UM x Politie Limburg

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What we've learnt

As we are getting closer to the end of this experience, we want to share with you what we have learned.

Our Team leader Famke says: "During the project I learned to better balance tenacity and flexibility."

Ellie also thought of this as a learning experience. She says that PREMIUM has taught her of "being aware of and standing up for your limits and abilities is a sign of strength and growth. Ultimately, it allows you and your team to function optimally."

Anna says the following about the PREMIUM experience: “First and foremost, PREMIUM has taught me about the importance of effective communication. Letting others know what your needs are, being open and honest, as well as knowing when to take a step back and let others do more work are among the main pillar stones of good teamwork.”

Needless to say, the other team members also found this experience extremely worthwhile.

Julia: "I was able to meet and work together with great personalities and learned a range of skills from them, as for example improving my organizational and planning skills as well as how to effectively work in a group with people with different backgrounds."

Alex: "The Premium Experience has taught me how to be patient, listen to others, work collaboratively and many other skills and life lessons, I am so grateful I got to be part of this incredible project."

Thomas: "My premium experience taught me how to find my place in a multidisciplinary team, how to be effective in a limited timeframe and how to prioritize better while learning to focus on soft skills and wellbeing in a high stress environment."

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Sneak peek of our final product

Aaaand we are getting there!

We are about to implement the feedback we have received from our client and our mentor to create the final version of our product.

Throughout this entire process, we made sure that we kept in contact with our client and update her at every stage. This saved us a lot of time in the long run. Being on the same page with our client means that we only have to make some minor changes now.

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And we are almost done! Here is a quick recap of our project stages and where we are at right now.

Problem definition: Researching, researching, researching. The first step was to make sure that we fully understand and grasp the scope of the project. Our primary aim was to support Politie Limburg in devising a strategy for cross-border collaboration.

Plan development and material prep: At this stage, we made a concrete plan, defined every stage of the project, and set clear deadlines. In addition, we prepared our interview questions, a contact database, the texts for our e-mails, and the consent form.

Data collection: After reaching out to the relevant stakeholders, we conducted our interviews and summarised them.

Working on the final product: It’s time to get creative! Our final product will be a well-designed brochure that includes all the relevant information we have created, alongside visual aids to allow for a pleasant reading experience.

Closing event: And we’re done on the 25th! All the hard work will have finally paid off. We are proud to present the final product to our client. What an amazing journey it has been.

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We are getting closer and closer to finalizing our product. This is us preparing the first draft to be presented to our client :) We were asked to use as many visual stimuli as possible to summarize the information we have gathered. Time to get creative!

We hope all of you are on track and as excited as we are to finally be able to present something to your clients! All the hard work is now paying off.

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What can YOU do to prevent damage?

What can YOU do about this? Aside from not buying MDMA or Ecstasy, you can call 112 to report a drug waste dumping, or 0800-7000 to report it anonymously. Take photos and record the location, so the dumping can be removed as soon and efficiently as possible. Be careful not to enter the dumping site for your own safety, the chemicals are incredibly dangerous!! 

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Why we care.

Part of the reason we chose this project it because we recognize the urgency in creating a safer, cleaner and greener future.

Stay tuned for some more information on how to recognize drug waste, who to contact should you come across it and how to handle it.

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The mid-term presentation was a perfect opportunity to get some feedback on how we’ve been doing and what we need to improve upon.

One of the points mentioned was that you would like some more insight into what our project really is about. So here are some facts:

A report by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) and Europol (2016) also states that the Netherlands and Belgium are the most important areas for MDMA and amphetamine production, which includes ecstasy.

The Netherlands is one of the largest producers of ecstasy, a synthetic drug, worldwide. Of all ecstasy that has ever been confiscated, 42% was traced back to the Netherlands.

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The Midterm Event.

Famke did an amazing job presenting our progress at the midterm event, where we were not just able to share our progress and get insight into the progress of other teams, but also to receive constructive criticism, which we’re very thankful for. We also finally got our first team photo!

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On Thursday we will have our third client meeting. Even though, we are in the midst of our project - having started our data collection -we thought it'd be a good idea to restate what we want to deliver with our final product. We aim to create a useful, thorough, informative, and sustainable product! On Thursday we will double-check with our client if our visions fully align so we are set for writing up our final report and hand over the database we will have created in May. We hope the presentations go well for everybody tomorrow! We can't wait to see what you guys have been working on :D

#progress#goals#goaldefinition#vision

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Good news!

Our stakeholders are responding to us! From the very beginning, we were a bit concerned that we might not have a lot of people replying to our attempts to contact them but REST ASSURED we've been receiving replies!

Our first interview will be held very soon! We are very grateful but also a bit nervous. We thought it'd be a good idea to do the first interviews together so we can give each other feedback and make sure we come across as professional and enthusiastic as possible!

So what are the questions about illegal drug waste dumping that we are going to be asking? These are our three main themes:

1. What is their problem/the extent of the issue in their region?

2. What is their process/ strategy (incl. cooperations and networks involved)?

3. Would they be willing to co-operate with our client?

Hopefully, we will receive even more replies and we can update you with some more good news soon!

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Making progress.

We've been tirelessly working on finding contact information for stakeholders and reaching out to them. Now we've finally reached the stage of organizing interviews to gain the insight we need to reach our goal: optimizing the cross-border cooperation in managing drug waste dumping.

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We are delighted to introduce our team to you! 

So far, it’s been a pleasure to work together and we are all very excited for the upcoming weeks. Stay tuned to find out about the progress we have been making in tackling the issue of illegal drug waste dumping in Limburg and the surrounding areas.