War, climate catastrophe, food and energy insecurity. The situation around us is becoming more and more worrisome and complex. Many of the certainties and achievements that our continent seemed to guarantee are now again being questioned. Never before has the discussion at the center of our project been so fundamental and urgent.
It is with this awareness and with a great sense of responsibility that we are preparing for our first operational meeting in Portugal, as guests of Vila Nova de Famalicão. It will be the first opportunity to get to know each other better and to build a common awareness of the situation in each other's countries of origin.
The path of the MEET project is strongly inspired by the Local Transformation Toolkit (LTT) methodology developed within the Transition Towns movement. This approach facilitates a "clearing" of the path so that with each new step, a phase of reflection is possible, one that clarifies the starting point of the path itself. It seems like a very logical approach, but our hectic reality often pushes us to move frantically, especially when we have not understood the context in which we are moving. This conundrum applies to us as individuals, but it also applies to organizations and communities.
The aim of these first days of work is precisely to build clarity with respect to the general scenario and specific local situations, so that the subsequent work phases can then rely on this clarity. A special guest from the European Environment Agency will also help our analyses.
What are the emerging needs? What impacts are our communities experiencing? What risks do we need to prevent? What opportunities are presenting themselves to us? What kind of change and evolution do we feel the need for? We will begin by asking ourselves these and other questions, and activating experiences and collective thinking in search of possible answers.
We look forward to letting you know how it went at the end of this initial phase of work.
