“Xenophobic populism and racist hate speech continued to make their mark on the contemporary political climate in Europe in 2018”, stated the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance in June 2019. Their report added a warning against the threat of “us vs. them” approach in political and public discourse. Partner organisations raised this issue as a very dangerous development. They added that youth can be the change-makers to avoid going into this “us vs. them” decision making process in society. However, there was then the need for youth workers to be equipped with the right competences to support their youth groups. We therefore decided to organise “Intercultural Playback Theatre”. The main aim of the project was to provide youth workers with soft skills for social change, specifically regarding cross-cultural communication and how they could facilitate an intercultural dialogue for their youth groups. This all with the big aim to contribute to less xenophobic populism and racist hate speech. The objectives of Intercultural Playback Theatre were: - To understand and apply communication, expression of one’s feelings and active listening skills in the reality of the youth workers; - To gain youth workers experience in non-formal education and playback theatre as an inspiration for facilitation cross-cultural dialogue within their youth groups; - To create practical theatre and communication formats for cross-cultural facilitation by the youth workers; - To develop an action plan for the participants for facilitation in their organisation's context as well as the regional and European level; - To implement the lessons learned and action plans in the organizations; - To virtually share and evaluate the activities organized
“Xenophobic populism and racist hate speech continued to make their mark on the contemporary political climate in Europe in 2018”, stated the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance in June 2019. Their report added a warning against the threat of “us vs. them” approach in political and public discourse. Partner organisations raised this issue as a very dangerous development. They added that youth can be the change-makers to avoid going into this “us vs. them” division making process in society. However, there is then the need for youth workers to be equipped with the right competences to support their youth groups. We therefore decided to apply for this project called “Intercultural Playback Theatre”. The main aim of the project is to provide youth workers with soft skills for social change, specifically regarding cross-cultural communication and how they could facilitate an intercultural dialogue for their youth groups. This all with the big aim to contribute to less xenophobic populism and racist hate speech. The objectives of Intercultural Playback Theatre are: - To understand and apply communication, expression of one’s feelings and active listening skills in the reality of the youth workers; - To gain youth workers experience in non-formal education and playback theatre as an inspiration for facilitation cross-cultural dialogue within their youth groups; - To create practical theatre and communication formats for cross-cultural facilitation by the youth workers; - To develop an action plan for the participants for facilitation in their organisation's context as well as the regional and European level; - To implement the lessons learned and action plans in the organizations; - To virtually share and evaluate the activities organized.