(re)WRITE THE NARRATIVE - Sharing Decolonial Practice in European Youth Education Racism and socio-cultural segregation in Europe today cannot be fought without drawing on colonial accounts. This strategic partnership is about the exchange of good practice that highlights the ties between today’s structural and ideological inequalities to European colonial activity. The counter narratives that this project brings together show that Europe is not - and has never been - a self-contained entity but a global endeavour. Opening up to this paradigm shift by listening to and highlighting “other stories” leads to the inclusion of a great number of (young) European citizens who have not had a say in EU-storytelling up to now: Black Europeans and Europeans of Color who (or whose parent/s, grandparent/s, great-grandparent/s...) were born in (ex-)colonies. In accordance with the European Youth Strategy, we focus on social inclusion: it is one of our main objectives to engage and empower European Black youth and youth of Color and to connect them to their peers. The project aims at laying a solid foundation for a network, by primarily working on a shared knowledge base and developing a common language to be used in our activities of youth education on (Post)Colonialism and Decolonization. We also invite youth work practitioners and educators, who are associated to our organisations, to enrich the two planned training activities (including 4 participants per organisation). These activities are linked by an interim period of local activities, in which the topics are tested and debated with young people in the field. The last phase of the project is dedicated to local and online dissemination activities that make the results of the Strategic Partnership available for the greater public and the youth education community in particular. We expect a great methodological and conceptual benefit for all of our organisations, our youth work communities as well as the formal education sector. The main impact on the partner organisation will be the strengthening of our network and a common follow-up project such as a SP INNOVATION.
With the overall aim to work together in a transnational network to address the topic of decolonisation, colonial structures and racism in European youth work, we had several objectives to achieve: // To exchange resources, expertise and experiences concerning the topic on an organisational level, but also on the level of individual practitioners: create a European web of skills // To gain more knowledge about the European colonial past for a better understanding of present structures and inequalities // To work on a common understanding of the terms racism and decolonization and of non-formal learning methods in these fields // To learn from each other and get inspiration for new insights and youth education projects on an organisational and individual level (+ more tools to share this knowledge efficiently) // To foster and improve local, national and European youth education concerning the topic as an added value for capacity building and the international scope of the participant organisations
We applied for the project to open a space for exchange of good practice, create a solid foundation for a network, work on a shared knowledge base and develop a common language to be used in our activities of youth education on (Post)Colonialism and Decolonization. We reacted on a wide range of needs: // To include a transnational perspective on the topic // To introduce (more) postcolonial/decolonial narratives in our youth work // To learn from local expertise in a transnational setting // To get to know the historical background and the impact of colonisation // To create awareness about marginalized perspectives in organisations and the importance of Empowerment structures Wider youth work/youth education community + society as a whole Needs above plus: // To create visibility of the topic in local, national and European youth work and societies // To make a complex topic like postcolonialism accessible for young people // To reduce racist structures via political education and fight right-wing populism // To question dominant narratives and create new narratives on colonial history by giving space to marginalized perspectives // To engage and empower European Black youth and youth of Color and connect them to their peers