Each of the partner organisations are deeply concerned about the rise in anti-immigration sentiment and action across the continent and determined to do something about it. Giolli is the lead partner that has brought the four organisations together. Each brings a specific expertise. Giolli is one of the lead Theatre of the Oppressed practitioners in the world and has years of experience in anti-racism work. They identified Elan Interculturel (France), EFA (England) and Nyke (Hungary). Elan Intercultural brings expertise in fostering intercultural understanding among health professionals and social workers using an approach called Critical Incidents. EFA combines language and literacy training for migrants and refugees with action for social change. They are experts in Paulo Freire's critical pedagogy and community organising. NYKE struggle in their national difficult situation using mainly Theatre-in-Educations tools. All are working with migrants and supporting them to lead complete lives free from discrimination. MiGREAT! has international learning and professional development at its core. We will share our expertise, learn new methods and bring these methods to a wide audience in order to have a bigger impact in the crucial work of creating counter- narratives around immigration and integration. We will run six trainings, in four different countries that will reach around 80 professionals. We will reach 100s more through our dissemination (workshops, seminars and conference) and intellectual outputs (handbook, Visual tools and Theatre scripts. The profile of these participants will be varied and that is one of the key strengths of our proposal. They will include adult educators, theatre practitioners, activists, campaigners, community organisers, pshychologists, social workers and cultural workers. Many of these professionals will be migrants themselves. The methodologies are equally varied. Theatre of the Oppressed (TO) is a set of techniques created by Brazilian theatre director and activist, Augusto Boal. TO fundamentally disturbs the relationship between players and audience. Boal talks about "spect-actors" and states that theatre is for everyone and not just the elites. In TO marginalised people have the opportunity to express the challenges their face in a creative, empowering way and rehearse interventions that can help to change things in real life. EFA follow the work of Paulo Freire, who was a contemporary of Boal. Freire developed power theories of language and literacy development that puts learners at the heart of the process. He also focused oppressed people and consciousness-raising of their conditions and the potential solutions. Freirean education validates the lives and experiences of the learners and seeks to effect positive change outside the classroom. EFA are doing this in their unique way in London. They are incorporating a community organising approach. This is building power in the community in order to hold the state and the market to account. It is about identifying and developing community leaders in order to take action for the common good. NYKE add a specific emphasis on Theatre-in-Education approach that is empowering in the context of life in the 21st century. Elan Interculturel bring critical incidents to the group. This is a systematic way to analyse key issues and problem-solve. It draws from the world of pshychology and is complementary to the methods described above. We anticipate that the project will be transformative, both for the professionals involved and in turn the people they are working to empower. When Dermot Bryers, CEO of EFA London, attended a five day training with Giolli on TO in 2011 he returned to London with a new mindset and a new set of tools to apply to his context. EFA have incorporated these methods into their work, and trained over 100 teachers and activists in TO techniques. We expect a similar impact multiplied many times over. Scores of organisations in at least four European countries and hundreds of practitioners in a variety of fields will learn new imaginative ways of working with migrants to create positive narratives around migration. The long-term benefits of MiGREAT! will be to help make Europe a more hospitable place for new arrivals for years to come. This will benefit host communities and migrants alike.
We wanted to improve the counter-alternative narrative approach in our organizations, networks, and in the "grey zone" of the communities we're in contact with, in the classes, and among all people involved in order to: 1) promote, through those approaches, inclusion, diversity, equality, and non-discrimination and promote innovative methods and critical pedagogy 2) foster the development of social, civic, intercultural competence and critical thinking, combating discrimination and racism 3) improve the supply of high-quality learning opportunities tailored to the needs of individual 5) encourage low-skilled or low-qualified adults to develop and upgrade their literacy. The project is meant to actively involve migrants by encouraging them to give shape to narratives of their life stories, but also to express their expectations and difficulties. We also wanted to: • Share the experience of partner organizations and create new synergies • Discuss, share, and use those methods with the communities; • Create tools to share this knowledge, especially with teachers, community leaders, and activists. Those objectives respond also to the priorities of the call that have been addressed by the project, horizontal and specific priorities.
We're concerned about the rise in anti-immigration and discriminatory discourses in EU and the increase in verbal and physical aggressions. We try to deconstruct a negative approach to migration, not simply going against the haters but taking action with the oppressed and reflecting with the community. We wanted to have an impact on the crucial work of creating counter-alternative narratives to describing immigration as only negative and threatening our lifestyle and values. We found a lack of spaces and occasion to discuss this topic and a lack of networks among people that are affected by these issues (migrants themselves or people that feel uncomfortable with the dominant narrative). We felt the need to reduce discrimination and stereotypes toward migrants, the need to improve our capacity to create effective counter-narratives, and share our methods; with our staff and learners to better understand and investigate in-depth how literacy and language development are linked to the possibility to enhance a counter-narration on migration and to find methods that can be more effective in changing hostile public opinion and tackle stereotypes, and also to provide tools for activities, professionals and migrants themselves.