The project has been prepared to make a meaningful contribution to inter-cultural dialogue and addressing loneliness, both of which are identified by the European Commission, Member Governments and agencies engaged in local / regional strategic planning as important social issues to be addressed. The application has evolved from the current Erasmus+ project entitled EDIN (Equality Diversity Inclusion Network) where a network of organisations have come together to ensure these principles are embedded in the delivery of Lifelong Learning. This ethos is embedded in the Cultural Ambassadors Target Loneliness through Intercultural Dialogue (CATLID) project where we will enact the following steps: - Develop a training course to provide migrants / refugees with the skills to become Community Educators and share their cultural background - Pilot the training course with eight migrants / refugees and run a series of Inter-cultural Dialogue workshops for them to engage and share with businesses, public sector, NGOs - In addition run Inter-Cultural Dialogue workshops (Knowledge Parties) for migrants / refugees to share with individuals facing loneliness and to facilitate on-going engagement to provide for all the opportunity to extend their support network / contact - Follow-up from the Knowledge Parties to create buddying links between course participants and individuals facing loneliness to reduce their respective sense of isolation - Produce a series of audio - video good practice case studies to promote the project methodology contribution to inter-cultural dialogue - Produce and publish a Handbook on Techniques to Creatively Tackle Loneliness through Intercultural Dialogue, which can be used as a resource to develop new ideas and approaches to creative engagement The six partners will each train and up-skill eight migrants to become Community Educators who will be a resource for inter-cultural dialogue which will during the project and through sustainability beyond the impact will be to provide learners with presentation skills, enhanced cultural awareness, employability skills, increased confidence and communication skills. In addition the impact will assist businesses to embrace diversity / understand better their customers, assist public sector / NGOs better understand the background / plan for the needs of local citizens and to be active citizens and resource for community cohesion initiatives. Community Educators will also be a resource to buddy with people facing loneliness and enable situations of mutual support and benefit. With active partner contribution from Austria France, Poland, Spain, Sweden and UK the longer-term project benefits will be to bring a trans-national perspective and innovative creative trans-national solutions to combining the project themes of inter-cultural dialogue and loneliness. This will result in the production of materials and tools which can be mainstreamed within the partner organisation and be available through active dissemination to other learning providers / community development / community cohesion focussed organisations throughout Europe.
By implementing the project we achieved, CSES wanted to see how the Social entrepreneurship could work within the training program of Cultural ambassadors. DB: they have gained useful information on how to create courses that also tackles the important of loneliness. Through the CATLID project, partners had new contacts with new stakeholders active in the field of migration and integration in Vienna. DB's implementation of the training courses has helped to try new interactive material that they will use in their current integration and language courses. LENO main objective was to integrate most of the project pilot training modules and learning tools into training courses. They always try to innovate and develop new teaching methods and strategies to include into their regular courses with different activities, even if they are out of their comfort zone. Such as, implementing sustainable development courses within construction or IT, so why not include a cultural ambassador module. Through the participation in the CATLID project, OH wanted to contribute to design a program that would help fight the loneliness, which is an important and growing social problem, but on the other hand develop new ways for the community engagement.
Partners applied for this project to address the following needs: CSES was interested in the topic of social enterprise and entrepreneurship. DB:the CATLID project tackled two important topics,the intercultural dialogue and the loneliness for 2 main groups,migrants and new arrivals. The activities of CATLID project helped to reduce the loneliness impact on this target group, it was important for DB to foster intercultural dialogue and address loneliness. Leno: As a VET provider,works with people from a different cultural background. This project was a unique opportunity to improve our internal skills on how to approach the target groups and also how to develop innovative pedagogical methods to help them to share their views, values and better integrate the group of trainees. OH focused on the diversity, equality and work-life balance especially in the workplace. The main aim of both OH and the associated organisation Diversity Hub was upskilling people creating diverse and inclusive environment in cultural differences and intercultural communication.The participation in the project allowed partners to explore innovative ways to break down the barriers between NGO's and individuals.