We live in situations where even if immigrants have been somehow integrated in society, interethnic and other differences among people cause prejudice/tensions, hatred, fear and exclusion in everyday life. In our youth work for inclusion and intercultural acceptance we’ve noticed sport can bring people together, as when playing a sport together for the same team, team players are not focused on the interracial, intercultural, interreligious and other differences between them, but are focused on building quality team work together respecting each other’s strengths and weaknesses and complementing each other. Unfortunately, so far when trying to organise systematically the youth sport work activities with asylum seekers, refugees and immigrants, partners could not find enough youth workers experienced in the field of working with immigrants and in principles of using sport activities as methods in NFE/youth work. In accordance with needs analysis and EU recommendations, project aims to develop strategic tools and motivate/empower youth workers to develop more youth sport work activities that will explore and extract all the possible positive aspects of sports for developing consistent positive intercultural acceptance among our beneficiaries and inclusion of asylum seekers, refugees and immigrants in our communities. Objectives: - Improve the understanding of the needs of immigrants by exploring the current situation of theirs and the (youth work) activities/programmes provided for their inclusion, in the 4 countries of the project. - Bring positive and long-lasting effects on participating and indirectly on non-participating (youth) organisations and youth workers by enhancing knowledge management with new innovative youth work resources and training models/curricula in order to provide quality youth (sport) work programmes for intercultural acceptance and inclusion of immigrants in our communities. - Support youth workers in acquiring and developing key competences as youth trainers (of other youth workers) in the field of youth (sport) work for inclusion of immigrants. - Develop innovative outputs, and to engage into intensive dissemination and exploitation activities of existing and newly produced products or innovative ideas. We expect minimum of 166 participants of the project: 8 staff / project managers and assistants; 10-12 teachers/trainers/researchers and youth workers all working on the intellectual outputs; 96 participants of the multiplier events; 12 youth trainers - participants of the LTTA and over 40 multipliers (youth workers, volunteers and management staff – 10 from each partner organisation) that will be using our intellectual outputs in their youth work and testing their effectiveness locally both personal and on organisational level. Out of those 166, minimum 43 will be of fewer opportunities. Project activities: A1 – Project Management M1 – Kick-off meeting in MK O1 – Research Study on situation and activities/programmes for inclusion of immigrants M2 – Second project meeting in DE O2 – Toolkit: youth (sport) workers and inclusion of immigrants M3 – Third project meeting in HR O3 – Curriculum: Using sport methods in youth work for inclusion C1 – LTTA “Training of trainers for youth sport work for inclusion of immigrants” in HR E1, E2, E3 – National conferences and workshops “Heroes and heroines of youth sport work for inclusion” in MK, DE, HR E4 – International conference and workshop "Heroes and heroines of youth sport work for inclusion" in Italy M2 – Final evaluation project meeting in IT The partners will develop and use the innovative intellectual outputs, promote innovative methods and pedagogies, develop learning materials and tools in youth sport work for inclusion. We expect that the project will bring positive and long-lasting effects on partner organisations who will increase their knowledge management, capacity and competences for providing quality youth sport work activities for inclusion of immigrants based on innovative approach in accordance with the intellectual outputs of the project – Research Study, Toolkit and Curriculum. Our youth workers will further strengthen key competences in youth sport work for inclusion of immigrants, increase opportunities for development of youngsters (mainstream and immigrants) in improving levels of soft skills and basic skills for inclusion. As the potential longer-term benefit on local and national level, we expect increase of all (mainstream and marginalised) youngsters’ competences for inclusion and intercultural acceptance of immigrants, asylum seekers and refugees, as the local/national youth work will be more inclusive and sport-friendly also thanks to our project results and outcomes.
"Heroes and Heroines of youth sport work for inclusion" was a KA2 Strategic Partnership fo innovation project, consisted of 4 European Partners from Italy, Germany, North Macedonia and Croatia. In accordance with needs analysis and EU recommendations, the project aimed to develop strategic tools and motivate/empower youth workers to develop more youth sport work activities that will explore and extract all the possible positive aspects of sports for developing consistent positive intercultural acceptance among our beneficiaries and inclusion of asylum seekers, refugees and immigrants in our communities. Background: In our youth work for inclusion and intercultural acceptance we’ve noticed sport can bring people together, as when playing a sport together for the same team, team players are not focused on the interracial, intercultural, interreligious and other differences between them, but are focused on building quality team work together respecting each other’s strengths and weaknesses and complementing each other. Unfortunately, so far when trying to organise systematically the youth sport work activities with asylum seekers, refugees and immigrants, partners could not find enough youth workers experienced in the field of working with immigrants and in principles of using sport activities as methods in NFE/youth work. Objectives that were set and reached within the project: - Improved the understanding of the needs of immigrants by exploring their current situation and the (youth work) activities/programmes provided for their inclusion, in the 4 countries of the project. - Brought positive and long-lasting effects on participating and indirectly on non-participating (youth) organisations and youth workers by enhancing knowledge management with new innovative youth work resources and training models/curricula in order to provide quality youth (sport) work programmes for intercultural acceptance and inclusion of immigrants in our communities. - Supported youth workers in acquiring and developing key competences as youth trainers (of other youth workers) in the field of youth (sport) work for inclusion of immigrants. - Developed innovative outputs, and engaged in intensive dissemination and exploitation activities of existing and newly produced products or innovative ideas. Participants involved: 8 staff / project managers and assistants; 8 teachers/trainers/researchers and youth workers all working on the intellectual outputs; 95 participants of the multiplier events; 13 youth trainers - participants of the LTTA and over 40 multipliers (youth workers, volunteers and management staff – 10 from each partner organisation) that are and will be using the intellectual outputs in their youth work and testing their effectiveness locally both personal and on organisational level. Out of those 166, around 40 were young people with fewer opportunities. Project activities implemented within the project: A1 – Project Management M1 – Kick-off meeting in North Macedonia O1 – Research Study on situation and activities/programmes for inclusion of immigrants M2 – Second project meeting in Germany O2 – Toolkit: youth (sport) workers and inclusion of immigrants M3 – Third project meeting in Croatia O3 – Curriculum: Using sport methods in youth work for inclusion C1 – LTTA “Training of trainers for youth sport work for inclusion of immigrants” in Croatia E1, E2, E3 – National conferences and workshops “Heroes and heroines of youth sport work for inclusion” in MK, DE, HR E4 – International conference and workshop "Heroes and heroines of youth sport work for inclusion" in Italy M4 – Final evaluation project meeting in Italy A2 – Dissemination activities The project brought positive and long-lasting effects on partner organisations by increasing their knowledge on management, capacity and competences for providing quality youth sport work activities for inclusion of immigrants based on innovative approach in accordance with the intellectual outputs of the project – Research Study, Toolkit and Curriculum. Our youth workers strengthened their key competences in youth sport work for inclusion of immigrants, increased the opportunities for development of youngsters (mainstream and immigrants) in improving levels of soft skills and basic skills for inclusion. The partners in this project have developed and used the innovative intellectual outputs, promoted innovative methods and pedagogies, developed learning materials and tools in youth sport work for inclusion.