Services of the Twinning Office

The Twinning Office

Advises

• municipalities
• schools/institutions in apprenticeship and in-service training
• professional organisations
• associations

on the search for their counterpart in Calvados

  
Helps

• with the elaboration of programmes for initial contact with French partners in Calvados
• with financing twinning meetings
• by clarifying possible funding.

Promotes and organises

• Exchange of youth workers, for instance together with the Bezirksjugendring of Lower Franconia
• Exchange of music groups in cooperation with the representative for popular music of the Bezirk of Lower Franconia
• Assistance in finding an internship for students from the two regions
• Participation in the „European Solidarity Corps" programme
• Dr. Franz-Gerstner travel scholarship for pupils or apprentices between 16 and 27 years

Cultural exchange between the regions

• Exchange of exhibitions
• Exchange of music and dance groups, authors, and experts for events of regional importance such as European festivals in Calvados, French cultural and speciality weeks in Lower Franconia
• Call for competitions, such as photography competitions
• Lectures, readings for Francophiles and Francophones/French learners

Annual Twinning Prize competition

• Awarded to predefined target groups for special services to the European partnership

  
Acquisition of the partner language

• Organisation of seminars for French teachers in cooperation with the services of ministerial commissioners in Lower Franconia
• Student-oriented events in Lower Franconian schools
• Exchange of experience and training courses for French teachers in nurseries and primary schools
• Competitions for nurseries and primary schools (e.g. “Salut, ça va?”) as well as secondary schools
• Training as “Mediator for the French language and culture in pre-primary and primary education” in cooperation with dfI Erlangen and the French Institute of Munich 
• Creation of a media library for nursery and primary schools

Advises and networks all twinned municipalities in France and in member countries of the European Union through

• Organisation of municipality twinning days
• Organisation of European seminars
• Seminars for youth exchange workers
• Assistance in applying for subsidies
• Sharing of information relevant for twinning
• Publication of monthly newsletters and the journal „Bonjour Unterfranken“

Organises

• Organisation of multi-day meetings with thematic focusses for representatives as well as for members of the twinning committee from Lower Franconia and from France
• Lectures and information evenings about twinning and the twinned region
• Participation of exhibitors coming from the department of Calvados at the Mainfranken Messe in Würzburg