The project "Grandma's Story" - Engaging migrant youth in the local community aims to produce 1. A methodology for engaging youth in local culture and heritage, especially in areas with a high representation of migrants (ICOM statistics show that this group is least represented in visits to culture and heritage institutions.) 2. A methodology for helping young people create simple pop-up and digital exhibitions, collecting the stories and artifacts of older migrant women for youth engagement purposes in libraries, museums and youth associations 3. A methodology for developing “Migration Heritage” trails in cities and towns for youth engagement in the community. 4. Training curriculum and course for Youth Workers “ Engaging Youth in Heritage” 5. Guidelines for Youth community empowerment campaign on migration issues 6. OER: All training material be delivered as free of charge online as educational resources including a series of eLearning training exercises. The platform will contain a ‘story-builder’ tool The project “Grandma’s Story"- brings together the extensive experience of several organisations working with migrants and youth work from several parts of Europe. The objective is to develop a comprehensive training material for the target group youth workers working with refugees and their children, intercultural learning environments, often in their second language about their history in a setting of migration, tolerance and diversity. The secondary target group is educators working museums and galleries, heritage and community associations especially those within areas of larger ethnic minority populations. Documenting Patterns of Migration and Integration as a resource for training in Youth work. the project will begin by recognising and recording the stories of the “Grandmothers”. The older generation of women whose stories are seldom collected or retold. The stories upon which the project is based are found all over Europe. Young women left their homes and migrated to another country or region. Through hard work they established themselves and to varying degrees integrated into their new homeland. The narrative is similar even if every story is unique: I had to move because it was even impossible to survive cultivating the ground… I had to move because of the war……. I just deserved a better life…… We were exchanged....... I came because my husband came to work....... The aim is not specifically to look at why people left but to record the migrant women’s story of migration and integration. We wish to learn from Grandma’s experience. We will specifically look at stories from the West Midlands UK in the 1970's and 80's, Russian speaking women in Estoina, newly arrived refugees from the Middle East to Italy, Roma and other minorities in Sweden in the 1970,s and 80's and the exchange of population between Turkey and Greece in the 1950's. The objetive is to develop this core information into a methodology that can be repeated in any EU country. Since the end of the Second Word War, migration flows have increased in all EU Member States, either through immigration or emigration. Today migrants from third countries account for around four percent of the total EU population. Europe is confronted with an ageing population and a shrinking workforce – leading to labour and skills shortages that will challenge economic growth prospects. Increased migration is seen by many economists as a positive factor to growth. Consequently countries that make the best use of their migrant population have the best prospects to develop. The current context/crisis concerning migrants, refugees and asylum seekers fleeing conflict from the Middle East and North Africa is part of an ongoing narrative. This narrative will seemingly continue and managing migration flows will continue to be a challenge for all EU society. Youth work has a key role in forming a society in which citizens have equal rights and opportunities in health, employment, personal growth and development and unhindered access to public goods and services with a view to ensuring social cohesion, social inclusion, multicultural coexistence and economic development of the EU.
Since the end of the Second World War, migration flows have increased in all EU Member States, either through immigration or emigration. Today migrants from third countries account for around 4% of the total EU population. Europe is confronted with an ageing population and a shrinking workforce leading to labour and skills shortages that will challenge economic growth prospects. Increased migration is seen by many economists as a positive factor to growth. Consequently countries that make best use of their migrant population have the best prospects to develop. The current situation concerning migrants, refugees and asylum seekers fleeing conflict from the Middle East and North Africa is part of an ongoing narrative. This narrative will seemingly continue and managing migration flows will continue to be a challenge for all EU society. Youth work has a key role in forming a society in which citizens have equal rights and opportunities with a view to ensuring social cohesion, inclusion, multicultural coexistence and economic development of the EU. The primary aim of Grandma's Story was to develop a comprehensive high-quality training material for Youth workers, extending and developing competences for working with young migrants in intercultural environments. The objective was to engage and include young people of migrant or refugee background in their local community by developing skills in interpretation, heritage and media; in a setting of migration, tolerance and diversity. The secondary objective was to extend and develop youth workers' competence for working in and with museums and galleries, heritage and community associations especially those within areas of larger ethnic minority populations; by developing an OER platform and other resources for the development of online exhibitions curated by young people and eLearning for youth workers which set the project in the digital era. Grandma’s Story brought together the experience of several organisations working with migrants and youth work from several parts of Europe. Documenting Patterns of Migration and Integration as a resource for training in Youth work, the project began by recognising and recording the stories of the “Grandmothers” - the older generation of women whose stories are seldom collected or retold. The stories upon which the project is based are found all over Europe. Young women left their homes and migrated to another country or region. Through hard work they established themselves and to varying degrees integrated into their new homeland. The project "Grandma's Story - Engaging migrant youth in the local community" produced: 1) 'Pop-Up Exhibition - Guidelines': A methodology for creating simple pop-up exhibitions. It empowers young people to collect the stories of older migrant women for educational exhibits in pop-up exhibitions in youth centres, libraries, museums. https://grandmas-story.eu/publications 2) 'Migration Heritage Trails - Guidelines': A methodology for developing “Migration Heritage” trails in cities and towns for youth engagement in the community. https://grandmas-story.eu/publications 3) 'Community empowerment and informal learning on migration issue - Guidelines': This e-Publication Guide is on community empowerment and participatory process on projects that impact on migration issues. It is aimed as at Civil Society Organisations, Youth Workers, Youth Educators working in Museums, Associations, Social Co-operatives, Schools, Public and Third Sector Organisations working with migrants to implement participatory process within communities. https://grandmas-story.eu/publications 4) 'Engaging migrant youth - Training Curriculum': This publication consolidates the projects outcomes into a methodological description and practical ideas of implementing the material in training at various levels: national, regional and local. https://grandmas-story.eu/publications 5) Stories: A rich media collection of stories of migrant grandmothers, including text, videos, maps and photos. https://grandmas-story.eu/home-en 6) Trainer Modules: A series of structured training Modules, Guides, and Tutorial Videos to implement the methodology. https://grandmas-story.eu/trainer-modules 7) OER platform: The platform enables users to create, publish and share the stories using a story-builder tool. All other training material, elearning and publications are shared on the platform. https://grandmas-story.eu/ The aim was not specifically to look at why people left but to record the migrant women’s story of migration and integration. The stories told through the project include women coming from Kenya, India, Barbados, Bangladesh, Austria, Uganda, Ghana, Iran, Croatia, Hungary, Serbia, Turkey, Syria, Russia, and settling in the UK, Estonia, Italy, Croatia, Turkey and Sweden; all with their personal story to tell. The objective of the project was to develop this core information into a methodology that can be repeated in any EU country.