Project Reference: 2021-2-EE01-KA152-YOU-000038000
Project Status
Completed
- Start date 01-01-2022
- End date 31-05-2023
EU Grant
26.485,40 €
Programme
Erasmus+
Key Action
Learning Mobility of Individuals
Action Type
Mobility of young people
Countries covered
6
- Bridging intercultural, intergenerational and social divide
- European identity and values
- Inclusion of marginalised young people
Summary
Objectives
By implementing this project, we wanted to awaken and empower the sense of acceptance, inclusiveness, open-mindedness, and solidarity in young people towards different nationalities, religions, and socio-economic groups. Driven by the difficulty of modern societies to accept diversity (in all its forms), even though they consist of people from different ethnic, cultural, and religious backgrounds our wish was to equip and empower youngsters with the necessary skills and competences and engage and motivate them for supporting and standing up for all those “minority” groups who have no voice, are marginalized, and excluded from society and its processes and become social-changers.
Through raising awareness about this issue not only we made young people empathetic enough to be actively involved in their local communities, make a change and have an impact, raise their voices when it comes to their rights, and support and stand up for others when they see injustice or violation of human rights, but we also contributed to the encouragement of society (and its citizens) to improve its role in helping people to feel a sense of belonging and identity when settling into a new place and community.
Our goal was through this project and its activity to contribute and corresponded to one of the set priorities of Erasmus+ Programme and European Commission for young people, which is “Inclusion and Diversity” and the provision of equal opportunities for the educational, professional, and personal development of youth through non-formal and informal education. This was achieved by 1) including young people primarily from ethnic minorities, descendants of immigrants, and youngsters with social/ educational/ economic, and geographical obstacles, 2) promoting the learning mobility of individuals and groups, as well as cooperation, quality, inclusion and equality, excellence, creativity and innovation at the level of organizations and policies in the field of education and training, 3) promoting non-formal and informal learning mobility and the active participation of youth, as well as cooperation, quality, inclusion, creativity, and innovation.
We created a safe learning environment for the participants, where they could express themselves without fear, share ideas and points of view, learn from each other, and all together discover the best ways to combat exclusion. To achieve all the above, we used interactive methods and approaches, based on non-formal education tools such as teamwork, brainstorming, role plays, debates, simulations, and of course reflection and evaluation. In this way, participants learnt to respect cultural diversity and foster mutual understanding between people from different countries driving European Integration, be open-minded, be tolerant and accept diversity, behave in conflict situations, and especially in multi-ethnic/ multicultural communities. They became more resilient to life’s difficulties and strong and empathetic enough to be actively involved in their local communities, make a change and have an impact, raise their voices when it comes to their rights, and support and stand up for others when they see injustice or violation of human rights.
The objectives of the project were:
• To foster a greater and inclusive sense of belonging and identity.
• To promote a sense of tolerance among young people.
• To enhance the importance of diverse values like the importance of maintaining pluralism, non-discrimination, tolerance, justice, solidarity, and equality.
• To empower young people to find their own way in life.
• To effectively communicate and cooperate in order to reach common goals in an international environment and develop common values.
Through an international atmosphere, we addressed and discussed different aspects of international voluntary projects and activities and their required preparation. We also raised awareness of other issues that can arise or can be directly related to leading an international and local youth project. Our focus was directly linked to cooperation among organizations and the importance of leadership. Moreover, we provided a reliable and safe space for participants from both EU and non-EU countries to develop themselves and gain new skills. The inclusion of this combination of countries allowed us to have a broad share of experiences among us but also a broader audience for the dissemination of project results.
Implementation
In the framework of the Erasmus+ programme, KA1 project “Youth Against Exclusion”, we implemented a Youth Exchange which was held from the 27th of September to the 8th of October (including the travel days), in Marrakesh, Morocco. This 10-day activity, which was structured and based on tools and methods of non-formal education, tackled the topic of inclusion and how can young people contribute to the achievement and promotion of acceptance of diversity, solidarity, tolerance, and intercultural dialogue.
The activity was designed and addressed to 30 young people in total (30 participants and 6 Youth Leaders) from 6 countries (Estonia, Morocco, Italy, Georgia, Lithuania, and Egypt). However, due to the fact that the Georgian delegation couldn’t attend due to problems with visa issuing, we had to proceed to the replacement of the partner, with Greece, after informing and getting the approval from the Estonian NA.
The age rank of participants was from 18 to 25 years old while the Youth Leaders were 18 years old and above, with no age limit, however, and with proven experience in non-formal education activities and in working directly (either professionally or voluntarily) with young people. As far as the profile of participants is concerned, we had two categories:
1. Young people, volunteers, active citizens, youth leaders
2. Young people with fewer opportunities with cultural differences and facing educational difficulties, and social, economic, and geographical obstacles.
Concerning the profile of the Youth Leaders all of them had already had previous experience in the Youth field and non-formal education and more specifically in working directly with young people whether at a professional or voluntary level. In addition, they had all previous experience in traveling abroad and being involved in the non-governmental sector and their communities.
All these experiences not only helped them to efficiently support and help their groups but were also shared with participants in order to motivate them and show them that in life there are both success and failure stories which are both necessary to help us understand who we are, what are our strengths and weaknesses and are crucial to help us become more mature, strong, responsible and self-confident.
All participants had a basic level of the English language, which was the working language of the project, something that helped them to participate actively in the sessions and to express themselves and their thoughts with the rest of the group. At the same time, our goal was to promote gender equality among participants and to provide equal opportunities for all interested candidates, so we included participants with fewer opportunities that were facing geographical, economic, social, cultural, and educational obstacles.
Furthermore, the project gave the opportunity and the space for participants coming from EU and non-EU countries to meet which was the best practice example to achieve intercultural understanding and learning and appreciate diversity. Participants were able to discuss, exchange ideas and points of view and work on the topic of inclusion and intercultural learning, challenges that young people face nowadays and what their needs are, youth participation, identity, and active citizenship.
The entire design of the activity was based on covering the needs of participating organizations and their target groups.
Results
The results and impact of the project “Youth Against Exclusion” were significant on both the participants and their organizations, but also on the target groups that these organizations are working with. This impact was applicable at local, national, and European level.
Our main target group was the participants themselves and the direct and biggest impact of our project was on them. More specifically the project and its activity helped them: understand who they are and realize what were the main factors that have shaped their identities and personalities, discover their own biases and how all of us unconsciously exclude groups of people, learn to appreciate diversity, their own cultural backgrounds and the importance of intercultural dialogue, empower their strengths and discover unrevealed talents and interests, and develop and improve a wide range of skills and competences. Throughout the whole process, the tools, and methods they experienced and their interaction with other youngsters from different countries and with different cultural backgrounds, participants became more open-minded and tolerant to diversity, self-confident and self-esteemed, they learnt how to work in teams and in a multicultural environment, they increased their empathy and social understanding and became more active citizens. By exchanging ideas, points of view, thoughts, worries, and hopes and by recognizing all the things they learnt and achieved during this project’s journey, they got a clearer idea about what they like or want to do further in their life, they discovered new opportunities, potentials, and things they are interested in and realized how important their role is in society, today’s world and its future.
This intercultural experience gave participants not only the opportunity to become capable of recognizing exclusion in all its forms, combating and even preventing it especially by using non-formal education tools but also to discover better themselves, develop at a personal and professional level and make new friendships and lay the ground for the creation of their own networks in order to organize future joint activities and projects.
They returned to their homes being more sensitized, aware, and equipped with new skills, competences, and tools easily adaptable and used in an interactive way in their local realities. In a few words, they returned ready to lead and become youth workers and act as multipliers and mentors for other youngsters in their local communities. The impact on their local communities was the usage of tools, methods, and good practice examples to help, motivate and engage as many young people as possible through innovative and interactive approaches to combat exclusion and become active citizens. During the activity, participants had also the chance to discover and interact with the local community of Marrakech, increasing this way their responsiveness to cultural diversity, providing a significant impact at a local level, and promoting and giving visibility to the Erasmus+ programme and the project itself from the very beginning. They gave the opportunity to local citizens and young people to learn under which framework they had come to Morocco and what they were doing there. They invited local Youth to attend the intercultural nights in order to have the opportunity to get more familiar with the programme and the project, have the chance to discover new cultures, and also present theirs and discuss with the participants at a more intercultural and international level. The local community was benefitted also from the fact that the project laid the ground for the organized teamwork of the society, the citizens, and the local authorities as we had fruitful communication and cooperation with local stakeholders.
Moreover, the project managed to increase the capacity of the involved organizations in working on international projects and in working with youngsters by using new methods for raising awareness about inclusion based on non-formal education techniques and tools. Each partner organization gained through its participating delegation youngsters with experience and confidence in implementing activities promoting social inclusion and development of Youth, in using non-formal education activities in general, and who had a good understanding of Erasmus+ programme and the opportunities it offers for supporting Youth. All those were factors that attracted other youngsters and increased the number of their volunteers.
At the same time, participants were able to empower and have an impact not only on their sending organizations, their personnel, and their target groups but also on other local and national organizations and a broader number of youngsters, youth workers, and any other interested person. Consequently, a wider impact and promotion of social inclusion was achieved, and the sustainability of the project results was ensured.