Partners got inspiration from meeting with a wide range of experts, including cooks, sport event organisers, doctors and medical workers, teachers, psychologists. Learning from these divergent and interesting experiences partners were able to develop the most suitable activities to work with obese youth.

The past months each partner were busy organizing working groups in order to fulfill and achive the aims and objectives of the YOUnite project, each meeting was organized in a unique way, at different times and using different methods.

EMINA held four working groups and structured its meetings around the modules. EMINA divided the six modules into two two-day meetings, as the topics of the modules go hand in hand with each other. EMINA invited three experts with medical backgrounds, one person who previously had been responsible for organizing international sport events and also had past experience with being overweight, and four more experts with various backgrounds (pedagogical background, cooking at a school canteen, having obese children, and dealing with being overweight or obese).

EMINA aimed and structured its meetings to have a conversation/discussion type of meeting, which could lead to greater results but also had guideline questions. Since the participating experts had different backgrounds, experiences, and knowledge, they were eager to get to know other perspectives, so the continuity of the conversation didn’t pose any problems.

ÖSB held 4 working group meetings (22.02, 20.03, 29.03, and 09.05). ÖSB’s first meeting was a general brainstorming on possible activities that the partners can do with youngsters, on the second meeting with the experts, ÖSB focused on understanding the background, mechanisms, and psychology of obesity; on the last two meetings, they highlighted the importance of understanding employability and awareness factors; and on the last meeting, the experts shared more of their ideas and discussed other possible activities for the YOUnite program.

The discussion that ÖSB had with experts was very beneficial for fulfilling the project’s aim, since they focused a lot more on the practical side of the project as well.  They came up with the most important messages for the youth that partners can use to reach out to more people. They also collected several activity ideas that can be used when the partners are implementing the project.

Association for Cultural Relations held four working group meetings, three of them were held online (10.02, 17.02, and 03.03), and the last one was an in-person meeting (08.04). During their meetings, ACR dug deep into the topic of the modules with the experts, and they also addressed some important practical and general issues regarding the project. ACR also had very successful and fruitful meetings with experts; they came up with a lot of new and creative ideas to be used in the YOUnite program (activities, tips for trainers, how to reach out to more youngsters, etc.).

Zdrawy Ksztalt held twelve working group meetings within the YOUnite project. They held meetings in Bobrowniki, Jelenia Góra and Lodz as well. They involved several experts and also held individual meetings in order to dive into the topic at a deeper level. Zdrawy Ksztalt started its working group meetings with a general introduction to the project, they also developed a logical framework model in order to understand the issues concerning the YOUnite program’s work. Throughout the twelve meetings, they discussed all things related to the six modules – medicine, nutrition, sport, awareness, stress, and employement – they held problem-solution discussions, and listed several activities that the partners could implement for a successful outcome.

Besides the fact that each partner had their own unique, creative, and non-formal way of organizing their working group meetings, they also used the guideline questions that were previously suggested to compare the results or have a common base on certain questions. The exact results and answers will be in the final report.