A lot has changed over the last decade around both attitudes/perception of refugees and continuing support of multiculturalism and diversity. Populism in Europe and beyond and the rise of extremist parties in many European countries is not helping this debate where xenophobia and far of the ‘other’ is increasing. A better understanding of other cultures and more initiatives to foster intercultural education become now more relevant than before. Signs goes North will create an innovative model in promoting cultural diversity and social inclusion. It will use visual representations (photography of city signs, videos of everyday life) and story telling to introduce refugees and newly arrived migrants to the city’s local languages and cultures and in parallel to introduce the city’s local population to the language and culture of the refugees and migrants.Photos of local landmarks (eg. a square or monument), everyday amenities (eg. shops, bank, post office) and natural and urban landscape (eg. parks, lakes/seaside, houses, squares) will be used to promote the and teach the language and culture of the host country to the newcomers to the city, while digital storytelling will be used to promote an understanding of the language and culture of refugees and migrants. Workshops bringing together migrants and locals to tell each other’s stories will foster interaction and enhance better understanding of each other’s cultures. The project has also a strong focus to represent the city’s several cultures and to identify and promote multiculturalism. This will help locals have a better understanding of diversity and demonstrate openness to newcomers to the city while it will also help newcomers’ orientation and ultimately integration to the local language and culture. The project fosters true promotion of diversity as it will focus equally on a cultural dialogue between the languages and cultures of the four host countries represented in the project (Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, the Netherlands) and the languages and cultures of the refugees and migrants that visit them (eg. Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia, Kosovo, etc). This will help ultimately with combating discrimination and racism. Better understanding and an open cultural of cooperation and co-production will eventually support the fight against bullying and violence. In this context, the main goals of the project are to: • provide refugees and newly arrived migrants with the means (language, information and tips) to communicate with others beyond one’s own group, to move about independently, or recognise signs, thus helping them to adapt to a place of arrival easily, efficiently and effectively; • develop a learning model in a wider sense, fostering respect and understanding for diversity, intercultural competencies and values • provide effectively model for the inclusion of newcomers at the municipal level; • provide creative mutual learning experience for newcomers and natives; • help natives to achieve a better understanding of the world and other groups of people; • help refugees socialise and express themselves; • remove barriers to integration and promote equality of opportunity provide safe and open spaces of interaction between the host and the migrant communities The project is based on the successful methodology of two projects, considered as good practices and awarded at European level - Signs in the City (European Language Labeled project, 2005-2007, awarded best practice of Socrates: Lingua programme) and Beyond Signs in the City (2008-2010, KA2: Languages, awarded best language practice of Lifelong Learning programme). Signs goes North innovation and activities focus on: - A practical learning model “Feel the city - share the feeling”: newly arrived migrants, refugees and locals will work together locally for defining specific needs, selecting places of interest and linguistic and cultural themes in their cities, and will co-produce content and materials. The model allows the newcomers to understand the local culture better and to obtain skills in team work with locals; on the other hand, the original population will understand who the refugees are, and how to include them in mutual activities. - A mentoring and peer support strategy: key experts with experience in Signs methodology and specialists in creative production will support the local groups at place during the implementation process - photography, video shooting, selection of linguistic and cultural materials, and establishing contacts with local authorities as an integral part of the project impact. - Digital art/photography and digital storytelling and educational content to develop the City and Language books and the Digital Stories of cities and migrants. - Use of sketch noting through the means of art therapy to empower newcomers to communicate and be able to tell their story to the locals and exchange cultural understanding of each other’s cultural and linguistic spaces.
A lot has changed over the last decade around both attitudes/perception of refugees and continuing support of multiculturalism and diversity. Populism in Europe and beyond and the rise of extremist parties in many European countries is not helping this debate where xenophobia and far of the ‘other’ is increasing. A better understanding of other cultures and more initiatives to foster intercultural education become now more relevant than before. ‘Signs’ goes North project creates an innovative model to promote cultural diversity and social inclusion. The project is based on the highly successful Signs in the City methodology for obtaining basic language, communication and intercultural skills by exploring city’s signs signs and symbols (street signs, bar, restaurant, shop, banks, post office, graffiti and anything else ‘printed' as part of a city). ’Signs’ Goes North extended this methodology with innovative features matching the urgent needs of refugees and newly arrived migrants to understand the place, the language and culture in the host country, and transferred it to the important context of migrants and refugees integration in Sweden, Netherlands, Iceland and Denmark. Project objectives focused on: • providing refugees and newly arrived migrants with the means to adapt to a place of arrival easily and effectively, help them socialise and express themselves; • providing creative mutual learning experience for newcomers and natives, fostering respect and understanding for diversity, intercultural competencies and values; • developing effectively model for the inclusion of newcomers at the municipal level; • remove barriers to integration and promote equality of opportunity. ’Signs’ Goes North project developed methods and material to support emerging linguistic, communication and cultural need of refugees and newly arrived migrants, providing tailored solutions for their early integration. Project approach compromised a needs analysis: focusing on target groups need in terms of better cultural integration, a communicative competence model: embedding the target groups in the development of the products, and mentoring and peer support: partnership and community learning using the expertise of experienced partners. This approach covers the different perspectives of migrants’ integration process, and turned into a prerequisite for immediate testing and implementation¨ and future sustainability. ’Signs’ Goes North developed and piloted a practical learning model “Feel the city - share the feeling”, where newly arrived migrants/refugees, long-term migrants, staff of supporting organisations and native citizens worked together locally to defining specific needs, selecting places of interest and linguistic and cultural themes in their cities, were co-creators of content and material (working in partnership with partners and experts). The model allows the newcomers to understand the local culture better and to obtain skills in team work with local comunities and natives; on the other hand, the original population understands who the refugees are, and how to include them in mutual activities. While bidging digital art and storytelling and educational content the project developed: City and Language books - “Signs i Bollnäs och Söderhamn”, “Signs in Rotterdam”, “Signs in Reykjavik”, “Vis os Vejle/Signs in Vejle” - with visual and linguistic content for the hosting cities and languages, containing photography of city signs and related survival vocabulary, language and culture guidelines and facts, communicational tips; Digital Stories of cities and migrants - 8 short films telling the stories of 23 migrants, who already experienced the integration process in Sweden, Netherlands, Denmark and Iceland, presenting a community of many cultures within the host city and migrants’ own voice and vision; Digital learning resource - freely accessible, multidevice digital versions of the books, incl. audio pronouncation and translation into English. Project ouputs influenced the integration by involving migrants in practical inclusive activities together with local citizens and stakeholders, that were integral part of the development of the products - selection of linguistic and cultural content, local workshops, filming, content development and testing, informational and awareness-raising activities, etc. Thus, migrants were provided with competences to integrate in the local society during the project life. Project activities have been implemented by a consortium of 7 partners from 6 European countries (SE, NL, DK, IS, RO, UK) all having significant and complementary expertise in development and promotion of high quality outputs and their mainstreaming in the partner countries and beyond.