The number of people born outside the EU and living in a member state of EU until the 1st January 2016 was 35.1 million. On the other hand, the amount of people born in a EU state different from the state in which they resided was 19.3 million. Only in 2017, 171.635 migrants have arrived in Europe by sea (IOM, 2018). Having this data in mind, we can say there is a great mobility of migrants, especially regarding the new generations. This happens for two reasons: that new generations are more bent on moving and that they consider this as a challenge, as well as an opportunity, to build an intercultural European Union. In fact, cultural diversity is an “integral part of the European Union’s values” (JOIN/2016/029 final) that characterizes its development and strategic role in the world. At the same time, it represents an opportunity for young people’s empowerment, increasing their skills for living in an increasingly multicultural society and building the future of the EU on inclusive basis, enhancing the opportunities offered by cultural diversities to European society. The intercultural perspective is the horizon of this path, but this path must be declined in the daily life of young people, so that it becomes solid and produces long-lasting fruits. The project “From Youth Centers to Intercultural Centers” intends to promote the work’s quality in the youth field, through facilitating evolution of youth centers in intercultural centers, within the EU. In these kind of centers, young people could live contexts and take part in a range of activities characterized by the intercultural element. In order to achieve this goal, 4 European organizations, from Italy, Spain, Slovenia and Portugal with experiences in Youth Centers that evolved into Intercultural Centers, got to create and promote innovative practices and methods to characterize youth center’s activities, through interculture. The partnership for the project “From Youth Centers do Intercultural Centers” is homogeneous when considering the sector of intervention (Intercultural Youth Centers). However it is dissimilar in each partner’s specific sphere of work: a) Sport b) Cultural Events c) Aggregative and Recreational Workshops d) Volunteering The preparation of a Toolkit distinguishes the project, to guide the development of youth centers into intercultural centers, facilitating the transformation of the different typical activities of youth centers in special activities characterized by a strong intercultural component in order that all the youth activities have the intercultural element. The realization of the Toolkit will follow according with the following work package (WP): WP1 Creation of a Local Network of associations and public authorities. In each partner’s country, partners create a network with associations and local authorities operating in youth and immigration areas, which will have the opportunity of to test the innovative practices elaborated in the several territories in order to validate it. WP2 Elaboration of draft Toolkit chapters. The partners elaborate the first draft of the Toolkit chapters based on each partner’s experiences and practices gained previously. WP3 First Transnational Meeting in Italy The partners meet each other, present and compare their respective drafts and to elaborate a detailed plan of the Toolkit. WP4 drafting of the Toolkit Chapters Each partner elaborates his own chapter. WP5 Second Transnational Meeting in Spain They present the chapters and the other two partners prepare to put them into practice. WP 6 Testing and validation of the Toolkit Using the Toolkit, the evolution into intercultural centers is tested by the members who adhere to the local networks (established in WP1) that manage a Youth Center. WP7 Third Transnational Meeting in Portugal Presentation and evaluation of the testing and re-elaboration of contents. WP8 Final layout of the Toolkit They draw up the final version of the Toolkit: Section I - Theories and methods Chapter 1. Definition of Interculture and Intercultural Youth Center Chapter 2. Philosophy and methodology Section II - Practices for the intercultrual evolution of youth activities.. Characterize in an intercultural sense: Chapter 3. Sports Chapter 4. Public events Chapter 5. Aggregative and recreational workshops Chapter 6. Local volunteering. WP 9 Fourth Transnational Meeting in Slovenia The partners set up a dissemination plan of the Toolkit. WP10 Multilingual translation of the Toolkit The English Toolkit is translated into Italian, Spanish, Slovenian and Portuguese. WP11 Final Edition of the Toolkit Elaboration of the Multilingual Toolkit WP 12 Dissemination Dissemination events in each country. WP 13 Networking Creation of the European Network of Intercultural Centers, on the basis of the Toolkit’s adoption. The Network is coordinated online with Skype and Facebook (Page and Group) and it guarantees the Toolkit’s dissemination ex post as well.
The number of people born outside the EU-28 and residing in an EU Member State as of 1 January 2016 was 35.1 million, and 19.3 million were born in an EU State other than the one in which they resided ( Eurostat, 2017). In 2017 alone, 171,635 migrants arrived in Europe by sea (IOM, 2018). A great mobility, which particularly affects the younger generations: on the one hand because they are more inclined to mobility, on the other because a challenge and an opportunity to build an intercultural European Union is born for them. At the same time, it is an opportunity to empower young people, who can thus increase the skills to live in an increasingly fluid and multicultural society, and to build the future of the Union on an inclusive basis, enhancing the opportunities offered to European society by cultural diversity. The intercultural perspective is the horizon within which it is possible to follow this path, but it must be implemented in the daily life of young people so that it becomes solid and produces lasting fruits. The project "From Youth Centers to Intercultural Centers" therefore intended to promote the quality of work in the youth sector, by facilitating the evolution of Youth Centers into Intercultural Centers in the European Union. In such Centres, day by day, young people can live contexts and take part in activities characterized in an intercultural sense. To achieve this goal, 4 organizations from Italy, Spain, Slovenia and Portugal, with experiences in Youth Centers evolved into Intercultural Centers, joined and cooperated to develop, validate and promote innovative practices and methods to characterize interculturally the activities of the Youth Centers. The final product of such process is the Toolkit FYCIC, available for free in 5 languages on the project website www.fycic.eu. The toolkit contains a theoretical section on intercultural education in Europe, with particular focus on the 4 project partner countries. This is followed by instructions on the applied methodology, the general pre-requisites that an intercultural center should have and more than 40 activities based on non-formal education and intercultural dialogue, conceived or adapted by the authors and subsequently validated through pilot activities with young Europeans and migrants. The development of the Toolkit followed the following steps: 1 Elaboration of draft chapters of the Toolkit The four partners developed a first draft of the Toolkit based on their experiences and practices previously gained 2 First Meeting in Italy The partners met, presenting their respective drafts and, on this basis, elaborating a detailed drawing of the Toolkit. 3 First Drafting of the Toolkit Each partner contributed to the drafting of the theoretical section and a series of activities according to their specific field of intervention 4 Second Meeting in Spain The activities written in first draft were presented and each partner trained the others on the implementation of the activities he wrote. 5 Creation of local networks, experimentation and validation of the Toolkit In their own country, the partners have set up networks with associations and local bodies operating in the youth and immigration fields, collaborating in the experimentation of the developed innovation, in order to validate it. 211 young people from 26 different nationalities from Europe, Asia, Africa and South America were involved in this phase, including migrants, refugees and asylum seekers, as well as children belonging to ethnic minorities. 6 Third Meeting in Portugal The different national trials were presented and evaluated. Based on the feedback received from the participants involved, a re-elaboration plan was devised, in order to make the contents transferable to the widest scope of scenarios, different from each other from geographical and socio-economic point of view. 7 Final draft Toolkit The final version of the toolkit has been written, in English: Section I - Theory Chapter 1. Culture and Interculture Appendix Bibliography Section II - Practices, tools and guidelines Chapter 2 - Methods and application Chapter 3 - Learning Chapter 4 - Exchange Chapter 5 - Active Participation Chapter 6 - Inspiration box 8 4th Transnational Meeting (held online due to Covid19 restrictions to international travels) The partners finalized the Toolkit and set up a Dissemination Plan 9 Multilingual translation, proofreading and final edition of the Toolkit The Toolkit has been translated into Italian, Spanish, Slovenian and Portuguese, then paginated and optimized for online consultation 10 Dissemination The results of the project were disseminated with events in each partner country, in presence and online, involving 302 people belonging to NGOs, schools and public administration. 12 Networking A European Network of Intercultural Centers was created to support the adoption and dissemination of the Toolkit