Europe is living a situation of crisis at economical, social and political level, a bit wider because the migrant crisis. Having a neighboor forom a different european countru, from the other side of the Mediterranean sea or from a very far away country, nowadays is not extrange, spite it is a pity this doesn't mean they are consideered equal and include them in our society. Because that, organizations, entities and proffesionals of the third sector, we have, today more than ever before, to support and work for this situation to change and promote the inclusion of everybody and collectives. In November 2015, the council of Ministeries of Education, Youth, Culture and Sport, stated that the intercultural dialogue through culture and arts developes an important role for the integration of refugees and improve the mutual knowledge. This proyect "Inclusion through Fusion" is an strategic partnership in the field of youth lasting 12 months, starting on 1st December 2017 and ending on 31st november 2018, looking for fusioning the urban art and hip-hop culture with the traditional and folkloric music and use this fusion as a tool for promoting the inclusion of youth artists belonging the ethnic minorities and/or having a migratory history. This project is coordinated by Iniciativa Internacional Joven (Spain) counting with partners coming from five different european countries (Italy, Germany, Croatia, Cyprus and Portugal). The main aims of the project are: - Improving the key competences of youth artists belonging to ethnic minorities and/or migrants with the aim of transform socially their communities; - Exchanging and developing new educative tools in order to sensibilize about the inclusion of ethnic minorities and inmigrants of the areas and countries participating in the project throught musical fusion; - Raising a better quality of the youth work, doing an special emphasis in youngsters with fewer opportunities, encouraging the internationalization of the work about these issues; - Creating an european network of organizations working with arts as a way of social transformation, inclusion and integral development, with the aim of promoting the cooperation and exchange of good practices among organizations of Programme countries. The main activities of the project are: - Transnational meeting of coordination in Alba (Italy) to specify strategies, working methodologies and the details of the following activities (partner agreement, evaluation tools, monitoring, visibility activities, ...). - Local activities I: diagnosis and analisis of situation, maping of stakeholders, meeting with artists and institutions, definition of the profile of the participants and learning and training specific needs. - International training in Malaga (Spain), lasting 7 days, about arts, inclusion and musical creation. - Local activities II: training workshops at local level, developing artistic creations and team building meeting. - Activities of dissemination of products and outputs: booklet, video and artistical creations. - Meeting for final evaluation in Portugal, where the project will be evaluated and a public event will be done in order to introduce the outputs. This project will have a big impact, as well in the participants (new acquired and/or improved competences, professional and personal development, etc.) as well as in the organizations (use of new skills, exchange of good practices, better quality of the work, etc.), and also in the society in general (more awarness about the situation of people belonging to a ethnic minority and/or with a personal or familiar migratory history, wider interest towards urban art, etc).
Europe is experiencing a situation of crisis at economic, social and political level, further widened by the strong migrant crisis. Having a neighbor from a different European country, from the other side of the Mediterranean or from a distant country is no longer surprising, although this is unfortunately far from being considered equal and included in our society. For this reason, organizations, entities and professionals of the third sector, we have, today more than ever before, to work for changing this situation and promoting the inclusion of all individuals and collectives. In November 2015, the Education, Youth, Culture and Sport Council stated that the intercultural dialogue through culture and arts plays an important role for the integration of refugees and improve the mutual understanding. The project "Inclusion through Fusion" is a 12-months strategic partnership in the field of youth, that started on December 1, 2017 and finished on November 31, 2018, whose main aim is to promote the inclusion of the most disadvantaged groups, mainly young artists belonging to ethnic minorities and/or having a migratory history, through musical fusion between urban art/hip hop culture and traditional and folkloric music, being art a tool for social development and inclusion. The project has been coordinated by Iniciativa Internacional Joven (Spain), with the collaboration of partner organizations from five different European countries (Italy, Germany, Croatia, Cyprus and Portugal). The main objectives of the project were: -To improve key competences of youth artists belonging to ethnic minorities and/or migrants with the aim of socially transforming their communities; -To exchange and develop new educational tools in for raising awareness about inclusion of ethnic minorities and immigrants of the participating areas and countries through musical fusion; -To promote a higher quality of youth work, focusing on the inclusion of young people with fewer opportunities and promoting internationalization of the work on these issues; -To create a European network of organizations that use art as a tool of inclusion and development, to promote the cooperation and exchange of good practices among organizations of Programme countries. The main activities that have been developed in the framework of this project were: -Transnational meeting of coordination in Alba (Italy) to specify strategies, working methodologies and details of following activities (internal agreement, evaluation tools, monitoring, visibility activities, etc.). Project coordinators of each organization are the participants. -Local activities I: diagnosis and analysis of situation, mapping of stakeholders, meeting with artists and institutions, identification and selection of good practices, definition of the profile of participants and specific learning and training needs. -International training in Malaga (Spain), from the 29th of May to the 4th of June 2018, about art, inclusion and musical creation. Theoretical-practical workshops were developed, new tools created and a visibility activity with local population organized. Three youth workers, who were also artists, participated for each partner organization. -Local activities II in each country: training workshops at local level, development of artistic creations and teambuilding meetings. -Edition and production of products and outputs and dissemination activities. -Final evaluation meeting in Amadora (Portugal) on November 2018, where the project has been evaluated and a public event for presenting project results and for visibility has been held. For each partner organization, the project coordinator (or a close collaborator) and a participant of local activities took part. After carrying out the final evaluation of the project, we can state that it had an impact both on the participants (new acquired and/or improved competences, personal and professional development, etc.) and on the organizations (use of new competences, exchange of good practices, better quality of the work, etc.), and also in society in general (more awareness of the situation of people belonging to an ethnic minority and/or with a personal or familiar migratory history, greater interest in urban art, etc,).