"THE EUROPEAN ABC" (Awareness of Borders to Cross)In view of the current refugee crisis, we, two general highschools from Italy and Spain and two vocational highschools from Poland and Germany, are planning a project together with our students with and without refugee backgrounds to get aware, get involved and get ready to overcome borders - metaphorical, social, cultural and geographical borders - and in the end develop the "European ABC", in which all participants express their hopes and fears about Europe. All participants will get aware of their common human values across political and cultural borders: They will say "no" to racism, discrimination and fanatism. All particpants will get involved: They will act as responsible active citizens who care and help. All participants will get ready to cross the border: They will respect human diversity and feel empathy with those peers who have lost their homes. However, to achieve the above objectives, it is vital to strengthen the personal skills and competences of each individual, to enable them to perform better at school, to give them the courage to fight for their place in European society and a good future on the European labour market. Our participants are highschool students between 15 and 19 years old. A large part of the project students will be refugees and/or migrant students who - due to their ethnic background - need support in their personal and academical development. They will actively and fully participate at an eye-to-eye-level. Students will write their individual "Border Stories" , resulting in a large pool of stories which will be selected, discussed, edited and prepared for publication and "live"-performances (e. g. public readings, role-plays). Students will continuously research the background, history and current controversial strategies of our countries to cope with refugees, resulting in a large pool of documentary material again to be selected, discussed, edited and prepared for publication and "live"-performances (e. g. ppt-presentations). Here, an essential source of first-hand information are interviews with eye-witnesses (as short videos).By continually evaluating, updating and improving the materials, students will finally present the "European ABC" - a video collage with the best elements of the foregoing steps and design a piece of metal art together using keywords from the ABC. At each school, a "Global Info Point" will be implemented, incl. exhibition on the refugees' home countries, and constantly updated. A great variety of methods is used, all with the idea that students really enjoy working together, can bring in their hopes and fears and get the chance to show their creativity and communicative/ITC talents. That includes:- multinational workshops online (regular Chat twice a week) and on location (with precise tasks, time frames and objectives)- presenting and performing in front of a large audience - thorough Internet research, summarizing and presenting results - carrying out interviews- documenting results, i. e. editing fotos, cutting/subtitling videos etc. The results will be: - "Border Stories": a printed collection of short stories, poems, comics, foto-stories and paintings by students with and without refugee/migrant background - A professional video collage "The European ABC" with "best" elements of the project. It will not only document the progression and phases of the project, but also give solid background information and an insight into the individual's fears and hopes. The chapters in the collage will follow the alphabet: containing first name of student, origin and his/her message using the (e. g. A = Awareness, ... D - Democracy, ... F = Freedom, ... X = (no to) Xenophoebia, ...)- A large art object of metal - probably in the form of a tree - with the European ABC designed by the students on small enamelled metal plates - probably in the form of fruit - containing again name, origin, keyword/message - "Global Info-Point" : a central meeting point at each school including exhibition of "Beauties of our Countries - now destroyed"/"Young People's Everyday life - Everywhere!" during and after the project.We expect a lasting impact of the project, not only will the progression and results be made available online for a large potential audience, but it will have many positive benefits on our schools and on all participants in their personal, social and intercultural development, leading to better success in life. If our results are as beautiful, impressive and of the high quality we can expect - knowing the creative potential of our young participants - then also our schools, communities and stakeholders Europe-wide will be more aware of the benefits cultural diversity has for all.
"THE EUROPEAN ABC" (Awareness of Borders to Cross) In view of the current refugee crisis, we, two general highschools from Italy and Spain and two vocational highschools from Poland and Germany, have carried out a project together with our students with and without refugee backgrounds to "Get Aware, Get Involved and Get Ready" to overcome borders - metaphorical, social, cultural and geographical borders - and in the end developed the "European ABC", in which all participants expressed their hopes and fears about Europe. All participants have got aware of their common human values across political and cultural borders: They do say "no" to racism, discrimination and fanatism (especially clearly shown in a final survey). All particpants have really got involved acting as responsible EU-citizens who care and help, e. g. in a "Run4Refugees". All participants have got ready to cross the border, taking over the roles of refugees in theatre, dance and music. By getting to know so much about individual refugees, they respect human diversity and feel empathy with those peers who have lost their homes. Our participants were highschool students with and without migrant background between 15 and 19 years and young refugees (most from Syria and Afghanistan) from language learning/integration classes who need more support in their personal and academical development. All migrant students have actively and fully participated at an eye-to-eye-level with their European peers, they have worked, played, travelled, laughed and cried together. Students have shared their individual "Border Stories"in various multinational workshops and "live"-performances at the end of each meeting. Students have continuously researched the background and followed the controversial strategies of our countries to cope with refugees. Here, an essential source of first-hand information were interviews with refugees, NGOs and politicians. Students have finally compiled the "European ABC" - a metal art object, manufactured by trainee welders and painters using keywords from the ABC (chosen in schoolwide surveys, e. g. "Acceptance", "Brotherhood", "Cooperation"). At each school, a "Global Info Point" was implemented, incl. exhibitions on the refugees' home countries, and constantly updated, just like the homepage www.eu-friends.eu. Throughout the four phases "Get Aware"/"Get Involved"/"Get Ready..." and "The European ABC", a great variety of methods was used, all with the idea that students really enjoyed working together, can bring in their own ideas and beliefs, get the chance to show and improve their personal competences, creativity and communicative/ITC skills. These methods included: - multinational workshops online and on location (with precise tasks, time frames and objectives) - performing in English in front of a large audience - Internet research, summarizing and presenting results, e. g. in Powerpoint - carrying out interviews and documenting them, i. e. editing fotos, cutting/subtitling videos etc. - writing, selecting, editing, translating stories and other texts for publication - creative writing, making music and painting, e. g. designing a logo - doing sports together in multinational teams The three main final results of the project were exactly as planned two years before: - A book "Border Stories" in print and available online of autobiographical stories, interviews, songs, comics made by students with and without refugee/migrant background. - A video collage "The European ABC" with "best" elements of the project. It shows the progression, i. e. the four phases of the project ("Get Aware, Get Involved...."), and reflects in lively pictures the atmosphere of equality and friendship throughout the project - An art object of metal in the form of a tree - painted in the EU-colours yellow and blue We expect a lasting impact of the project, not only are the project results available online to a large potential audience on the project homepage www.eu-friends.eu (documenting the entire development of the project), the Erasmus+ Project Results Platform, our school websites and as an example of "Best Practice" on the PAD website, but there is also the ongoing cooperation between the four schools in annual sports tournaments where teams are multinationally mixed.