The "Young learners Embrace Social Inclusion and Social Involvement" (YESI) project is meant to teach pupils aged 6 to 11: - about human rights and children's rights; - to be open-minded and to value all people regardless of the differences among them; - to be empathic and to feel ownership of values like tolerance and social inclusion; - to get the initial skills of being active members of the small communities they live in. The project is set in the environment of a widening gap of inequality between social classes, especially in the partner countries (Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia and Portugal), big numbers of immigrants in Europe, and steady rise of populism and nationalism at European level. The project will design a Teacher's Toolkit aimed at supporting primary school teachers in delivering training activities for their pupils so that they become more tolerant, open-minded and responsible citizens. The Toolkit will comprise a Handbook for teachers (a step-by-step guide leading the teachers through 36 training sessions) and a Digital Tool (a collection of supporting multimedia resources specially designed for the project by using cutting edge technological solutions). The training methodology is based on non-formal educational approaches which could be used by teachers not only in the project activities, but also in their everyday teaching. Some 1200 pupils will be involved in piloting the Teacher's Toolkit for two years on a regular basis. Teachers and pupils will provide feedback on the suggested activities which will be considered by the authors of the teaching units for upgrading the Teacher's Toolkit within the project life cycle. The project outputs have a good potential for sustainable use after the end of the project through the planned Erasmus+ KA1 training course for teachers' professional development and the eTwinning projects the participating teachers will launch.
Target groups and objectives: TG1. Pupils aged 7 to 11: - learn what Human and Children's Rights are, as being set down in international documents; - start believing in and respecting human rights, i.e. no matter what a person does, or thinks, or likes, or looks like, they can live a life of dignity with all their human rights respected; - learn to value every member of society as a human being and feel valued themselves as human beings; - learn how to become involved, participate and actively contribute to the life of their small community. TG2. Primary school teachers: - get the knowledge of basics in Human Rights, Social inclusion and Involvement education; - master skills which enabled them to discuss with their students questions on existing notions of human differences in modern society and run relevant activities choosing from the ones suggested in the Teachers' Toolkit considering the local context; - responsibly accept a code of behaviour so that all their actions and interactions bear respect to otherness and students’ individuality. TG3. Local communities: improved social context considering the acceptance and valuing the diversity of ethnic, cultural and religious groups locally.
We, the partners in the YESI project, believe that every individual is unique, equally worthy and has the right to live according to their beliefs, customs, practices and established behavior rules. Globalization and migration (due to various reasons, the war in Ukraine included) have brought together people from different ethnic origins, religious and social backgrounds, beliefs, traditions and languages. This is the case in Greece, Bulgaria, Portugal and Serbia. It is a fact that people are not naturally open to differences. However, we live together and we should not only tolerate diversity, but value it as an opportunity through which we can learn from one another in order to build stronger, more dynamic societies. We aim at counteracting the negative trends of rejecting the right of individuals to be different, to live in peace and be respected. We believe that schooling can play a key role in overcoming the historically developed negative attitudes to human differences and support pupils in being more open-minded and understanding the Others. To do so, teachers need ready-to-use training resources and relevant trainings how to organize relevant activities for their students. And this is what the YESI project provided.