Y.E.S.plus-Youth Empowering Society-targeting social inclusion The EU 2020 Strategy has set a number of headline targets including one for social exclusion reduction. Social inclusion is therefore very high on the EU policy agenda. As inhabitants of a changing Europe, social inclusion is an extremely significant factor in all our scopes of society. Governments, organisations and schools need to address and work determinedly to meet this challenge and opportunity. In our Erasmus+ strategic partnership project, YES plus- Youth Empowering Society-targeting social inclusion, we will work at an individual, local, national and European level to promote better awareness of what has to be done to meet the challenges and opportunities of social inclusion. With this acquired knowledge and insight, we will then be able to form and implement innovative plans of action for how our own schools, together with our partnership schools, will contribute to the proliferation of social inclusion strategies from a European perspective. Involved directly in the project will be 300 (16-19 year old students) from upper secondary schools in the Czech Republic, Italy, Spain and Sweden including 10 students with lesser opportunities. Target groups, including refugees, newly arrived migrants and other marginalized groups will, through direct interaction with participants and organizations, benefit from concrete plans of action that will facilitate, support and aid in reaching social inclusion. The participating organizations will throughout the project be part of a learning process that develops and shares methodology, cross curricular learning and teaching practices based on TBL-thinking based learning, (as in Ranking Dynamics and Generating Creative Ideas Dynamics) PBL- problem based learning, Flipped Classroom, Cooperative learning, Visible learning and methods of analysis for social science data. Phase 1 of the project, INCREASING AWARENESS, will be dedicated to increasing an awareness about the issue of social inclusion. This will be accomplished through activities involving the identification of the participants’ individual and family identities, identification of the realities within their social environment and the identification of vocabulary and terminology that is appropriate in understanding what is meant by social inclusion. Examples of activities are the students’ creation of a family tree to see if perhaps they have common bonds and history that they were not aware of, surveys, interviews and statistics concerning their social environments analyzed with the use of specific ICT tools, the first stage of the writing of a social dictionary, a micro-tale writing assignment, creation of songs with English lyrics regarding social inclusion and the viewing of both new and old documentaries followed by discussions dealing with different types of of social inclusion. Students will share learning experiences, the results of cross-curricular investigation, surveys and stories of authentic experiences in order to enhance social awareness, create micro-tale bookmarks and the Social Dictionary in 5 languages. In addition, a logo for the project will be created through a contest involving students’ ideas and proposals. Phase 2 of the project, RECOGNIZING THE FOOTPRINTS, will examine the implementation of sustainable social entrepreneurship (a continuum of the previous Erasmus+ project 2014-2016) as a means of improving social inclusion. Moreover, students will conduct case studies to discover, explore, recognize and analyze the impacts and significances of migration in arts, sports, lifestyles, human rights, education, laws, economics, employment and heritage. Participants will also be trained by a TBL certified partner teacher in critical and analytical thinking to help in the process of writing a declaration of intent about how to be a good European citizen. Teachers and students will create a cross-curricular content unit on social inclusion called Social Cohesion: Learning how to become an Active and Inclusive Citizen.Phase 3, TIME FOR ACTION, will enable students to use their knowledge to create and put into practice actions that will help social cohesion and inclusion. A sustainable Bank of Time activities will be created at this time in order to help local migrants through effective actions. Throughout the project, scenes of the social actions the participants carry out will be filmed and documented; students from all partner schools will finally edit the films, use their earlier songs and lyrics as a soundtrack to this final product-the creation of a documentary. During the last phase, a final assessment containing reflections upon the realization of the project, the success of the use of innovative methodologies and the project’s planned sustainability will be completed.
1. CONTEXT: The context in which the project was born was based on the EU policy agenda for social exclusion reduction. As we are four countries with four totally different realities, meeting the challenge together has meant a great challenge and opportunity to implement innovative educational plans of action towards the matter. 2. OBJECTIVES: The objectives of the project were and are as they follow: - The discovery of the impact and the consequences of the migration movements. - Increasing awareness among students and all the educational community involved about the action needed in favour of social inclusion. - Implementation of social values. - Improvement of social and communicative skills, as well as gaining the abilities to interact in international cooperation work. - The capacity to act using a critical, analytical and creative thinking. 3. NUMBER AND PROFILE OF PARTICIPATING ORGANISATIONS: 3.a) EDUCATIONAL ORGANISATIONS: ESIC Business Marketing School (Spain) Educational Psychology Faculty Alicante University (Spain) Social Science Faculty Alicante University (Spain) Physical Geography Faculty Alicante University (Spain) 3.b) SOCIAL ORGANISATIONS: Alicante Town Hall AMICS ONG (Spain) ACOMAR ALICANTE (Association for homeless people) (Spain ASYLUM Seekers' camp Akersberga (Sweden) European Parliament and Comission Office in Milan ( Italy) Centre for Support of Integration of Foreigners, Moravia-Silesia Region (Czech Rep.) Bedriska Estate Social Housing Colony (Czech Rep.) Wallachian Village (Czech Rep.) Council Houses, Ostrava (Czech Rep.) 4. DESCRIPTION OF UNDERTAKEN MAIN ACTIVITIES: 4.1. Training: 1.a Teachers and students on Critical and Creative Thinking according to TBL (Thinking Based Learning) Method, developed by Robert Swartz. 1.b Master Class on Statistical Literacy 1.c Seminar on Geolocation 1.d Seminar on Entrepreneurship and Social Skills 1.e Workshop on Video Making 1.f Workshop on How to Write a song, recording and producing 1.g Flipped Classroom 1.h cooperative Learning 1.i Visible Learning 4.2. Lectures and Testimonies: 2.a The State of the Question: Historical and current situation 2.b EU policies on migrants and refugees 2.c Testimony Eritrean Girl in Akersberga Community 2.d Testimonies by Homeless and Refugees in Alicante Community 2.e Lecture by Azerbaijan migrant in Ostrava 2.f Lecture by Dr Pytliková on migration processes 2.g Lecture by M. Bergstrom on how to make a short video 4.3. Visits: To all the Social organisations mentioned above in point 3 4.4. Activities carried out at centres in between mobilities. 4.a Identification of their own realities 4.b Vocabulary and terminology used 4.c Family Tree. In which students can see the different branched they might have developed from 4.d Creation of songs lyrics. The lyrics are based on the stories the were told by immigrants. 4.e Case study. Recognising and analysing the impact and significance of migration in arts, sports, lifestyle, human rights, education, law... 4.f Bank of Time. Activities carried out in different schools in order to prove action towards the given topic. 4.g Self-Assessment and reflection on the lessons taken under the topic of social inclusion. 5. RESULTS AND IMPACT ATTAINED: The main results of the project are mentioned and explained in the Beneficiary Project Details Platform and among others are the following: Family Track Map, Bank of time, Glossary of Terms, Documentary, Teaching Unit, Songs and Lyrics, Declaration of intents and dissemination documents of the project. The impact, to our surprise, reached and surpassed expectations as all the organisations cooperating in the project helped us disseminate our work. Regarding students and educational community, and this was the most of our pride, the project remains as a starting point, a moment of change and reflection on the social issues that our society is facing nowadays. Moreover, and focusing mainly on students, all the targets stated in point 2. OBJECTIVES have been met. 6. LONGER TERM BENEFITS: 6.a Introduction in school curriculums of Critical Thinking Strategies: "Compare and Contrast" and "Generating Creative Ideas". 6.b A cross-curricular content unit on social inclusion, called: "SOCIAL COHESION" as part of the four schools curriculum. 6.c A documentary on awareness and inspiration of what to do to promote social inclusion (How the four schools have worked for it). 6.d A Social Dictionary (Glossary) in 5 languages. 6.e Micro-tale bookmarks to keep on being distributed among students for years to come.