Nowadays we hear and read a lot of stereotypes about different groups of our societies. More and more we see that the fear against unknown people /cultures is growing – this fear is mainly coming because we do not have the time to learn about it or inform ourselves about backgrounds, etc. Fact is that more and more people are moving from different countries to other places because of varied reasons (war, job situation, etc.) Also a lot of young people are searching for other possibilities out of their ‘home’ countries. To take this fear and to inform ‘local’ people about the backgrounds of other cultures/people is our daily work since more than 65 years. In 2009 Grenzenlos developed an education program called Grenzenlos@schools (More info at www.schools.or.at) The aim of the project is to talk with students/pupils about stereotypes and prejudices and to give them the cance to grow on their own personal and social level and to foster respect for cultural and social diversity. The concept of the educational program itself was developed by the University of Passau and friendly introduced to us by Prof. Dirschler. (More infos under http://www.inkup.uni-passau.de/fremdgeher.htm) Grenzenlos discovered soon that Passau and Vienna are geographically not so far away but the needs of Austrian pupils are different. Therefore Grenzenlos has adjusted it 2010 successfully with the feedback of several schools. In 2012 the project Grenzenlos@schools won as well some funds so we could develop and open the project for vocational schools. Some years ago also our international partners showed a high interest for our project that’s why we decide to apply for a partnership within Erasmus+. In January 2015 Grenzenlos hosted a meeting with LINK Italy, JAVVA Belgium, IBG Germany and EstYes to prepare a Strategic partnership on sensibilisation workshops at vocational schools, schools and youth The strategic partnership is ment to create a work space for LINK, JAVVA,IBG, EstYes and Grenzenlos to work on linking our non formal working methods within a school setting and to empower each other in starting up local workshops. The frame of this project allows us to train trainers for local workshops, to constantly monitor and evaluate the workshops and to create a handbook which will allow each organisation to keep the gained knowledge sustainable.‘Time for diversity’ will bring already gained experiences on an international level and help us to start a network of trainers and institutions that are willing to support on the one hand intercultural learning and on the other hand to promote the link between formal and non formal education possibilities.We will have several target groups related to the environment and realities in each participating countries.During the preparation meeting we defined the following target groups:- Youngsters in youth centers- Primary and high schools- Vocational schools- Multipliers eg teachers, youthworkersThe partners within the project are choosen carefully and all organisations bring different added values to the partnership.The aim of this project is To promote social and cultural inclusion in schools especially in vocational schools To support non formal and intercultural learning in vocational schools To link formal learning within the non formal learning field and to learn from each other while exchanging our organisational experience during the implementation phases To develop methods suitable for each international partners environment To train trainers in Italy, Germany, Estonia, Belgium, Italy To develop a training handbook together with the participating organisation and their trainers in order to have a work book for trainers, to pass the skills on to other trainers after the project and to share the results with partners who were not part of the project To underline the importance of linking formal and non-formal education To strengthen the partnership among organisations from different education actors (NGO´s, universities, vocational schools, local authorities, trade, etc) To establish a network of educational organisations/institutions and trainers
“Teaching to others has taught me a lot about myself. I had the chance to learn a lot about myself thanks to the interaction, discussions and activities realized with the youth during the workshops. An unforgettable experience, I will continue doing it.” (Trainer) “We are not all the same, but that does not matter. Enough that we respect each other and that everybody tries to understand why somebody things differently.”( Boy, 16 years) “Today I understood that not everybody in the class room thinks that I am a bad person, just because I am a Muslim.” (Girl, 15 years) Talking about migrants and role-play them allowed us to better understand their situation. I was surprised to learn that no European country was in the top 5 of countries hosting migrants. We’re told about migrants as if their arrival was a catastroiphe, but it is much worse in other places. This activity made us think about the preconceptions we have about migrants and all other people. Why would taking the train with a former inmate be dangerous? We consider the worse very quickly, but maybe it had nothing to do with the reason they went to jail. (pupil) Involved partners: Estyes Estonia, Link Italy, JAVVA Belgium, IBG Germany and Grenzenlos as coordinator in Austria Trained trainers: 34 within the included training, additional facilitators trained in national events 136 local workshops held in Austria, Italy, Estonia, Belgium, Germany for overall 2142 pupils in 2 universities, 5 primary schools, 88 secondary schools and 41 social institutions. The strategic partnership was ment to foster quality improvements of youth work and to create a work space for LINK, JAVVA, IBG, EstYes and Grenzenlos to work on linking non formal working methods within a school setting. The frame of this project allowed us to develop innovative approaches for addressing the target groups and increase the quality of education and training and youth work in Europe and beyond through trained trainers for local workshops and mostly important the publication of a handbook. To transmit the developed methods of the handbook on a local level all partners started local workshops.‘Time for diversity’ brought gained experiences on an international level and helped all involved partners to start a network of trainers and institutions that are willing to support on the one hand intercultural learning and on the other hand to promote the link between formal and non formal education possibilities. Project activities: +O1: Development of a handbook with intercultural learning methods for pupils, teacher, social workers,... + M1 Kick-Off-meeting hosted by IBG Germany (Stuttgart): Official start of the project + C1 Training of trainers hosted by Grenzenlos Austria: Training for already 20 active trainers per partner organisation who were later implementing local workshops in their home country. + A1 Local workshops at schools, social institutions and universities, Phase I (Italy, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Estonia) run by the trained trainers + C2 Mid-term evaluation hosted by LINK Italy: Evaluation of the project phase and a second possibility to share experiences among the trainers and to work on the handbook + A2 Local workshops at schools, social institutions and universities, Phase II (Italy, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Estonia) run by the trained trainers after the evaluation feedback + M2 and Multiplier Event Final evaluation meeting and presentation of the handbook hosted by JAVVA in Brussels within the final evaluation meeting we presented the results of our partnership. We invited local and European politicians, the local municipalities and local partners to show our work we did in the last months. Furthermore discussed about how we can continue working together and how we can spread the idea through our European and local partners. One of our biggest highlights for the final meeting was the presentation of the handbook in front of 60 external guests and multipliers