The first meeting of Preparing for and Handling Opportunities for Employment: saying 'No' to Isolation and Xenophobia (PHOENIX) was held in Radviliskis, Lithuania, last month. The mayor of Radviliskis, Antanas Cepononis, met the project partners, wishing them a successful meeting while maintaining that these types of projects helped to strengthen the relationship between European countries.

This Grundtvig 2 Learning Partnership programme, which falls under Socrates, is a partnership between AWO and Dobeq - Durtmund (Germany), ANFE - Delegazione Regionale Sicilia (Italy), the Radvili?kis Adults and Youth Informal Education Centre (Lithuania), the Institute of Forensic Studies, University of Malta (co-ordinating partner) and the Corradino Correctional Facility (Malta).

The aim of the partnership is to create a module of studies that would assist disadvantaged members of society, such as immigrants and prisoners, in securing a job.

The idea behind the partnership is to use the abilities and knowledge of those who are unemployed to assist in the creation of the teaching modules as they are in a better condition to understand the problems they are facing.

During the first meeting the scenario was set to collect data through the use of a questionnaire.

A Website was also created where the work of the learning partnership can be seen: http://xoomer.alice.it/socrates-phoenix/ These partners will meet again in Malta at the end of February.