The project proposal SHIFT aims at devoloping and enhancing the professional role of the ‘Intercultural Mediator’ for an inclusive european society.The ‘Intercultural Mediator’ is the professional who acts as a link between immigrants and workers in the institutions of the host society, fostering mutual knowledge, managing conflicts between the parties, facilitating communication and integration and acting in a neutral and equidistant way between the parties. It represents a delicate professional with a no well specified characterisation within the EU Countries.Scope of the project is to evaluate how this professional is managed in EU Countries to launch an exchange practice between each partner organisations to ‘improve’ relevant skills of intercultural mediation and investigate how this professional profile is managed in the Educational Sector in terms of available qualifications, available study programmes (VET/Higher education). The baseline of this proposal is represented by the mediators’ ‘empiric’ evaluation in each country with their strenghts and weaknesses with the general objective to contribute to the definition of a more transparent and homogeneous european ‘Intecultural Mediator’. By conducting a desk research in each partner organizations, it appears that each national context has specific paths (academic course, VET, or even experience on the job) for professionals doing intercultural activities. Target groups to be addressed are both internal and external. Internal target groups are all those professionals working in services – generally public services - such as reception/accommodation centers for immigrants, refugees or asylum seekers, but also hospitals or placement offices. Internal target groups are also authorities, VET providers and Educational structures in general (such as Universities) involved in the definition of the ‘Intercultural Mediators’ profile. External target groups are foreigners arriving in a host Country such as refugees, asylum seekers and migrants in general.SHIFT project's partners have been chosen following the rationale of the added value they can bring to the general purpose of enhancing the professional role of the ‘Intercultural Mediator’ for an inclusive european society. In Italy partners are Consorzio abn - a Social Enterprise promoting social innovation processes through networks of collaboration at local and national level and a certified VET provider, expert in the design and the delivering of training programmes for promotion of labour inclusion, start up and entrepreneurial training - and UNC (Unione Nazionale dei Consumatori) - a consumers’ association working exclusively on behalf of consumers, protecting and representing them by means of formulating law and regulation proposals and providing assistance, advice, information and education activities. UNC has, from this perspective, an important background of knowledge and experience in legal/bureaucratic issues for better fit relevant competences for professionals in Mediation. In UK the partner is CoL (The City of London Corporation) - the local authority for the ‘Square Mile’ in the heart of the capital and the home of its internationally important financial district. With a specific desk for Adult Skills and Education Service (CoL-ASE), the English partner can transfer the English attitude of integrating foreigners in public services and ho to ‘spread’ social competences in public services employees.In Spain the partner is Xano Channel Asociación para el desarrollo comunitario - experienced in activities focused on the inclusion of diversity, encouraging participation of people with different cultural and educational background in order to promote mutual understanding and a peaceful coexistence.SHIFT’s overall expected impact is to contribute to the definition of a transparent and homogeneous European profile of Intercultural Mediator and enhancing its professional role for an inclusive society by improving its relevant skills.
Shift was aimed at promoting an exchange of practices amongst each partner organisation in order to improve knowledge and develop joint initiatives on Intercultural Mediation from the education and training perspective. IM can be considered a key professional role and also a transversal competence necessary to ‘build’ a link between immigrants and workers in the institutions of the host society, to reinforce networks and to increase the capacity to operate at transnational level, share and confront ideas, practices and methods in the relevant field of intercultural dialogue. Specifically the project was aimed at • Investigating and reporting about the profession of ‘Intercultural Mediators’ and/or similar professionals within the partnership’s contexts. • Investigating and reporting on existing paths (formal, nonformal, informal) for becoming ‘Intercultural Mediator’. • Mapping the Gapping of relevant learning outcomes within formal education pathways on Intercultural Mediation The Shift Project involved a complementary partnership led by Consorzio abn a & b network sociale, an Italian Consortium of social cooperatives. The other partners were: In Italy, Unione Nazionale Consumatori with expertise in mediation, the Municipal authority City of London (UK), Xano Channel, a Spanish organisation expert in education and training as well as in mobility of staff and learners. It furthermore involved other organisations in Italy (CIDIS onlus) and Spain (ESMOVIA) with specific expertise in Intercultural and Cultural mediation on the one hand and in VET on the other. The partnership worked together on the professional profile of Intercultural Mediators. The first step was to investigate on the State of the Arts, that is the professional status and the professional training available in UK, Italy, Spain. However, it was through the Blended Mobility partly held in Valencia that the participants came to a shared definition of Intercultural Mediation and built together a shared view and agreement on the complex series of Competences that characterize this profile The investigation of the IM profile has been carried out both through desk research (performed by each partner organisation autonomously) and through the Mobility experience held in June 2017. The former has been carried out online (using google drive as common platform to share materials and collaborative work on the common theme) and offline. The Workshop on Intercultural Mediation was organized in Valencia from June 20th to 24th. In this experience, which involved the participation of professionals who perform intercultural mediation activities, the discussion was focused on: • Agreeing on a common definition of Intercultural Mediation • Distinguishing between Intercultural Mediation and other forms of mediation (e.g.. Cultural Mediation) • Identifying the set of core competences belonging Intercultural Mediators • Identifying competences GAPS within the existing training paths in the partner countries In order to base our work on a common ground, the partnership has adopted the following definition of Intercultural Mediation: Intercultural Mediation is the process of facilitating communication amongst different cultures for social integration. “Intercultural mediation” intervenes by “mediating”, as a tool of synthesis between the different identity, cultural, religious and ethnic components; on the other hand, the word “intercultural” includes all those aspects that shape the identity of single individuals. The blended mobiliy of learners was held during the month of June 2017. The mobility involved nr 3 accompanying persons and nr 9 learners. At first stage, sharing of materials and discussion was held through skype and google drive. In Valencia a workshop was held from June 20th to 24th where participants have worked together to the construction of an agreed competences framework of the profile of Intercultural Mediator and met local initiatives and services which include intercultural mediation as a core competence/activity. The exchange or practices held during the Shift lifetime and overall deeply and intensively during the Mobility training programme in Valencia, led us to look more compellingly at Intercultural Mediation not only as a profession to be pursued through professional training but also as a transversal competence which is key to a great number of professional profiles such as doctors, teachers, lawyers, public officers (this list is far from being exhaustive). From these reflections and conclusions stem the strong commitment of the Shift project partners, to continue the collaborative work in the domain of IM undertaken through the Shift project to make Intercultural Mediation a competence accessible to all.