Welcome to our first meeting in Denmark

Before we start,maybe we should try to remember what are Grundtvig 2 learning partnerships?

Grundtvig – objective and perspective Support development of the quality and accessibility of education and learning for adults Promote professional, educational and organisational innovation Develop and disseminate concrete results Strengthen the European dimension in adult education and learning Strengthen the European dimension in education and further training of adult educators

Grundtvig, events Grundtvig 1 joint projects  Minimum 3 partners develop products for use in adult education/counselling/lifelong learning Grundtvig 2 learning partnerships  Minimum 3 partners – focus on exchanging experience and the process itself Grundtvig 3 mobility for further education  Further education and training for adult educators Grundtvig 4 network projects  More ongoing adult education projects in the network, dissemination of good practice

Grundtvig 2 learning partnerships Look at the title – partnership for learning Practice-oriented Process-oriented Participant-oriented

Something about Finance in the project Language

Finance Have budgets in the individual countries been cut? How much do we have for travelling? How much do we have for accommodation? Denmark: we got what we asked for: 4 nights’ accommodation + travel to meetings – for 2 people.  Denmark provides EUR 100 per day for accommodation and up to EUR 400 for travel. Some countries give more – most of them in fact. Does anyone get less?

Language! We come from 6 different places But we only speak 4 different languages English is the native language – or at least the workling language – for 7 of us And there are 5 others with different levels of proficiency This requires time and patience

Our first meeting Refresh the common understanding of the project’s core, content and objective Definition of main concepts

Summary of the project The project will work with a number of European partners to establish the training and support needs of training staff. This is to ensure that they are better able to work with and support learners experiencing mental health problems, thus allowing people with mental health problems to access mainstream learning as opposed to learning within dedicated or specialist environments. The project will define the term mental health disability for the purposes of this project and identify the scope of disabilities which can be included for any training materials produced to support training staff. A literature review will be conducted by each participating organisation to establish the current strategy for supporting learners with mental health disabilities and to what extent teaching staff are trained and supported. Furthermore, teaching methodologies will be explored together with identification and sharing of good practice.

Aim The sharing of good practice and identification of the training needs of practitioners, so that they are more confident and able to facilitate the integration of people experiencing mental health difficulties, to support inclusive learning.

Outputs Website. A website will capture the progress of this partnership, and provide links to the partner web diaries and the learner discussion boards. Final report. This will report on the methodology deployed, and will provide summaries of the research from each partner country, as well as the evaluation of the project. Summative conference. A disseminating event for learners and practitioners to share the outcomes of the project and share experiences with others. G1 project proposal for training the trainers in ‘Mental Health and Training’.

Objectives 1Define mental health difficulties and ensure a common understanding of the scope of the disabilities addressed by this project. 2Identify the current capacity building strategies for inclusive learning, and the legal and moral obligations imposed by each partner country. 3Identify the training needs of practitioners in terms of supporting learners with mental health difficulties, using standardised research instruments. 4Experience first hand the work undertaken by institutions to support the target group, and provide peer learning through identification of good practice amongst partner countries. 5Engage learners in the project through focus groups in the host country as well as through inter-country discussions via virtual discussion boards.

We wrote about our 1st meeting in Denmark 1. Agree on a project and communication plan. 2. Start web diaries for each of the delegates. (Saturday in Aarhus) 3. Agree on the definition of ‘mental health’ and the scope of the disabilities for this project. 4. Agree on acceptable terminology. 5. Agree on research methods to be used. 6. Allocate duties for the development of the research tools. 7. Visit an organisation in the host country working with the target group. 8. Hold a focus group/discussion with learners to learn about their experiences. (Friday, Erik Bentsen from this school will join us at 12.30) 9. Produce project plan 10. Achieve objective 1. Denmark’s contribution to objectives 4 and 5.

Agenda Where do we start?  We have 4 hours today including Erik’s visit  3–5 hours tomorrow  3 hours on Sunday