Categorie: Agenda

In the month of May 2015 ( departure May 16th, May 24th) I will travel to New York, Philadelphia and Poughkeepsie with a great group of people. Because of the diversity of the group it promises to become a special edition of my Learning Experiences.

The group is 16 people big. Registration is still open. We will mainly focus on Consumer Run Programs. During working visits we will join workers from various organisations while they are on the job, hands on.

In the year 2012 I travels to New York with several people from Norway. I spoke at two Conferences in Stord and became good friends with the people from Stord.

In the month of April 2014, 12 professionals from Oslo/Norway, came to the Netherlands for a two day Learning Experience. We organised, prepared and mastered this Experience. In two days several small groups from Oslo traveled troughout the Netherlands to gain new knowledge, to gather inspiration and establish valuable connections.  After starting to work with the people of Stord/ Norway in 2011, we are very much looking forward to an extended Norwegian/Dutch experience.

In the month of November 2014 I traveled to Lisboa with 12 eager workers from Stord, Norway and a Policy Maker from the State Housing Bank, which is the government’s tools to implement housing policy. We visited a true Housing First program, loyal to what Housing First was meant to be when Sam Tsemberis developed the program in New York. It was a wonderful trip and it brought us back to why Housing First was developed in the first place: solve homelessness and shift ’the power’ from the professional to the person with lived experience. Going back to the roots was again a life changing experience, thanks to Jose, Ines, Teresa and all the wonderful team members and consumers.

Norway means serious Housing First Business. They want to create more programs in several parts of the country. On June 24th the 3rd European Congress on Assertive Outreach: “Reaching out together” will take place.

Prior to this Conference I will organise a Learning Experience to the cities of Bergen and Oslo. This will all start at June 16th 2015 and will continue till June 23rd, after which we will blend in with the program at the Conference on June 24th. An all Norway Experience.

If you are interested in joining this trip and (not mandatory) also want to present at this Conference, please contact me. Register for the Experience and send in an abstract. I am on the Board of Advisors for this Conference.

I hope to meet you in Norway. Seven people from the Norwegian Government also registered for this Learning Experience and the Conference.

In 2013 Harry Gras and I started working with the Trimbos Institute in Utrecht on Improving Mental Health in Montenegro. We have trained many nurses in how to shift their work in an institution into a Community Based Program. We will conclude this program at the end of March 2014.

We have the profound wish to continue our work with our friends and co-workers from Montenegro. A way to do this is to create an exchange program. In May 2014 I will organize a Learning Experience to several cities in Montenegro. Within this experience participants will visit several programs throughout Montenegro. Otherwise we would like to keep on contributing to the improvement of services in this beautiful country. Participants will have the opportunity to actaully work in institutions in Podgorica and Kotor and thus exchange their knowledge and experience with workers in Montenegro. We will also organize a mini-conference during this trip, where participants of this experience will be able to share their knowledge in various workshops.

If you, like us, want to have a mind blowing experience and if you are willing to share everything you know, register for this study trip! Workers and clients from Montenegro will be most pleased to welcome you and most grateful for your generosity!

It is, without exageration, the most beautiful country in the world. Now it is up to us to contribute in such a way that clients and workers may benefit from the profound knowledge and resources we have in our western countries. Because sharing all this is creating an alternative currency and work on a better future for Montenegro and it’s people.

For more (written) information on this Experience and proposition, please contact Rokus Loopik.