More than Words is aiming at improving intercultural communication and training skills of educators, social workers, and all people being engaged as professionals or activists in supporting migrants and other minorities tackling problems of integration and communication. We will develop a pan European curriculum for non-verbal intercultural trainings, synthesizing the experiences of our partners in different areas of training and creativity, such as theatre, dance, humor therapy and storytelling. This project is crucial in terms of Europe’s relationship to migrant communities and other minorities, especially under the current political and social tensions all over in the Continent. Integration of migrants and other minorities is not a simple question of willingness. Lacking of basic skills for communication strongly hinders the mutual understanding between migrants and other social groups. Communication barriers also include difficulties related to cultural differences even when people understand the language. The integration of vulnerable groups in European societies is a challenge that transcends borders, and requires a pan-European, multi-agency strategy as a response. The main outcome of the project is therefore a European training module, offering new approaches for both governmental and non-governmental agencies in responding to these highly significant challenges. Other intellectual outputs will include a synthesis of good practices, an online platform of intercultural training, and a documentary film presenting the different stages of the project implementation. All these will be disseminated through local multiplier events allowing user organizations to benefit from the findings and methodologies. More than Words will follow a three years long project circle oriented on work packages, intellectual outputs, milestones, staff trainings and transnational meetings. The leading of work packages will be divided among the partners, a system that will ensure that all partners will take an active role and responsibility in the implementation of the project. Work packages will take place parallel and in deep interaction with each other. Within them the main project activities will be as follows: - organization of five staff trainings that, based on an initially prepared guideline and needs assessment, will present four methods of non-verbal intercultural training and their synthesis; - creation of a pan European training module in strong interaction with the trainings, tested at local multiplier events; - creation of an interactive platform of intercultural training; - creation of the different parts of the documentary film all along the project circle; - dissemination of the project’s results, among others, at the local multiplier events. Our project is based on a strategic partnership of like-minded organizations across Europe, working with migrant and disadvantaged communities, to develop and share practice to create a collective working methodology in intercultural training. The project lead partner, Border Crossings is a UK-based organisation working in intercultural dialogue through vocational education and performing arts. It has developed strong creative methodologies to encourage understanding between cultures through theatre and creative learning practices. The partners’ approach, experiences and areas of work are different and complementary. The partnership is composed of two main groups according to their main roles in the project: the needs assessment group is composed by 3 organisations having a direct experience dealing with the needs of migrants and vulnerable groups: Narud and AEL and dla Ziemi. The training providers group will contribute with their innovative methods of non-verbal intercultural training: Border Crossings for theatre performance, CRN for digital storytelling, Euro-Net for humor and clowning strategies and IKTE for dance and body movement therapy. They will provide the staff trainings, create the synthesizing training and report based on the needs and accompanied by the monitoring activities of the first group. More than Words will have a direct impact on 87 participants of the trainings obtaining a certificate, on approximately 5000 people visiting and/or joining the online training platform, and on all the associated partners and organisations participating at the testing of the training module and signing the letter of intent to use this curriculum in their training activities. The project will have an important indirect impact on migrants and people in vulnerable situation benefiting of the new methods of empowerment to be used by the trainees of the workshops. On the European level, the partners support and promote an inclusive approach to European citizenship and the common values of freedom, tolerance and non-discrimination through education.
MORE THAN WORDS was a three-year Adult Education project which focused on the needs of people who do not speak the main language of the country in which they live. This was understood primarily to mean refugees and migrants, but the project also addressed other questions of linguistic exclusion, for example deafness, trauma and autism. The pan-European partnership consisted of some organisations who were already offering training in areas that could be beneficial for these groups, and some who were working directly in the target communities, with a degree of overlap. Responding to a Needs Assessment undertaken with the key target groups, a series of Staff Training Activities were held, each of which introduced partners to a distinct methodological approach, and assessed the potential of that approach in relation to the project themes. Participatory Theatre, Digital Storytelling, Clown and Body Movement were all explored in depth and Evaluated by the participants in the training weeks. These Evaluations were assessed by the partners at Transnational Project Meetings, and this process combined with the ongoing Needs Assessment enabled them to formulate a series of Framing Questions for the culminative Synthesis Training week in Luxembourg. This week led to the generation of new training approaches which brought together key strands from the existing methodologies and applied them to the specific needs and challenges identified. This Synthesis Training led to the creation of the first Intellectual Output, a Training Module, which is being disseminated in all project languages as a practical tool for trainers working in this area. The report also forms part of the larger Good Practice Synthesis - available as the project e-book and as a printed hard copy. There is also an online Interactive Training Platform, enabling people who want to work in this area to develop skills in the basic methodologies employed. The fourth Intellectual Output is a film, which confronts the questions of language-based exclusion at the heart of the project, and makes use of all the key methodologies to formulate a creative, artistic response. Sometimes written accounts and courses are not enough. Sometimes our work has to be More Than Words.