Our group is home again. The suitcases are unpacked and the photos are being shared. Every participant now holds a Europass Mobility certificate. With this, Association Aries has completed its second Erasmus+ group mobility for adult learners in Alicante. For an organisation like ours, that is a milestone worth celebrating. Most of all, though, it is a reason to keep going.
Second time, bigger steps
Our first mobility, Building Bridges, showed us how much adults can gain from learning in another European country. More than 40 people applied for 14 places. That interest told us clearly that there is a real need, and it pushed us to aim higher.
This second project, Growing Europe (Erasmus+ KA122-ADU), took that experience further. Once again our host partner was Asociación Europea Equalis in Alicante. This time we focused on three themes that matter in everyday life: digital skills, active citizenship and inclusion.
What the participants did
The programme was built on learning by doing. Participants explored Alicante in teams and documented what makes a city proud and what is stuck. They also captured where people meet and where Europe becomes visible in daily life. They then compared all this with their own towns. They worked on media literacy and practised telling real information from fake. They also learned who is responsible for what, from the local municipality to the EU institutions.
The week ended with something we are especially proud of: a handwritten book of pledges. Every participant chose one concrete problem in their community and wrote down how they will tackle it:
- what they will do;
- who they will involve;
- which institution they will contact;
- by when they will check the result.
The topics are close to home: clean parks, accessible pavements, recycling, outdoor meetups that bring neighbours together, and a campaign against aggressive gambling advertising.
Why this is not the end
A mobility is only a few days long, but this project is about what happens after. The real measure of success will not be the certificates. It will be the changes the participants bring to Plovdiv, Varna, Sofia and their other home communities.
That is why the project continues:
- December: first online follow-up meeting. Each participant will share what they have done and what has changed.
- March: second online meeting to look at progress over a longer period. Responses from institutions often take time.
- In between: the Aries and Equalis teams remain available. We can help participants shape their civic requests, think through their strategy and find the right channel for each issue.
We will share the results here on our blog, including what worked, what didn’t, and what we learned from both.
Thank you
A huge thank you to our participants for their openness, their teamwork and their courage to commit to change. Thank you to our partners at Asociación Europea Equalis for their warm hospitality and an excellent programme. Thank you also to the Erasmus+ programme for making all of this possible.
Two mobilities done. Many more steps ahead.
Project 2026-1-BG01-KA122-ADU-000418580 is 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 Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.
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