The project had two core objectives: The first objective was to improve the syllabus, content and methods of our migrant solidarity education for the cultural setting of Eastern Europe. This had two sub-sets of objectives: to enable staff to develop skills related to understanding Historical and Hegemonic Framing; and to enable staff to develop skills in Anti-discrimination and Intercultural Education. Both aims are directly related to ensuring that our training programme will be fit to serve the needs of educators working with refugees and migrants in and from Eastern Europe. The second objective was to adapt and improve the syllabus, content and methods of our educational work for psycho-social resilience, for an Eastern European context. Additional overarching objectives included: Strengthening our working relationship with the Ulex Project and European organisations; supporting Ulex Project’s strategic goals to facilitate international exchange of best practice, enabling the professional development of our staff and enhancing their future employability.
We undertook two extended needs assessment visits to Poland, Hungary, Austria and Slovakia during 2018. We met with over 50 civil society organisations working on migration, human rights, and advocacy for Roma and other marginalised groups. This needs assessment offered comprehensive insight into needs and opportunities for bringing our educational work to the benefit of civil society in those areas. There was a strong need and interest in our trainings for enhancing refugee and migrant solidarity education and on the theme of psycho-social resilience for active citizens and educators. Based on this research we set a strategic goal that formed the foundation for this project. We needed to extend our provision of training and support to educators, active citizens and civil society organisations in Eastern Europe – specifically in terms of our learning concerning refugee & migrant solidarity education and psycho-social resilience.