In the wake of the recent refugee situation in Europe, we e experienced an influx of many unaccompanied young people and minors. According to UNICEF, over 100.000 refugee and migrant children arrived in Europe in 2016, of whom more than 30 pct appeared to be youngsters and children (UNHCR 2018, UNICEF 2017). Most of the young refugees fled from from Syria, but also from Eritrea, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Somalia and Congo. In the luggage, many of them have dramatic and traumatic experiences from war, escape, separation, loss and grief as well as strong needs of a safe relocation and integration into the new society. Thus, all over Europe we are facing young refugees who, due to their destiny and history may be at high risk of psychosocial challenges and consequently, social isolation, school leaving, lack of labor inte-gration, identity confusion and even radicalization. But despite the vulnerability, young refugees may also be very resourceful given the fact that they managed to escape under harsh conditions. In a research report by the Danish National Council from 2015, young refugees were interviewed about their needs in the new homeland. The young newcomers were significantly keen to participate actively in society and had elaborated ideas on their own needs and requirements such as language learning, education, work, active leisure time etc. However, the achievement of sustainable relationships especially to other youth appeared to be a difficult step. Recent research suggests that young refugees’ psychosocial well-being is strongly affected by the achievement of solid relationships in the new social environment. Resettlement implies much more than a change of places and also involves a transition and reorientation process in order to come to terms with the new sociocultural environments . Stable and appreciate relations in the new context are supposed to be the crucial point for the reorientation, adjustment and settlement. In this light, it is crucial that these youngsters as early as possible are given the opportunity to associate with stable and robust networks that may counterbalance negative and health-threatening consequences of war, escape, danger, anxiety, psychosomatic stress and loneliness. However, from many years of engagement in integration and educational efforts we learned that the need for belonging cannot be limited to newcoming refugees. The issue of belonging is equally relevant for young migrants and even young descendants, who express a similar need to feel affiliation and equality as minorities in the majority society. They point to similar challenges in terms of building relations to majority communities on equal terms, thereby reflecting the need for assuming a social accountability and commitment to integrate as active and contributing citizens. Often, relational support is provided mainly by adult professional youth workers, large voluntary organizations or local citizen actions. However, adult professionals and volunteers may generally be unfamiliar or only superficially acquainted with local youth communities, subcultures and social activities. The insight into youth relations will generally be reserved for young people themselves. On this background the SUPEER project will provide the framework for a peer-to-peer learning as a sustainable way to improving the integration among young people from minority communities, be it young refugees, migrants or descendants with a need to socialize with peers from majority communities. The methodology will focus on the development and implementation of three coherent learning programmes: the SUPEER Citizenship Programme for young minorities, the SUPEER Intercultural mentor-and peer Programme for young people from majority communities and the SUPEER Network Programme, where young participants and peers from both minority and majority communities work together in a common and co-productive, creative and intercultural peer-to-peer learning process. All methodologies and learning products from the project will be documented as interactive resources in the SUPEER app.
In the wake of the recent refugee situation in Europe, we experienced an influx of many unaccompanied young people and minors. According to UNICEF, over 100.000 refugee and migrant children arrived in Europe in 2016, of whom more than 30 pct appeared to be youngsters and children (UNHCR 2018, UNICEF 2017). Most of the young refugees fled from Syria, but also from Eritrea, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Somalia and Congo. Many of them have dramatic and traumatic experiences from war, escape, separation, loss and grief as well as strong needs of a safe relocation and integration into the new society. Thus, all over Europe we are facing young refugees who, due to their history may be at high risk of psychosocial challenges and consequently, social isolation, school leaving, lack of labour integration, identity confusion and even radicalization. But despite the vulnerability, young refugees may also be very resourceful given the fact that they managed to escape under harsh conditions. In a research report by the Danish National Council from 2015, young refugees were interviewed about their needs in the new homeland. The young newcomers were significantly keen to participate actively in society and had elaborated ideas on their own needs and requirements such as language learning, education, work, active leisure time etc. However, the achievement of sustainable relationships especially to other youths appeared to be a difficult step. Recent research suggests that young refugees’ psychosocial well-being is strongly affected by the achievement of solid relationships in the new social environment. Resettlement implies much more than a change of places and also involves a transition and reorientation process in order to come to terms with the new sociocultural environments . Stable and appreciated relations in the new context are supposed to be the crucial point for the reorientation, adjustment and settlement. In this light, it is crucial that these youngsters are given the opportunity to associate with stable and robust networks that may counterbalance negative and health-threatening consequences of war, escape, danger, anxiety, psychosomatic stress and loneliness as early as possible. However, from many years of engagement in integration and educational efforts we learned that the need for belonging cannot be limited to newcoming refugees. The issue of belonging is equally relevant for young migrants and even young descendants, who express a similar need to feel affiliation and equality as minorities in the majority society. They point to similar challenges in terms of building relations to majority communities on equal terms, thereby reflecting the need for assuming a social accountability and commitment to integrate as active and contributing citizens. Often, relational support is provided mainly by adult professional youth workers, large voluntary organisations or local citizen actions. However, adult professionals and volunteers may generally be unfamiliar or only superficially acquainted with local youth communities, subcultures and social activities. The insight into youth relations will generally be reserved for young people themselves. On this background the SUPEER project provides the framework for a peer-to-peer learning as a sustainable way to improve the integration among young people from minority communities, be it young refugees, migrants or descendants with a need to socialize with peers from majority communities. The methodology focused on the development and implementation of the SUPEER Network Programme, where approximately 80 young participants and peers from both minority and majority communities worked together in a common and co-productive, creative and intercultural peer-to-peer learning process. All methodologies and learning products from the project will be documented as interactive resources in the SUPEER app and available at the SUPEER website. Unforeseen circumstances of global pandemic had a big influence on the programmes and the project work. Therefore, we have compiled the experiences in a report based on the IO4 work, titled “The Network Programme”. These experiences have also been made available on the SUPEER Learning App.