With the project “Education for Deeper Social Integration” (EDSI) we plan to establish a strong international network of institutions dealing with education of adults, especially those, who belong to vulnerable groups. The main task of this project is the social integration of adults, especially refugees and migrants, into the mainstream society through holistic education approaches, which we will research and also determine their potential for transfer into new local contexts. Throughout Europe different methods and strategies for facing the refugee crisis have been developed and through this project we plan to detect the best strategies in the field of adult education aimed at refugees. In the project we will train educators, who already posses the basic skill sets, on the best principles of effective and active work in the field of educating adult refugees and members of other vulnerable groups and helping in their integration into the mainstream society and the work market. With this in mind we formed a partner consortium, which includes organisations that are actively engaged with educating refugees and other vulnerable groups. The partners have also formed strong professional networks on the local, regional, national level, through which they will pull many experts to contribute to the implementation of EDSI. EDSI’s 5 training activities for educators will include 95 experts working in the fields of adult education and refugee integration coming from Slovenia, Greece, Bulgaria, Italy, the Czech Republic, Spain and Great Britain. These training activities will be based on informal learning methods, flexible modules, use of ICT, a lot of field work and visits to relevant stakeholders. This training program will be supplemented with a large number of dissemination events: 8 exhibitions, 3 concerts, 8 round tables, 6 press conferences and 2 workshops. The dissemination events will reach a wide array of target groups ranging from refugees, through the general public to experts and decision-makers. Goals of EDSI: - to increase the capacities of organisations working in the field of adult education focusing on refugees - to increase the competences, knowledge, language and soft skills of educators, who work with adult refugees and through this to make a positive contribution to education and integration results - to collect and research examples of good and innovative practices and methods and to study the possibilities of they transfer to new local environments; to synthesise this into a toolkit and disseminate it to relevant stakeholders on the local, national and European level - to establish a long-term network of organisations working in the field of adult education and refugees and to guarantee high quality future projects building on the legacy of EDSI - to facilitate interdisciplinary and inter-sectoral cooperation - to foster inter-cultural dialogue, understanding and acceptance of diversity and to fight discrimination and radicalisation in all spheres of society We expect the project to result in increased capacities of partner organisations and also other organisations in contact with the project. Through the project we will develop the European dimension of their work and give them access to good practices already implemented in their fields of work. We will also establish guidelines of transferring these practices to new local contexts. Thus we will directly address the challenges they face and give them potential solutions for them. This effect will not only be limited to partner organisation but will be disseminated to other relevant stakeholders, who will act as multipliers. The main tangible result of the project will be the development of a toolkit presenting good practices and ways to implement them. The added value of the project will be a raise in the level of intercultural and inter-religious dialogue, better integration of refugees and an increase in the understanding of diversity as a direct result of the project activities and its dissemination.
With the project “Education for Deeper Social Integration” (EDSI) we established a strong international network of institutions dealing with education of adults, especially those, who belong to vulnerable groups. The main tasks of the project were the international training activities for educators coming from partner organisations and researching good practices in related to integration and education of adults with fewer opportunities. Through realising these two fundaments the project also achieved a positive impact on the end beneficiaries, adults with fewer opportunities, and on the capacities of partner organisations. The approaches and strategies to addressing the refugee crisis and integration of vulnerable persons differ throughout Europe and it is very relevant to explore the best practices and the possibilities of their transfer to new local environments. The result of this was the collection of good practices, which is freely available. In the project we included educational staff with existing experience from partner organisations in international training activities, which addressed their knowledge and competences related to educating refugees and other vulnerable groups and their integration into wider society and the labor market. With this in mind we formed a partnership, which included organisations actively working with vulnerable groups, especially persons with international protection, and having strong local, national and international networks, through which we enabled the cooperation of outside experts. 68 educators, coming from Slovenia, Greece, Bulgaria, Italy, the Czech Republic, Spain and the United Kingdom, working with refugees and other vulnerable groups attended the 5 international activities. These were based on non-formal education methods, flexible educational modules, ICT and a considerable amount of field work and meetings with local stakeholders. The programme of these international activities was supplemented with dissemination events, which included round tables, exhibitions, concerts, press conferences and workshops. By implementing EDSI we: - increased the capacities of organisations, which are educating adults with international protection and other vulnerable groups; - developed the competences, knowledge, linguistic and soft skills of educational staff, who work with adults with fewer opportunities, and thus the project positively influenced the results educational processes in their home organisations; - collected and explored examples of good and innovative practices and methods and analysed the potential of their transfer into new local environments; shared these results in a wider circle of stakeholders on local, national and international levels; - instituted a lasting international network of organisations, which are focused on adult education and vulnerable groups, and used this network for developing and implementing new projects and initiatives building on EDSI -fostered intersectional and interdisciplinary cooperation - fostered intercultural dialogue, the understanding of differences and the fight against discrimination and radicalisation in all social spheres. The project was an important contribution to the development of the capacities of all partner organisations and increased the international dimension of their work. Through the preparation of the collection of good practices and its’ presentations we also acquainted them with good practices, which were implemented in the fields in which the partners are active, and also presented the context of their development and possibilities of their transfer. The collection of good practices addresses the issues, which the partner organisations, and others in the field, face in their daily work and also presents the possible solutions to them. This result was not limited only to consortium members. It was disseminated to other actors in the field and also presented to them during the field work part of international activities. Besides this tangible result the project through international activities and cultural and educational events also contributed to intercultural and inter-religious dialogue, easier integration of refugees and an increase in understanding differences between different social groups.