Final conference for the Erasmus+ strategic partnership INTERFACE

The final conference for the Erasmus+ strategic partnership INTERFACE took place June 20th in North-western Iceland, at Ljósheimar, Sauðárkrókur. The project‘s acronym refers to its full title „Innovation and Entrepreneurship for Fragile Communities in Europe“.

The mayor of Akureyri, Ásthildur Sturludóttir, opened the conference and reflected on her own experience of growing up, living and working in small communities. She spoke about the challenges that fragile communities face, the importance of education and investment in infrastructure. But also about the positive effects created by communal cohesion and active participation in ones community. Next on the agenda were project participants from the INTERFACE consortium, presenting the findings of the two-year long project, the curricula and teaching material that were developed and tested during the project period in the participating countries, namely Iceland, Bulgaria, Greece, Ireland and Italy. Finally, two project managers from fragile communities in Iceland, Óttar Kárason form Borgarfjörður Eystri and Skúli Gautason from Árneshreppur spoke about their experience from working within the communities and participating in the piloting phase of the INTERFACE project.

The INTERFACE project aims to empower and support inhabitants of fragile communities to initiate new businesses or social activities. The participation of members of the local communities is a key success factor and it has been shown that such participation increases social cohesion. The members of the communities themselves, have valuable knowledge about the culture, history and opportunities each region has to offer. The project is based on a needs analysis that was conducted in the participating communities. Training, by the INTERFACE curriculum, relies on the principles of coaching. The INTERFACE trainees led workshops in their home communities, where local participants developed various social and economic initiatives.

The INTERFACE project is a Strategic Partnership for adult education, funded by the European Union’s Erasmus+ program.

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