[OSList] Opening space with people with mental health disabilities (among many others)

[Marie Ann Östlund via OSList]

Great to hear from you on how it went. Sound pretty wonderful! Thanks!

All the best,

Marie Ann

lördag 15 november 2014 skrev christine koehler via OSList <
oslist at lists.openspacetech.org>:

> Today I have a few moments to write some news about the event I asked you
> advices for.
>
> It went all wonderfully well. It was a 2 days OST event, plenary sessions
> were held in a circus, breakout sessions in tents nearby and newsroom was
> in a big truck . There were between 120 and 140 participants altogether.
> Some came for the opening, attended a session, then came back the next day
> for a few hours or sent someone from their team for next day.
>
> The sponsor was very happy because after a very difficult start, it turned
> out as a success : original event had been planned a few months before and
> was supposed to be co-organized by local government and non-profits, then
> they experienced disagreements and decided to organized one event each.
> This one was the one organized by the non-profit organizations, and in a
> very short time frame. It turned out that many more people from local
> government attended the open space than expected. This made them very
> proud.
> One anecdote caused by the come and go of people : one elected
> representative tried to offer 3 sessions at the same time. Obviously he had
> missed the opening. When he realized tha he had to be there, he manage to
> merge one session with another one and delegate the third to another
> person. And he did take care that there were reports for all. He came back
> for the closing circle and had everybody laugh by telling the story.
>
> Today is the day of the local government event, where a statement from the
> report of the OST was prepared for.  The statement says the the event was
> much richer than the report can describe, but obviously, it was a very
> useful time that will have a significative impact on their future
>
> My previous fear (that was completely gone thanks to you)  regarding
> people with mental health disabilities was totally useless. There was a
> team of 4 taking care of the newsrooms, among them 2 guys with
> disabilities, and their helper. I knew it, because she was there.  They
> were very helpful and we got everything right for final report.
> I had absolutely no clue about who had mental health disabilities among
> the participants, even if there were any. It all went perfectly well. After
> the event, we had a debrief with the team and I learned 9 of them
> participated to the event. Several of them, I heard, posted topics.
>
> Although this was an event with very few butterflies and bumblebees, I
> believe we all had a lot of fun.
> I was funny for me although because of the unexpected people I met :
> One of the facilitators the local government  had appointed for its event
> came. He was used to OST and much more used to working with non-profit than
> with local government. we laughed.
> I met although one young guy that recently came back from Cairo. He was
> amazed something like this could happen in France, as he told me, he didn't
> expect it. He has met there Art of hosting and knew Claudia. This gave him
> lots of hope for developing all the projects he had, that suddenly he saw
> much wider.
>
> We live in a small world with wide space open.
>
>
> Christine
>
>
>
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