Sailors Sail Away

Sailors said goodbye to Liberec on Sunday and sailed back to their homes to multiply. The whole project was evaluated not only by participants but also by the organisational team. Thank you all for the wonderful week with Sailors On The Citizenship XXL. It has been an amazing voyage!

Be sure to check the Website and Blogspot for the latest updates, check the Gallery and see the week in pictures, stop by Facebook, join the group and become friends with Johnny the Sailor and be sure to have a look around the Sailors YouTube Channel for lovely videos from the whole week. We hope you enjoyed the voyage because we know we did!

We would like to thank the organisation team, the participants, supporters, sponsors, patrons and all others who helped to make this voyage a remarkable event.

See you soon!

Sailors

Sailors Day 7

Evaluation of Happening and Networking

The day after the Happening sailors evaluated the happening by counting up the smiles and free hugs received and given; and analysed the impact they had on the local life. Sailors concluded that the Happening, despite the rain, was a great success and everyone was happy to read the local newspaper in the morning and see the picture of our sailors human logo, The World, on the front page.

Also, networking and a final party with a live band took place in the evening. Each sailor reflected on his/her experience and feelings about the voyage by wearing the captain's hat. Some sailors sailed back to their homes on Saturday, others stayed for just a bit longer to end the voyage on Sunday morning. All in all it was an amazing voyage!

Sailors Day 6

The Happening

Sailors flooded the streets of Liberec with blue and white umbrellas. As it was a rainy day, sailors could use their umbrellas to the full and invite more people to get involved. The sailors split into groups and spread around the town with one simple message: smile and be active! To get people to smile, sailors offered free hugs to all. They also attracted people and pointed them to the right direction with mini flash-mobs. Also, at the bus-stop, a good-bye service was set to make anyone who was leaving feel warm and think about coming back soon, In the centre, tents were put up to make the place even more approachable - a cosy living library, where citizerns of Europe were the books, juggling, children's corner complete with face-painting and art-corner, and an info stand of LOS were all set up to invite the people of Liberec to be active. Throughout the afternoon, visitors had the chance to watch the impovisational theatre in action inside the shopping centre - living statues, musical instruments and other fun activities ,all performed by our own blue-and-white sailors.

To end the wonderful day, 2 major things were planned: A flash-mob in the shopping-centre Plaza and a human logo representing the World. The logo was captured from the top of the Plaza. Local media also captured the moment. Check out the media releases about sailors here.

Sailors Day 5

Prep for happening and discussion with politicians - World Café

Sailors finally found out what the happening is all about and divided into groups according to what interested them the most:free hugs, good-bye service, living library, theatre, mini flash-mobs - you name it, and started preparing for the big event. What they did not know was that in the evening they would get a special surprise - a maxi flash-mob where all of the sailors would find their dancing shoes and polka their way into the next day.

But just before the surpise in the evening, sailors visited the V-Klub for the World Café - the discussion with local politicians. There each sailor had a chance to talk to local politicians. The patron of the meeting was Ondrej Liška,who opened the discussion with his speech. The political scene of Liberec was represented by D. Vaclavik, M. Pokorna, M. Puta, R. Cikl and O. Ćervinka. The debate reflected on the current situation in youth policy. The main message of the meeting could be summed up with the following sentence: everyone should be active; start changing something on your own, instead of waiting for someone to do it.

The sailors were also happy about the setting of the meeting: this time the politicians came to the youth, and not the other way around as it usually happens. This gave a perfect ground for discussions on an equal level.

All in all a very productive day for the sailors. Stay tuned for more!

Sailors Day 4

Sailor's study visits to V-Club, Divizna, DTV - Children's TV.


In V-Club the participants got information about Youth Parliament, PolaCzek and saw a presentation about V-Club. Also, the V-Club will soon be undergoing reconstruction and participants were divided into groups and were asked to devise a new design/plan for the club. They could add all they thought would be useful for a youth club and finally got the chance to present what they had come up with.



In Divizna Ecological Center participants got to see a presentation about ecological educational programs for students, seminars, workshops for students of pedagogical faculties and youth workers.


Children's TV aimed to show the orientation in the media world for the youth and to support the youth in their own activities and critical thinking. They also aimed to offer an option to spend free time in an interesting and useful way. The project's overall aim is to educate the youth in the world of media.

Also, the NGO Market has been up on the wall for 2 days now. Go and check it out if you haven't done that yet.


So Sailors, as always, be sure to keep on checking for updates as the biggest happening during this sail is very near!

Sailors Day 3

Second day of the workshops and good practices.

Sailors took part in Workshops such as "What's under your clothes?", which touched upon the concept of fashion and identity, consumerism and consumption; and "Understanding Citizenship - What it means to You" which aimed to give participants space and time to reflect on their own understanding of citizenship.




Sailors got to experience Good practices such as "Living Library" which aimed to promote tolerance through breaking stereotypes and knowing difference; "Masz glos, masz wybór - your vote, your choice" aimed to make citizens be more interested about the probems of their comminities and to encourage them to get involved; and Young Citizen-MK, which aimed to develop young people's understanding of the issues involved and impove their opportunities to become more active citizens.



Finally, participants reflected on their experiences and let their ideas swim as fishes in the sea.



Sailors on National TV

The Good Morning Show on the Czech Television welcomed two of our sailors, the president of LOS - Ondrej Lochman and the vice president, Antonin Ferdan. They talked about the project and what citizenship means for them. They also invited everyone to come to the Happening on the May 14 at 12.30 next to the OD Plaza in Liberec.

You can check the interview here: part 1 and part 2.

Sailors Day 2

Ahoy!


Day 2 for sailors. We officially opened the Tool Fair Workshops with the head of the Czech National Agency Michal Urban and Mgr. Jan Činčera PhD from the Technical University of Liberec.

Michal Urban gave a clear message about citizenship saying that we should think European and get involved locally.


Zuzana Tvrzský, who works in NGO V-Club, which has much praised workshop called Hands and Creatives Advertise Yourself, also came for the opening.

Regional coordinator and editor of Liberec, Petra Handlířová, was also with us to share her insights on the day and how she perceives the issue of citizenship: "The international meetings are very helpful to me, I appreciate that I get to meet new people and ideas. Discussion in English is very interesting to me. I puzzle ideas, formulate them correctly, which is not always easy. But the debate nurtures the senses. I think that when working with the theme of citizenship, it is extremely important just to meet people from other countries. But I could recognize on myself, that it is always important to start with myself, the place where I live and only then to confront all of this with European citizenship, which gives us some insight. I really enjoyed the workshop, it gave me a chance to try certain methods in practice. The final discussion made us think about the position of the trainer of a workshop. I talked about the risks that may arise and what other options there are for working with the method . It was very beneficial for me to hear the views of other people. "



Also, sailors now have secret friends, so get busy and start being friendly to your secret friend :)

Sailors Day 1

Marco explaining the plan of Day 1

Sailor Bingo: Sailors finding out who knows how to draw, who can speak more than 3 languages, who has ever milked a cow. It turns out that our sailors have many different and unique skills.

The prize for finding all or most of the unique sailors: being the first one to receive the sailor's umbrella!

Introducing Sailors, the programme and sharing expectations.

Spiderweb. As already mentioned, our sailors are very unique and also helpful.

And like to have a laugh.

City Game & Getting to Know Liberec

Sailors took over the streets of Liberec and discovered its beauty, secret nooks and opportunities that it offers to young people and came up with 101 unusual ways for using a sailor's umbrella.

Have you every tried to exchange a T-shirt on the street? Think it’s easy? Not really! Group number 1 knows all about it. Finally one nice girl could not resist the sexy sailors and the mission of exchanging the T-shirt was successful.

Group number 2 tasted the best Czech beer and their special task to exchange a yo-yo was a success. Finally they got a great deal – a yo-yo for a teddy-bear and a teddy-bear for a stick horse. Everybody was jealous!

Group number 3 had a nice afternoon on the main square. Damian taught a special Irish dance.

The trip to the top of the Ještěd was a true experience for Group number 4. They saw a prestigious soccer match and chatted with a friendly waitress.

In front of the biggest shopping mall called Nisa, Group number 5 performed a special kind of martial arts.

Group number 6 found a lovely present for Johnny Sailor – one green glove. We are not exactly sure how he will benefit from it or how will he use it, but he will definitely love it! Also, for Johnny’s children, the group brought an interactive game!


Intercultural Evening included sharing knowledge about Sailors’ countries. Sailors had the opportunity to try national food and drinks from all over Europe and got to improve their dancing skills. Now we are looking forward to see Sailors’ dancing during Happening.

Be sure to come back and check for updates because we have a lot more coming!

Preparation for Sailors on the Citizenship XXL at full speed

Hello sailors!

Preparations for XXL are at full speed. Everybody is busy with getting ready for the voyage. Here is a sneak preview of what you can expect:



See you very very soon!