see the success of our “nice to meet you”, for which we will try again and again to involve you, as we consider this a useful tool for knowledge sharing processes. On the other hand, we have seen the general growth of the whole Team (because while we are a Family, we are also a Team).
During our last “get together meeting”, we had the chance to listen all of you: the challenges you have faced this year but, especially, your achievements. It was a fruitful meeting, which gave us the chance to start thinking how to further stimulate you.
Your presentations are included in this last issue, as a chance to read them again and find best practices to share. In addition, talking about meetings, please note that another important reunion is being organised. On 15 December, FMO has planned the second annual thematic online seminar of Active Youth projects, dedicated to transnational cooperation. We will give you more details for participation in due course, but meanwhile save the date!!!
On 25 November it was the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. We know that there are a lot of women managing our projects, and we believe that there must always be a place for issues like that in our thoughts. We invite all of you to continue to draw attention to these issues, getting involved in each one that deserves consideration in our MAG, hoping that in the next year we will have the possibility to broaden our horizons in terms of the exchange of inspiring practices, “exploiting” our Online Magazine as a means of dissemination.
Talking about women, but from another standpoint and therefore attracting your attention to innovative activities, I would like to point out the survey prepared by Dr. Jule Hildmann, simply Yula, in the framework of our FOLM Project. Find out more at this link: https://edinburgh.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/solving-educational-challenges-in-the-pandemic.
We expect active participation to evaluate the results all together, as it targets people who are currently active in education, such as facilitators, course designers or people in a leadership role. You can find out more in the following explanation prepared by Yula, which is included in the following pages of our Mag.
With this last issue, I hope that we will all have the time to prepare for new, innovative and upcoming collaborations, starting from the first number of next year.
Most likely, due to the continuing pandemic, our winter holidays will be different this year, but we – the FO Team – hope that all of you will have the chance to think about our next activities.
We will do the same, thinking about new solutions for future challenges. In this changing world, I think that we will have to face new “calls” for actions. But we are used to reacting in a proactive way, and I am sure that our Family will once again demonstrate that it can “reinvent the wheel”.
This last issue is packed with contents, from the reflections of our friend Tom, through Iván’s Perspectives on Youth Employment, to the “extra” contributions of some of our projects.
I believe we have reached a significant level of quality, but I also think we can achieve more.
With this last – conviction more than – hope, I would like to thank all of you again, and look forward to more great results in 2021.
The FO Director
Gian Luca Bombarda
