In Sepetember 2012 we took the role of hosting partner for a group of Czech professionals in the frame of Leonardo da Vinci Mobility program. The project was named „Working activities with unemployed people during the economic downturn” CZ/12/LLP-LdV/VETPRO/134218
Sixteen professionals in the field of unemployment from Brno, Czech Republic came to Sicily to get to know more about the unemployment situation and the system of social care. The topic of the discussions were mainly the strategies created in order to increase the rates of employment and to improve the working possibilities along with the approaches to the social care during the severe question of a contemporary economic depresion.
The sixteen participants were devided into two groups of eight people so that they could get more out of their stay and contribute with their personal input. First group stayed from September 22nd till 29th and the second one from October 6th till 13th.
The Czech professionals had a chance to visit the local Office of employment of Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto, what enabled them to compare the methods and evaluate the results of the effort which is made to fight with the unemployment in the Sicilian region. An interesting visit for them was the Department of social care in the city hall of Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto where they had a discussion with the local professionals about the various approaches in the social care and made a comparative analysis of the Italian and Czech social system what broaden up their horizont of knowledge. The important moment in the project was the meeting with the Major of Barcellona who expressed a hope for the future cooperation which would positively streghten a mutual exchange of information. The third visit was in the province of Messina where they were discussing the transfer of competences in the field of social care and employment and other important topics. Moreover, they could get an idea about the working environment and practices in Sicily.
Furthermore, the participants had also a possiblity to discover some of the beauties of Sicilia by visiting such a lovely places as Taormina, Castelmola, Eolian Islands, Palermo and Cefalu.
According to participants´ opinion it was a great experience because it helped them to discover the similarities and differencies of the problems and to understand the ways of possible solutions which gave them an inspiration for the future and enriched their professional background.
To sum it up, this project of mobility was a positive and enlightening experience for Czech and Italian workers and we are glad that we could organize it. We are looking forward to cooperating as well as exchanging more information in the close future.