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Staying in control of our lives can be a daily struggle—especially this year, and especially for the half of us who live with a chronic condition. It’s time for a change. It’s time to work together to take back control. One way to start focusing on your health again is to see your doctor but there’s a lot to take in during a consultation with a health practitioner. Preparing yourself for the consultation helps ensure you leave satisfied. Check out www.thisislivingtoday.com to find our guide that helps you to prepare and suggests questions to ask in the session. The initiative and the website have been developed by Boehringer Ingelheim International GmbH in collaboration with representatives from patient organizations and other experts, including Active Citizenship Network.
Pain Alliance Europe (PAE), of which Cittadinanzattiva/Active Citizenship Network is a Board Member, is delighted to present the third edition of the Brain Mind Pain (BMP) Grant with the theme of “Healthy Sleep for People Living with Brain, Mind and Pain Conditions”. PAE represents the voice of people living with chronic pain. Pain, in a nutshell, is a significant disruptor of overall well-being, quality of daily life, and lifestyle choices. Chronic pain impacts mental health and healthy sleep. The latter is crucial for general health. With this vicious cycle in mind, the BMP Grant aims to explore and provide practical solutions for people living with pain and struggling with healthy sleep. PAE seeks all projects, big or small, that offer functional outcomes for people living with pain. They welcome applicants from various backgrounds, such as patient-centered NGOs, research/academia, medicine, and commercial organizations. Past BMP Grant winners include projects that utilized digital technology, such as an app for monitoring symptoms, an eHealth system with a self-help guide, or a social media campaign. Moreover, the BMP Grant also welcomes offline strategies for healthy sleep. This year, the BMP Grant fund is EUR 60,000.
CROPBOOSTER-P is a Coordination and Support Action (CSA) project, of which Cittadinanzattiva/Active Citizenship Network is a Core Stakeholder, supported through the EU Horizon 2020 funding programme. The project, which started on November 1, 2018, is mapping and assessing current and future strategies, methods and technologies for crop improvement. The project mainly aims at new crop varieties in current agricultural practice by aligning the development of these crops with the needs, concerns, wishes and expectations of society. Following a responsible research and innovation (RRI) approach, stakeholders representing all actors of the food system are involved both in designing the blueprints for the future crops, as well as in the developing of the roadmap to successfully introduce the new crops to the users, and to educate the consumers to new paradigms of sustainable agriculture, based on future proofed crops and more efficient resource use.
Working as project Assistant at Active Citizenship Network (ACN) was a very enriching experience. During my time there, I was mostly in charge of dealing with healthcare and patients’ rights at the European level. More specifically, I worked on different projects on patients’ safety and empowerment, e-health, vaccination, sustainable healthcare, and cross-border healthcare rights. Since the very first moment I was given numerous responsibilities, which allowed me to develop my organizational and management skills. The various tasks I was assigned included helping in the organization of public events, writing articles and content for the website, drafting the minutes of public events, preparing memoranda of understanding and partnership proposals, among others. Moreover, I was able to assist my colleagues in the organization of the 13th edition of the European Patients' Rights Day as well as to attend public debates at the European Commission. Above all, I was mainly responsible for carrying out the second edition of the bi-annual research-project at the European level “EU Civic Prize on Chronic Pain - Collection of good practices”, which seeks to highlight existing good practices addressing the struggle against pain in several European countries.
During my internship with Active Citizenship Network, I had the chance to see how civic participation can be a decisive factor in EU policymaking. From the start, I received lots of responsibilities and projects, such as the Launch of the second term of the MEPs Interest Group “Cross-Border Healthcare and Patients’ Rights”, which we held at the European Parliament. Thanks to my stay at Active Citizenship Network, I was able to understand how important discussion among different stakeholders takes place in order to further common goals, such as in the field of Health Policy.
During my period of work at Active Citizenship Network (ACN) I represented the interests of an organization that pursues common interests for raising awareness among European legislators on various issues. It was an exciting challenge that made me learn a lot about what Advocacy means to European institutions. Furthermore, having assisted the Director Mariano Votta in fundraising activities here in Brussels taught me how NGOs interface with the private sector and raise funds to carry out their activities. A useful experience to understand how and when the private sector uses financial resources to promote advocacy initiatives for everyone's interest. By carrying out these activities, I learned skills that will be useful to me throughout my professional career. I especially thank Mariano, Daniela, Bianca and Giuseppe for making this experience possible.
During these months I have lived an extremely enriching and formative volunteering experience within the Active Citizenship Network office. The path I have taken in ACN has helped me to broaden my interests and improve my skills in the social field. Thanks to this experience I understood the value of networking, I had the opportunity to get in touch with doctors and researchers from various European countries and I acquired a wealth of new knowledge and skills that I will treasure in my future. Furthermore, thanks to this work, I had the opportunity to test myself by undertaking new work paths that allowed me to face new future possibilities. I am very grateful for this experience and highly recommend it to anyone who wants to deal with this working world. My experience with ACN has pushed me to want to know, in a much more in-depth way, the functioning of European policies related to citizens' rights, especially in the health sector. I had the opportunity to deal with local health policies within some European countries and this allowed me to learn different models from ours and through which it is possible to enrich our skills on the subject. The fundamental element that I made mine as a result of this experience undoubtedly concerns the importance of having access and promoting correct information regarding the sphere of rights and protections of citizens in the field of health and which are of public interest.
I started the collaboration with Cittadinanzattiva Onlus - Active Citizenship Network Brussels’ office in October 2016. I collaborated on European policies regarding civil society and the protection of patients’ and consumers’ rights and on project activities. Among all, the participation in the evaluation focus group of the Europe for Citizens Programme, the organisation of the Citizenergy project event at the European Parliament and the organization of a session of the European Sustainable Energy Week 2017.
I would have never thought that at the age of 30 I would have such an enriching and formative exchange experience outside of my country. The path I undertook as a volunteer for ACN has first of all formed me as a person, helping me to become aware of my abilities and potentialities, but also of my interests and language skills. Thanks to the experiences I have lived, I have improved in my path as a volunteer, I understood the importance of networking at the European level and not only at the local level, and I understood how necessary it is to build synergies to be more effective towards the achievement of our goals as volunteers. My experience with ACN has led me to study how European policies work, and all those policies that serve activists and volunteers. I also got to know the European model of participatory democracy which, although it still has room for improvement, represents a chance and a fundamental opportunity for us citizens to have our say on so many local issues that can be developed in the European context. In a world in which we are increasingly interconnected and interdependent, these aspects are fundamental for obtaining rights, protection and correct information for the benefit of citizens and patients.
DICA EUROPA! is a project funded under the National Operational Program PON "Sistemi di Politiche Attive per l'Occupazione" (SPAO) and developed by Studio Saperessere and Prodos Consulting, in partnership with Cittadinanzattiva, Arci and Legambiente Scuola e Formazione.
Through the organization of 40 training courses throughout the country, the provision of 20 hours of online training, 10 webinars and the realization of more than 10 networking events, the project aims to provide participants (volunteers, associates and activists working in the Third Sector) with practical and methodological tools to identify the most appropriate forms of access to financial resources of the European Union and develop project proposals in line with the standards of the European Commission. In particular, the course aims to train professionals belonging to third sector organizations, with specific theoretical knowledge and operational skills in project management for social planning.
Cittadinanzattiva APS
p.iva: 02142701008
via Imera, 2
00183 Roma
Tel: (+39) 06.36.71.81
Fax: (+39) 06.36.71.83.33
Rue Philippe Le Bon, 46
1000 Brussels - Belgium
