PROMOTE Healthy Life Style finalized in Finland, 31.3-4.4.2014

The goal of the project has been topical for all project partners- to involve students in identifying and addressing socially significant themes; one of which is the exclusion of young people from society and ways we can all use to prevent this exclusion. Others include ethics, prevention of drug abuse, addiction to and impact of the internet, awareness of problems associated with alcohol abuse, the benefits of an active lifestyle.

We focused on the social problems amongst youth in all partner countries and looked for ways in everyday life and the school environment to minimize these risks and problems in a meaningful way.
By cooperating between Nordic and Baltic countries on topics which are important to all project partners we got a broader perspective and experience being in a position to share best practices in finding solutions together.
Thank you to the all participants from Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Latvia, Estonia and Finland!

Swedish reflections:
Our trip started in Nyköping on Monday morning 7.45. On the bus we got the message that the plane was 3 hours late so we have seen every store there is to see at Arlanda. We arrived in Porvoo around 19 and had a finnish pizza with "finnish" yellow Jaffa.
The whole group was staying at a clean and nice Hostel. Every day we walked to the school in snow or in sun.
On Tuesday we summarized our Nordplus experiences - we looked at all the movies that have been made during the project in all participating countries. We voted for five winners and all our favourite movies got the highest score.
Late in the afternoon boys from class FM13 guided us in the beautiful old town.
The school served a really nice dinner. During the evening there were a quiz that of course Sweden won. The prices were MUMIN cups.
Wednesday was the big day. We all dressed up and enjoyed over 20 very interesting movies at Joy of Life GALA that both students from Point College and Nord plus project had done. The movie Facebook life did get the honour mention.
The day ended with a cosy and lovely dinner at Liselott´s place.
On Thursday morning every one was tired but soon we all got a really good wake up in Paulig Coffe factory. Mmmm....  coffee and cake. What a great trip!

Ida, Felix and Silja

Estonia:
I was really nervous when I arrived, because I thought maybe everyone want to keep to themselves. I was so wrong, because everyone has been so kind and lovely. I really enjoyed all the activities, even The Joy of Life Gala, which made me super nervous at first. And today, on Thursday, we visited Paulig Coffee factory and it was a blast.
It was really awesome that we had to walk to school and back every day,because the project was about health and making healthy choises.
On the 3rd day we visited Liselott's house and I think it was really lovely of her to invite us for dinner.
All and all it has been really fun. If I ever get a chance to be part of this kind of project again, I deffinitely will.
Thank You for this opportunity, Laura.

It gave me the opportunity to get experienced with making the presentations again and listening to others.
I got a lot of friends from this project and got very much communication practice.
Thank You for this opportunity, Danel.

It has been all fun and so nice to meet young peaple and teachers from other countries. Also I fell in love with old Porvoo :)
This kind of projects are so good to paritcipate in and I´m glad I had the chance.
Special thanks to Liselott for the dinner and Helga for live music :)
Thank You all !
Kaia

Laura,Danel and Kaia

Norway

On the 31^st of March, our airplane from Norway landed in Finland. We got picked up at the airport by three handsome young guys who took us to the hostel in Porvoo. When we arrived at the hostel we were greeted by our Swedish roommate, Ida. We arrived a bit later than the other students, so Ida was the only one we met the first day.  

On the second day we got up at 06.30 and prepared for a long day at school. We met all the other students, and walked together to the school. At the school we were welcomed by our host, Anita. It was a long day with a lot of work, but also a lot of fun. Later that day we were given a tour through the old town of Porvoo. The day ended with a dinner at the school, two sore legs and a full brain.

On Wednesday our host let us sleep a bit longer. This was highly appreciated, since we were all very tired from the previous day. We started the day by dressing up for the Gala. When we arrived at the school we got together with the QBA students and started preparing the Gala. At 13.00 the Gala started, and all the students presented their videos. The day ended with a lovely dinner at the teacher Liselot's place.
Today we went to the Paulig coffee factory and got a tour around the building. We then went back to the school to eat lunch. Sadly we have to leave earlier than the other, so we will miss the last evening. We have had an amazing time in Porvoo, and we made a lot of new friends.
The project has been very educating in a fun way, and we will remember this trip for the rest of our lives.

Therese Svensen,Solveig Anna Blindheim Synes,Kristoffer Godø

Latvia
In this project we had a chance to meet people from Scandinavian countries. This was very interesting, because we learned something about their life style, about their culture. We had a lot of fun with them, every- one was friendly, attractive,open person and we really enjoyed to spend time with them. 

We got a new experience about presentation,we learned how to present ourselves,how to talk to audience. 
Project gave us a chance to know what means healthy life style.  At first you need to know that we have to care about the world we are living in, because if we don’t care about it we don’t care about ourselves.  
The full meaning of this project for us is:

• we can solve problems together
• there is something to be done to change something
• let's strat to change
• it's very important to strive for a healthy life style 

 

Lauris Rauza, Agnese Barkáne,Inese Tone

Iceland

 We came from Iceland on Monday morning and spent the first day travelling to Porvoo and exploring the city.  The next day we walked to the school where we gave our presentations and watched all the videos from former projects in other countries.  We then voted for the top 5, were divided into groups and made a presentation about them to give at the GALA. Later that day we were shown the city of Porvoo by local students .In the evening we had a big dinner together and a popquiz about Porvoo.
On Wednesday we walked to Konstfabriken and helped with preparing the GALA, were we later presented our videos.  Liselott, a teacher from Finland, then invited us to her house to have a dinner which was very nice.The last day we went to the Paulig coffee factory in Helsinki which was very interesting and revealing.                                                                                                         
We realy endjoyed our stay in this beautifull town that Porvoo is. The people we have met were absoluteley amazing and we are extreamly greatfull for the opportunity that Nordplus has given us to come and visit this wonderfull country.This project has given us a chance to met so many amazing and funny people that we had never else gotten to meet.  We saw a glance of what health is accorded to many persons and they showed us that there‘s always room for progress. 
We will cherish these memories for the rest of our lives. Many thanks from Iceland.

Helga Rún Jóhannsdóttir and Jón Freyr Gíslason

The top 5 videos which were presented at Joy of Life Gala:

1. Water
2. Facebook Life
3. The man that got healthy
4. Adam was a normal,happy teenager...
5. It starts with your choice

From these Facebook life made by Markus Tissari(Finland) Halldor Ingolfsson(Iceland) and Birte Sofie Bang(Norway) got the honor mention! Congratulations! 

All the videos being taken internationally to partner schools and the people who made the videos presenting themselves and their reasons for choosing these socially significant themes,showed that we all have similar social problems and are similar. This develops cultural awareness and cooperation across borders through:

• communication
• experience
• teamwork

We all are winners-a big teamwork-with a focus on a socially significant problems among young people looking for the existing causes,possible consequences finding the ways how to solve them.
 
Press release- Joy of Life

You can find it here

The final mobility in pictures:

,,THANK YOU NordPlus!Everyone in the class is very grateful for getting the opportunity to participate!''

,,Movie making is a very good and creative idea to involve students in identifying and addressing socially significant themes...''

 The evaluation form of the videos you can find here

15 videos with socially significant themes...

Evaluation of videos

Discussions,discussions...

Mr. Bryan Roberts gives synopsis about HLS benefits

You can find the presentation here 

Best posters at the Gala

Joy of Life Gala 2014 is opened!

Nordplus participants together on the stage-who are the best??

Teachers at The Gala

Well done work-relaxing at Liselott's appartment...

Visiting Paulig coffe roastery

A lot of information about Paulig Group!

Project teachers meeting Point College administration

Within the project teachers focused on development of social and civic competence by participating in international meetings,development of cultural awareness and multicultural expression, teaching skills in field of social care subjects or courses.Prevention of social exclusion among young people focusing on their healthy life style thus developing a personality with good social skills and a strong self-image was the main focus in the project.