The need for education to contribute social cohesion, equality and non-discrimination and civic competences has proved to be one of the main challenges and future priorities in the era of a united Europe. Yet, discriminatory attitudes and diversity problems are still persistent challenges to be addressed. The present refugees' situation has added an additional critical need for Europe to recruit innovative practices, investing in education. Our ambitious project under the title "Passengers on the same bus! No place for discrimination, segregation and inequality" will make a bridge, initially connecting four European partners- countries; Cyprus, Finland, Italy and the Czech Republic. Integrating and sharing specific experience, viewpoints, knowledge and best practices, we aim to widen the bridge, moving from local and regional level towards national, European and International level. Strictly dedicated to our aim, our partnership will foster the promotion of the social cohesion among and beyond school communities and develop competencies in sustaining it. The whole project has been well designed to meet its objectives. We aim towards raising awareness and sensitizing participants and target groups on the issues of discrimination and diversity and developing competence in tolerating and respecting them. We additionally aim towards developing awareness and competence in predicting and tackling the phenomenon of bullying at schools and increasing awareness and tolerance towards refugees and asylum seekers. Additionally, too much concern has been shed on the preparation of our project. We have inspired effective communication and administrative arrangements and set a clear and effective methodology for assessing our project throughout its life. The design and implementation of our learning activities, events and tasks have been developed under an innovative method in order to yield the outstanding and utmost results, outputs, and impacts. A number of meetings have been designed to monitor the project. Videoconferences taking place almost at every end of a month are also designed to facilitate the communication among partners and the monitoring of the whole project. Furthermore, four learning activities (short-term exchanges of groups of pupils) have been designed. They are five-day activities constructed in an effective and much promising methodology. This innovative methodology will include creative and experiential workshops, conferences with external experts and short activities like role-playing, the creation of artistic tasks and visits to a refugee camp and places of cultural interest. All activities have been designed to provide partners with constant and valuable experience in our project's objectives and are about to develop certain awareness and competences. Each country-partner will lead and monitor one of the four designed activities, while each one of the rest of the countries-partners will participate with two teachers and five students. In whole, for the four learning activities in Italy, Cyprus, Czech Republic and Finland, there will be 24 mobilities of teachers and 60 mobilities of students from all four countries-partners. Shortly after the enactment of an activity a meeting for evaluation and dissemination follows. The selection of the participants on the learning activities has been strictly ranged within the arranged criteria set by all four countries-partners so as to contribute the best possible success to each learning activity. Moreover, too much concern has been given to the support of our participants so as their participation will be as successful and safe as possible. As far as the dissemination and the use of the results of our project are concerned, a clear plan has been inspired from the beginning of our project's life. Using recent communication channels like youtube, facebook and twitter as well as web platforms, such as the Erasmus Project Result Platform and e Twinning we anticipate a wide dissemination of our results not only at regional and national level but also at European and International one. We intend to publish educational journals and magazines as well as newspapers and organize regional school conferences and a multiplier event to disseminate our project's results. Moreover, to secure successful dissemination and sustainability of our project's results, our handbook on bullying, diversity issues and discrimination will be available to all, in a printed form. We firmly believe that the promotion of our handbook, as a work-in-progress enterprise, will immensely help the dissemination and sustainability of such valuable work on the critical issue of social cohesion.
The need for education to contribute to social cohesion, equality, and non-discrimination and civic competences has proved to be one of the main challenges and future priorities in the era of a united Europe. Yet, discriminatory attitudes and diversity problems are still persistent challenges to be addressed. The present refugees' situation has added an additional critical need for Europe to recruit innovative practices, investing in education. Our ambitious project under the title "Passengers on the same bus! No place for discrimination, segregation, and inequality" made a bridge, initially connecting four European partners- countries; Cyprus, Finland, Italy, and the Czech Republic. Integrating and sharing specific experience, viewpoints, knowledge and best practices, we managed to widen the bridge, moving from local and regional levels towards national, European, and International levels. Strictly dedicated to our aim, our partnership fostered the promotion of social cohesion among and beyond school communities and developed competencies in sustaining it. The whole project was well-designed to meet its objectives. We succeeded in raising awareness and sensitizing participants and target groups on the issues of discrimination and diversity and developing competence in tolerating and respecting them. We additionally aimed and managed to develop awareness and competence in predicting and tackling the phenomenon of bullying at schools and increasing awareness and tolerance towards refugees and asylum seekers. Additionally, too much concern was shed on the preparation of our project. We inspired and implemented effective communication and administrative arrangements and set a clear and effective methodology for assessing our project throughout its life. The design and implementation of our learning activities, events, and tasks were developed under an innovative method in order to yield outstanding and utmost results, outputs, and impacts. A number of meetings were designed and implemented to monitor the project. Videoconferences taking place almost at every end of a month were also designed to facilitate the communication among partners and the monitoring of the whole project. Furthermore, four learning activities (short-term exchanges of groups of pupils) were designed (the last activity was cancelled due to COVID-19). They were five-day activities constructed in an effective and much promising methodology. This innovative methodology included creative and experiential workshops, conferences with external experts, and short activities like role-playing, the creation of artistic tasks, and visits to refugee camps and places of cultural interest. All activities were designed to provide partners with constant and valuable experience in our project's objectives and developed certain awareness and competences. Each country-partner led and monitored one of the four designed activities, while each one of the rest of the countries-partners participated with two teachers and five students. In the whole, for the three learning activities in Italy, Cyprus, and the Czech Republic, there were 18 mobilities of teachers and 45 mobilities of students from all four countries-partners. Shortly after the enactment of an activity a meeting for evaluation and dissemination followed. The selection of the participants on the learning activities was strictly ranged within the arranged criteria set by all four countries-partners so as to contribute the best possible success to each learning activity. Moreover, too much concern was given to the support of our participants so as their participation would be as successful and safe as possible. As far as the dissemination and the use of the results of our project are concerned, a clear plan was inspired from the beginning of our project's life. Using recent communication channels like youtube, Facebook, and twitter as well as web platforms, such as the Erasmus Project Result Platform and e Twinning, TV channels and press, we managed wide dissemination of our results not only at a regional and national level but also at European and International one. We made publications in magazines and newspapers, we organised regional school conferences and events and used TV channels to disseminate our project's results. Moreover, to secure the successful dissemination and sustainability of our project's results, we published a handbook of our project’s results title “Passengers on the Same Bus”, and uploaded this handbook in a PDF form to various sites to be shared for free for everyone. Definitely, the implementation of the project “Passengers on the Same Bus” managed to bring a significant change in our school environment as far as the issues of diversity, discrimination and the inclusion of refugees and asylum seekers in our schools are concerned and it will continue to have an influential role after the end of its funding.