Co-creating, connecting, participating – the UNITE final event

How do you celebrate the end of a project that has been built around individual support, participation and learning together?

For UNITE, we decided not to organise a conventional final conference. Instead, we invited participants, coaches, local organisations and other interested people to our European Co-Creation Day in Göttingen.

And co-creation really was at the heart of the day.

Participants explored improvisational theatre as an informal and encouraging way of learning and using language, guided by a language teacher from the Boat People Project. Together with StadtRadio Göttingen, they also discovered the basics of podcast production, developed questions around social and linguistic integration and tried out their ideas using real radio equipment.

Another activity accompanied us throughout the day: our European Sky. Everyone was invited to write a personal association, hope, experience or idea on a yellow star in response to the question: What makes Europe a place of diversity, belonging and participation? Little by little, the individual stars became a shared picture.

And there was plenty of time for what has been an important part of UNITE from the beginning: meeting people, exchanging experiences and building connections.

With 69 participants, the day brought together newcomers, coaches, local organisations and other stakeholders who had supported, accompanied or been part of UNITE.

We kept the final evaluation in the spirit of the day, too. Instead of a questionnaire, participants could place a sweet in either a thumbs-up or thumbs-down glass. Every single sweet ended up in the thumbs-up glass.

A fitting conclusion to a project that has shown us how much can happen when people do not simply participate, but actively meet, contribute and co-create.

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Social Fund+. Neither the European Union nor the European Social Fund+ can be held responsible for them.