CONTEXT Youth are the seeds of change. Youth Connections is a project aimed at creating strong link between young refugees, asylum seekers and immigrants and EU Youth through creative work and cultural activities aimed at fostering social inclusion. EU Youth Report stated that young people should be able to grow up in inclusive and pluralistic communities, based on EU democratic values, the rule of law and fundamental rights Education, youth participation, interfaith and inter-cultural dialogue have a key role to play in preventing radicalisation by promoting common European values, fostering social inclusion, enhancing mutual understanding and tolerance (EU Commission, 2015). These are the values that Youth Connections will pursue. RESULTS 1. Innovative approaches, methodologies, educational contents and inclusive settings will be developed to foster dialogue between young Europeans and young resident refugees, asylum seekers and migrants of the same age. 2. Youth workers/trainers multicultural staff, including people from a migrant background, will be selected and trained to deliver a more holistic approach culturally sensitive and appropriate to improve the quality of their youth/social work. 3. Innovative non-formal educational pathways will be created to foster social inclusion and dialogue between young Europeans and coetaneous refugees, asylum seekers and migrants. 4. Young EU citizens and immigrant youth will become leaders of joint initiatives with transnational visibility aimed at raising awareness of the importance of concrete social inclusion, in the local communities. 5. Private organizations and public institutions will engage on Youth Connections social inclusion programme and Charter, widening their diffusion and strengthening the whole project’s impact. Project Partnership believes that Erasmus+ is an effective instrument to promote the inclusion of people from disadvantaged backgrounds. Inclusive education based on specific quality youth work can play a major part in tackling inequalities and on the prevention of marginalization. Youth Connections project will foster the development of new social and intercultural competences and critical thinking; it will also tackle discrimination, segregation and racism, thus contributing to prevent acts of extremism and violence. TARGET GROUPS: - Young refugees, asylum seekers and migrants. It is the common experience of partner organisations that this disadvantaged group can be become more vulnerable to processes which disadvantage them further. - Youth workers, trainers and teachers will be trained through innovative methodologies, teaching/learning modules and guidelines to involve the above-mentioned target group together. - EU youth, to promote creative intercultural teamwork with the aim to concretely foster social inclusion. - Local stakeholders (associations, schools, public authorities, etc.) will be also involved in project's implementation. - Project Intellectual Outputs will be innovative as they will be created from the perspective of both youth workers and of immigrant youth; this will bring to the success of Youth Connections social inclusion programme. Intellectual Outputs are: -Methodological framework, based on innovative action research involving directly target groups from the very beginning of the project (IO1). -Social inclusion Programme, involving multicultural young teams in creative quality youth work including social events such as: cultural evenings (music, dancing, art), language exchanges, refugee life-experience sharing, sports together, etc. (IO2). -Multimedia Tools: cross-media web platform; user friendly guide on free tools for creative works involving youth; Youth Connections short documentary film where young participants the project will be the main protagonists (IO3). -Youth Connections Charter for social inclusion and quality youth work, whose compliant organizations will then be awarded a “Gold Flag” as a symbol that they are compliant with the charter and deliver best practice in their work, fostering social inclusion between young resident refugees, asylum seekers and immigrants and young EU citizens (IO4).-Youth Connections Protocol for certification of competencies, the Protocol will be used as a guide to validate and certificate the competences of any professional making use of the innovative learning approach developed by this project and of the contents of the training tools developed (IO5). The geographical location of the project’s partners is a clear asset, as the project will be developed in the following 6 EU countries: FR, IT, UK, LT, PT and SK. Six relevant multiplier events will be organized: a national event in each partner country and a strategic transnational institutional event in PT, to let Youth Connections reach the core of EU. Project’s innovative methodologies, approaches, tools and Intellectual Outputs will have a wide impact and will be applied at Local-National-EU level.
The main objective of Youth Connections project was to develop new approaches and methodologies for youth workers and professionals working with multicultural groups of young people. Youth Connections has indeed: - Delivered an innovative and effective approach to youth work with multicultural communities - Brought asylum seekers, refugees and migrants, and EU youth together to cooperate through peer learning - Encouraged young multicultural communities to become actors of change. All target groups involved in the project has benefit from it by improving their critical thinking abilities and by developing a sense of belonging.
Youth Connections project was born from the current need in local communities and partner countries to create a strong link between European youth and migrants, refugees and asylum seekers. Statistics and our research showed that in the past few years, many EU countries have experienced a surge in arrivals of young migrants and asylum seekers, which has pushed their systems of care and support to the limit. Young newcomers are a particularly vulnerable group, due to their limited autonomy as well as their emotional and psychological vulnerability and often compounded by traumatic experiences in the case of young refugees. Many arrive in Europe unaccompanied, due to family loss or separation. EU and international institutions have repeatedly highlighted the crucial role local authorities play in young newcomers’ integration. Moreover, by our research with young migrants we found out that at local level opportunities to meet new communities are missing. On the other side, EU youth is often unaware of the challenges that young migrants face in their daily life. YC project has addressed those issues by developing methodologies for professionals working with young people and by raising awareness of cultural diversity and respect.