Final Conference : Thinking About Europe
The Foundations for Futures Europe On the 20 Oct. 2022 Maynooth University Dept. of Adult and Community Education and the Office of Experiential Learning hosted the closing conference of the Europe for Citizens funded Foundations for Futures Europe project ‘Thinking About Europe’.
After the opening address from Rebecca Doolin Vice President of External Affairs there were reflections from each of the partners upon their work with students, participants, stakeholders across a whole range of issues affecting the lives of citizens across the continent. As this consortium is a unique collection of universities and civil society organisations there was lots of scope for learning from each other and a lot of fun in trying to find a common human understanding to help us make a Europe that works for all people across the continent based on social justice, inclusion and equality. The relationships that have flourished over the 14 months of the project have been build on respect and trust. This was not a given and as Yota from the Hellenic Anti Poverty Network put it ‘working with Universities wasn’t a nightmare’. It's no harm being reminded every now and then how others see us. Thanks Yota. We have also been informed that the project is now being considered as a Model of Best Practice for European Citizen Engagement by the European Commission and encouraged to continue the work into the future which is something that we as a group intend to do. Watch this space.