At the core of the project "Three Generations University – Power Through Diversity“ lies a networking programme for NGOs from various EU countries. It aims at broadening and further developing competencies of staff and volunteers who run different forms of “universities” – informal educational programmes for adults in their respective countries. Each of the organizations contributing to the project offers lectures organised in different ways: “Three Generations University” (UTP) (Germany, Belgium), “Open Polish University” (Hungary), as cooperation with the University of the Third Age (Uniwersytet Trzeciego Wieku) (Poland) or as open lectures (Italy). Each of the partner organisations has therefore developed its own methods and fields of specialization. The project is meant to exploit the strengths of each of these individual specialisations, so that they can be adapted by other partners, cooperating directly with all participating NGOs, in their activities. It enables an exchange of good practices which is meant to help broadening organisational and theme relevant competencies of NGO staff. In this way, five organisations can at the same time learn and profit from their respective experiences and by so doing develop an optimal formula for their own programmes in the field of informal education for adults. All this happens within the scope of one project. Five NGOs participate in the project: the association "Policultura e.V." from Germany, the foundation "Pokolenia Pokoleniom" from Poland, the societies "Emigration Project" from Belgium, "Polonia Nova Közhasznú Kulturális Egyesület" from Hungary and “INSIEMA” from Italy. About 25 employees and volunteers of the above mentioned organizations are actively involved in the project and so are about 15 experts and 400 lecture participants as recipients of the project. Among them are students representing all age groups, from people in their early twenties to those in their late seventies; students, pensioners, entrepreneurs, freelancers and many more. Project participants will, one after the other, visits all other participating countries in order to take part in one lecture and one workshop organised by the local “university”. Each partner organisation prepares hence a presentation of conducted educational initiatives for adults and a workshop addressing a specific chosen issue related to adult education. Participants being organisers of various educational offers discuss together strengths and weaknesses of each of the initiatives. As a result, it becomes possible to adapt successful solutions developed by partner organisations specializing in a particular issue to weaker areas of a given project. Moreover, partner organisations aim at developing together methods of mutual support in areas such as IT, marketing counselling, expert knowledge exchange etc. Quality improvement of adult education opportunities and, in its consequence, larger interest in the lectures among participants are important and aimed for results of competency enhancement of NGO employees. Long-term, the project is meant to contribute to promoting important values of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union such as: human dignity, anti-discrimination and diversity in terms of culture, religion and language. Reports of the European Commission show explicitly that ethnically and racially motivated discrimination is the most widely spread form of unequal treatment in the EU. Widely understood informal education addressed to all generations is meant to lead to a shift in negative thinking patterns and make advantages of integration in daily lives of “regular” people visible. This process requires commitment and engagement of many individuals, above all those representing NGOs, as well as their cooperation within the entire EU.
The subject of the project has been "universities" operating in various European countries in Polish: University of Three Generations, University of the Third Age or Open University. Despite their successes in this field the organizers were aware of deficits that occur in their work. Together, they concluded that the exchange of best practice, which will improve the organizational and substantive skills of NGO staff from different countries, will be successful. As a result of joint international meetings and the exchange of good experiences, in some organizations have been observed the following aspects of lectures which afterwards have been applied in other organizations: - setting up of simultaneous interpretation, which lead to a wider reception of the audience - looking for a prestigious venue, which decisively influences the invitation of lecturers and listeners - reaching potential listeners who speak the language of the country in which we live, including immigrants - outgoing education outside the lecture hall as it was in Budapest (ecological education - planting trees), or vernissages (post lecture meetings in Berlin or art exhibitions in Warsaw) - focusing on intergenerational dialogue, ensuring the participation of listeners of all ages - documenting and disseminating of all meetings The projects implemented so far for each of the partner organizations are various concepts of informal adult education carried out on their own. Each partner has developed its own methods and specialized in certain aspects of activities. During the networking project, the strongest aspects of each partner's activities were identified and implemented - in direct cooperation with other NGOs - in each partner's own activities. In this way, at one time, within one project, five partner organizations took advantage of the experience of others and will develop the optimal formula for organizing non-formal education for adults. This will be further facilitated by a database created by all partners and in the future consistently fed with information such as lecture topics, proposals and contacts to specific lecturers, and other ideas that can improve lectures. 19 people from 5 non-governmental organizations took part in the project. They were participants who directly take an active part in organizing "Universities" in their own country. People from Italy were particularly interested in creating a similar university at home, hence their participation in the project. Strengthened with new ideas, motivated and more confident we carry out further lectures. The aim of the project was to provide volunteers and associates of partner organizations with opportunities to exchange best practice samples and further develop competences in logistics as well as substantive educational projects. We want to educate people who decide on the topics of lectures, select lecturers, recruit them, deal with popularizing, documenting lectures, and acquire students. The level and attractiveness of their universities, individual lectures, and, consequently, the strength of impact on students (recipients) and the popularity of this form of informal adult education depends on the quality of their knowledge and experience. The partners of this project will be more effectively involved in educational activities that promote the best aspects of the cultures of individual EU countries in the context of a united Europe.